After a two-year hiatus, the May ICSC trade show was back in-person in the Las Vegas Convention Center from May 22-24.
Of the over 20,000 attendees, 36 Buxtonites walked the floor, met with organizations of every shape and size, and demoed the new Buxton Platform in booth 2711. In total, representatives from Buxton held 345 meetings, with over 100 walk-up appointments.
While the team was there to demonstrate how the power of the Buxton Platform can help organizations make smarter site selection decisions by better understanding their customers and markets, they also discussed the future of the real estate industry with the country’s best and brightest.
Here are some trends we heard at the show.
Analytics are a Bridge to Retailers
Our team consistently heard that while retail developers still rely heavily on their broker counterparts to provide up-to-date market trends, it’s more important than ever to understand a trade area’s consumer mix, especially for ground-up developers. Because of this CRE owners and developers are leveraging analytics to create bridges to retailers.
“The old way was relying on retailers to come to us with their ideal locations already in mind,” Les Lewis, Principal at Greenstone Properties said at the show. “Leveraging analytics allows us to become true partners to major retailers, providing a two-way street for conversations about opportunities in new or existing markets. We’re seeing retail trends evolve so rapidly, that it is important for us to go into the conversation with just as much knowledge as a retailer might have about a specific location.”
Retail is Still Recovering
COVID-19 has, and still is, wreaking havoc on the retail industry. While to many, it may seem like the pandemic is a distant memory, business owners around the country are still feeling its effects. Traffic is still down, businesses are still rebounding, and the market is still in flux.
Even so, some categories, like express tunnel car washes, are doing well. Many of the washes the Buxton team met with were intrigued by our Express Solution, which uses over a million customer records from thousands of existing express washes to identify over 11 thousand potential wash locations across the country.
It’s data and insights like these that can truly help organizations push through the lingering impacts of the pandemic and rebound stronger than before.
Tourism Competition is Fierce
Communities received a double-whammy when the pandemic hit in 2020--not only did the businesses they rely on to fuel their tax base close, but the tourism industry also ground to a halt. Now, as customers are finally acting on their pent-up travel demand, many communities are putting a stronger focus on driving tourism.
This could mean studying their area’s tourism destinations, identifying visitor characteristics at a household level, determining visitor origin markets and implementing target ad campaigns, or any combination of these things. Fortunately, data and insights can help support these efforts and give communities a competitive edge over other areas vying for tourists.
The Bottom Line
No matter what the future holds for real estate across the retail, restaurant, CRE, economic development, healthcare, franchise, and hospitality industries, truly understanding your customers at a granular, household level can only help fuel your success.
To learn more about the Buxton Platform and how it can help your organization identify new territories for expansion, attract the best customers for your brand, optimize your portfolio of locations, and more, get in touch with one of our experts.