Very few brick-and-mortar outlets appear willing to sit idly by as online shopping infringe on their sales. Reinvestment and expansion are both viable options for improving the bottom line. Many retailers have invested $13 billion in enhancing their spaces, according to a report by the Association for Retail Environments.
While some retailers are working to improve their stores, others may be looking for new retail locations for lease. Instead of contacting a commercial real estate agency first, start with analyzing where consumers actually are shopping. A commercial realtor can only tell you what is available to lease. Unfortunately they do not have access to the data needed to make a wise location decision.
According to PwC and the Urban Land Institute, a consensus is emerging that e-commerce will decrease the overall demand for retail space, but will not come anywhere close to supplanting it.
Businesses now have the ability to analyze malls and shopping centers using accurate data from consumer’s smartphones. There is no denying that mobile phones are not just phones anymore. People spend a mere 16% of their time on phone calls and the other 84% on activities like browsing the web, communicating by email, using social apps, watching videos, gaming, etc. Add GPS into the mix and we have an explosion of mobile data traffic. By tapping into consumer’s mobile data and marrying that with comprehensive retail data and listings of more than 7200 shopping centers in the US, companies such as GeoMetrx can pinpoint the best location with the highest foot traffic for a retail store.
Mobile Consumer Behavior Data from mobile devices to understand your customers, competitors, shopping centers, and markets. Leverage a robust consumer GPS device database to track billions of consumer’s routes through millions of smartphones to identify, analyze, and visualize your customers and competitors. Once you understand customer behaviors in each market and trade area, it can change the way you think about your customers.
Stay ahead of your competition by utilizing mobile consumer data to evaluate your competition’s location, plus improve your marketing strategies.
One of the most visible ways that retailers are catering to customers’ changing shopping behavior is through “click and collect” programs. The growth of these programs will continue to accelerate throughout 2017, with major initiatives in the grocery industry perhaps as the most visible. Even pharmacies have started offering click and collect services, with Walgreens and CVS both announcing programs.
Click and collect is a clear way for retailers to transform their costly physical store space into a revenue driver for online sales, essentially turning brick-and-mortars into fulfillment centers for online orders. Using mobile consumer data will be more important than ever for selecting a store location.
In the early days of e-commerce, many thought strictly online retailers had the advantage. Today, e-tailers have realized the business model wasn’t sustainable and began opening brick-and-mortar locations. Shipping costs drive down profits and make online sales less attractive.
Monitoring consumer spending trends shows that they still enjoy going into a store to try something on over ordering online.
If your organization is looking to take advantage of mobile consumer data, contact GeoMetrx for a demo.