As the real estate landscape continues to change considerably every day, retailers have been increasing their focus on growing revenue at their existing network of stores.
And because technology also continues to play an integral role in increasing ROI at the store level, Buxton has listened to the needs of not only its clients, but also of the retail marketplace and has developed a tool aptly named the Trade Area Playbook.
In this post, we interview Buxton senior vice president, Tim White, to get his take on how this solution will help retailers optimize store networks and increase sales at the individual store level.
Q. What is the Trade Area Playbook?
A. The Trade Area Playbook is a tool that allows a local store manager, or even a regional manager, to make improvements and have more influence on making his/her store better. The Trade Area Playbook allows us to provide them with information – information about their store, their store’s trade area, who is in that trade area, where customers are coming from, what kind of messaging would work best, who you could target, what kind of products they like, etc. All of this information arms that store manager, and consequently the staff in that store, to be connected with that local trade area. And the more a retailer knows about their trade area and who is in that trade area, the better the chances are that they’re going to be more successful.
Q. What are the primary features/benefits of this tool?
A. The tool goes back to the very definition of a playbook, but in retail terms. It allows retailers to see what plays they should run to generate revenue at the local-store level. For example, it shows retailers exactly the consumers who are living in that trade area and who among those customers they should target with marketing initiatives. It’s basically giving that local store manager the flexibility to be involved and do something proactive with that store to generate revenue.
Q. Who would get the most benefit out of this type of solution?
A. This solution is most applicable to those retailers and restaurants who have a more hands-off approach and want to be able to give the local store manager the ability to make changes.
Q. What can they expect from it?
A. It’s actionable information. The Trade Area Playbook takes our base model, our analytics, our customer segmentation, and our drive-time trade area and puts it into action at the local level. It contains a snapshot of relevant demographic, core customer, potential customer, traffic count, and trade area information, which allows for higher customer awareness and the increased ability to make operational and marketing decisions at the store level.
Want to know more about the Trade Area Playbook and how you can utilize it to increase your bottom line? Contact us today.
