Feargal O’Neill and Charlotte Cuffe at the location planning meet-up organised by Geolytix
Fittingly, the venue was the Royal Geographical Society, the home of an organisation dedicated to the development and promotion of geographical knowledge. An appropriate place to discuss how geography and geographic data is the fundamental requirement for retail organisations looking to right-size their networks.
We heard from a number of different organisations who were expanding their footprints in Europe and China. What struck me was that while these were very different businesses, ranging from a startup quick service food franchise to long-established global scale grocery retailer, and they were entering very different markets, there was a unifying focus on and demand for high-quality spatial data and analyses based on them.
Understanding what opportunities exist requires detailed knowledge of the market at regional and local scales, including awareness of competitor locations and customer spend analytics along with benchmarks from existing operations and geodemographics not just at the residence level but also where those potential customers spend their day. It was encouraging to see the approach Gamma have taken with our Storecast™ solution being borne out by others.
Different geographies have unique challenges, and while blindly entering uncharted territory might have earned Ernest Shackleton a statue outside the RGS building in Kensington, the rewards for equipping yourself with the right knowledge at the right time in the right format are high for retailers operating in the omnichannels of the 21st Century.