1.  Get demographic reports of a property location

Get a report on the population demographics surrounding the property.  Knowing how many households are near a location as well as their income levels and household characteristics can help you understand the potential of a location.  A location surrounded by mid-income young apartment dwellers will have very different performance levels than a location surrounded by mid-income older suburbanites or high income suburban ethnic households.

2. Compare demographics of customers to property locations

Compare the demographics around a property to the demographics of your customers surrounding your existing stores.  If you do well in areas surrounded by upper income suburbanites, then you can look for locations that are in areas with similar characteristics.  Knowing a bit about your customers is key and having data on them will help tremendously.

3. Get sales potential estimates for a property location

Use your customer sales data by postal code to get a profile of your best customers and use that information to get estimates on the sales potential around a new location.  Each of your stores sells to multiple demographic segments and you can use that valuable information to make estimates in new areas.  This is a really good way to put a sales number to a new location to help ensure you are making the right choice.  With this method you can also take into account potential cannibalization of other nearby stores by knowing your existing sales in the area.

Whatever method you choose, selecting a location with real data is always better than gut feel alone.  Everyone wants to make the best choice possible and avoid the consequences of a poor performing store.

At Archerra we want to help.  Our retail demographics online application is a great option for evaluating new properties using these methods.  Get a property location report in seconds by signing up.

This is just one point of view looking at the online channel as competition.  At Archerra we like to view the world from a different perspective.  We view sales as coming from customer demand: the customer demand in every neighbourhood in every market.  From our point of view, a retailer needs to increase sales from customer demand in every way possible wherever it is.

For bricks and mortar retail, this means opening stores in locations that access the demand from where customers live and work.  For online retailers, this means accessing demand from customers visiting e-commerce stores.  The customers in both cases still reside in neighbourhoods and they still have the same demand.  They are just choosing to spend through a different channel.  To increase sales in every neighbourhood, you need to be in front of customers in whatever channel they choose.

This is why retailers need both channels: to be in front of customers both on the ground and online.  In fact online retailers are currently at a dissadvantage because they are only connecting with customers through one channel.  Amazon, the largest online retailer is realizing this and is opening their first bricks and mortar location to increase their presence in front of customers.  Bricks and mortar retailers need to do the same and should have a presence online to complement their presence on the ground.

At Archerra we realize the importance of engaging customers both online and on the ground which is why we have incorporated the capability to analyze customer data for both channels and take into account your total market share in every neighbourhood.