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RDM: 13 Years of Seeing Retail Clearly

Updated: 6 days ago

Reflections inspired by this year’s Instore Power Provider conference


Last week’s Instore Power Provider conference gave us something rare in retail: a moment to pause.


When your work lives in stores, in field routes, in dashboards, and in daily execution, you don’t often stop to look back. But this time, surrounded by the entire IPP Group celebrating 20 years, it felt right to reflect on how far RDM has come and where we’re heading next.


Where It All Began


Retail Data Monitoring was founded on October 21, 2011, with a very clear gap in mind: FMCG brands in Romania had no precise, national‑scale visibility of what was actually happening on the shelf.


Everyone had theories. Everyone had “market knowledge”. But no one had a complete, objective, photo‑backed picture.


So we built one.


From day one, we believed something simple and non‑negotiable: if you want the truth, you need to see it. Real shelf reality captured, structured and delivered at scale.


That belief shaped our early milestones:

  • 2012 — First national field audit

  • 2012 — First digital platform capturing shelf photos

  • 2018 — Launch of our real‑time dashboard platform

  • 2019 — 18,000 monthly surveys

  • 2019 — 2 million monthly measures

  • 2022 — First National Retail Census

  • 2024 — Second National Retail Census, expanded to 3,200 cities and 4,422 sectors


And yes, we were the first in Romania to collect shelf photos alongside data. Not as an add‑on. Not as a “nice to have”. From day one.


What 13 Years Have Taught Us


Romanian retail moves fast. Formats shift. Categories evolve. Shopper expectations rise. And the only way to keep up is to stay curious, stay adaptable, and stay close to the shelf.


Over the years, we learned that:

  • Data without context is just noise.

  • Photos without structure are just pictures.

  • Execution without visibility is guesswork.


But the biggest lesson is about people. Retail Data Monitoring grew because the team grew in mindset, in skill, in resilience. People joined, learned, challenged old habits, built new ones, and kept pushing the company forward.We’re a company that keeps reinventing itself to stay relevant in a market that never stops changing.


What We Do Today


RDM has evolved into one of the most complete retail observation systems in Romania and the numbers speak for themselves:

  • 2.5 million+ individual measurements every month

  • ~67,000 data points every single day

  • 3,200+ cities tracked

  • If a store exists in Romania, it’s already in our database

  • 20,000 surveys/month

  • 248 field auditors

  • 100% digital collection

  • Real‑time dashboards

  • Proprietary Shelf Share methodology


Our work covers the full spectrum of retail execution:

  • Store 360°

  • Shelf Price Analytics

  • Secondary Placements

  • POSM Audit

  • PromoPlan Compliance

  • Mystery Shopping

  • Customer Satisfaction

  • Time & Motion Study

  • Equipment Inventory

  • Marketing Materials Implementation

  • National Retail Census (3,200 cities, 4,422 sectors)


This Year’s Conference: A Moment of Perspective


At this year’s Instore Power Provider conference, Cătălin Bratu walked through RDM’s evolution, our recent wins, and the direction we’re heading next.


Seeing all companies in the group together, celebrating 20 years of IPP, was a reminder that growth doesn’t happen alone. It happens in networks, in shared ambition, and in teams that show up year after year.


And yes, we celebrated properly with conversations, with energy, and with a well‑deserved glass of champagne raised for what’s ahead.


Where We’re Going Next


The next chapter for RDM is built on clarity, speed, and scale:

  • clearer visibility

  • faster insights

  • stronger national coverage

  • smarter ways to understand execution

  • tools that help brands react in real time, not weeks later


Our promise is simple: to remain the most precise and complete market observation tool in Romania and to grow alongside our clients and the IPP Group.


Retail is evolving. And we’re evolving with it. What hasn’t changed is our mission: to give brands a true, honest, complete picture of what happens in‑store.


Here’s to the next chapter and to everything we’ll continue to build together.


Want to find out what we can do for you? Contact RDM to learn more about our services.

 
 
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