Nielsen suspends service for in-store metrics

The Nielsen Company is suspending indefinitely a yet-to-be launched national syndicated data service designed to provide a common industry metric to measure consumer reach in stores.

The Nielsen In-Store national syndicated data service was developed by a partnership of retailers, manufacturers, agencies and The In-Store Marketing Institute called PRISM. It has been in pilot mode and was scheduled to launch this year.

However, because of the current economic environment, many clients “are not in a position to fully fund a syndicated service at this time,” according to a statement from Nielsen.

It was widely reported last month that Wal-Mart had pulled out of the national data syndication service. Nielsen reportedly had signed on 15 other retail chains and manufacturers such as P&G, Kraft and Unilever.