The future of Canadian retail is bright as Canadian retailers expand and more international retailers enter the market.
While strong retail growth is expected in the coming years, there are still pitfalls to expansion.
Competition is fierce, and spotting the opportunities with the greatest promise can be extremely difficult.
But this year, Canadian retailers and developers who are poised for growth should consider a new ally: customer analytics.
Customer analytics provide the type of complex data analysis that is crucial for identifying sites that are ripe for development and matching those sites with the type of tenants that are most likely to appeal to the local population.
Four Key Analytics Capabilities for Retailers and Developers
For companies who want to ensure the success of their expansion efforts, customer analytics provide solutions that are designed to answer some of the most pressing business questions they face.
- Market Assessment. For organizations with expansion plans in Canada, customer analytics can help identify underserved markets that are currently losing retail dollars to surrounding markets, markets with strong anticipated growth, markets that may be oversaturated, and areas with heavy concentrations of discretionary income.
- Site Analysis. Once a market or trade area is identified, analytics involving demographics, psychographics, competitors, traffic patterns, and other criteria can be used to evaluate which specific locations hold the most promise.
- Tenant Identification. Customer analytics also have the power to help identify which specific types of retail or restaurant brands are best suited for any given geography. With this data, shopping center owners and developers can see the spending patterns and customer preferences of a market more clearly than ever before, allowing them to effectively recruit the right tenants for the right locations.
- Performance Projections. Markets change. What seems like an ideal location today may not be prime real estate 10 years from now. Analytics can reveal trends and changing demographics of various areas so that expanding organizations have a clearer picture of the opportunities they’ll find today – and in the years ahead.
Customer analytics work best when proprietary business data is combined with massive databases of consumer data and trends, something few companies have access to on their own. To harness the full power of customer analytics, consider partnering with a retail customer analytics expert.
No matter what your growth strategy is for the coming year, customer analytics will give you the answers you need to ensure success.
Brandon Norrell is the Senior Vice President of Business Development at Buxton, the leading retail customer analytics expert. During his tenure with the company, Norrell has played a significant role in product development and leading the initiative for growth of Buxton solutions internationally. Additionally, he oversees Buxton’s data partnerships and alliances.
If you want learn more about how customer analytics can ensure success with your expansion efforts, then we should talk.
