It is no secret the brick-and-mortar store is under assault and digital commerce is taking over the retail industry. Not surprisingly, the trend toward digital has inevitably has led to store closings, and a set of new strategies to take advantage of the changing role of the retail store. One good example is Urban Outfitters investing in key stores creating a casual dining experience to improve the overall shopping experience. The brick-and-mortar store still has its place, but in some areas of retail: brick-and-mortar expansion is a much bigger focus.
So Where is Brick-And-Mortar Expansion Happening?
Quite a few large retail chains like Starbucks, Wendy’s, Family Dollar, and Costco opened stores in 2016. Starbucks opened as many as 1,500 stores globally in 2016. You will notice new brick-and-mortar expansion is very big in quick service restaurants, and discount chains. Likewise, retailing is a broad term because bank branches, healthcare clinics, insurance offices, service providers, and all types of retailers are looking for the best retail location to build a store.
So how can a retailer find the optimal location to open a store?
The answer for retail site selection is in the data, but a little bit more is needed to answer the question. An analytics platform is also required and it must be able to do the following:
The good news is that the newly announced Qlik acquisition of Idevio (rebranded as Qlik GeoAnalytics) provides all four of these capabilities and more! Even better is a Retail Site Selection solution has been assembled to showcase how a retailer can take advantage of data to make better retail site selection decisions in less time and resource investment. I invite you to take it for a test drive!