Occupying a prime retail location is rarely more important than over Black Friday weekend.
However, optimising your performance relies on having sufficient insight to attribute the necessary resources to the places where they’re likely to be most effective.
Here, we’ll take a closer look at how you can make these decisions with confidence.
Why is Black Friday so crucial for retailers?
The Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend has surpassed early to mid-December and Boxing Day as the busiest annual period for retailers.
Analysts expect UK consumer spending to reach £10.1bn during the week of Black Friday 2017, up 4% on 2016. Much of this spending is set to take place in-store with Cyber Monday traditionally associated with online transactions.
Many analysts now also study brand performance over this weekend to predict Christmas profitability and adjust share valuations accordingly.
How to choose a prime retail location and optimise profitability
These are some of the most important factors you should calculate to select a prime retail location and optimise your Black Friday promotions:
1) Proximity to customers
Today’s consumers are pushed for time, so are more likely to shop close to where they work rather than where they live.
This is especially significant on Black Friday, when a considerable proportion of consumers will be expected to attend work as normal.
As such, you should look to allocate the lion’s share of your resources in central locations with:
- A high number of workers who fit your key demographics
- Strong potential for passing commuter trade
Location intelligence software helps you identify both types of location. With Periscope®, you can conveniently create visualisations showing key commuter routes and their respective peak times.
Position within staff and logistics network
Identify locations that fit with your existing networks, or are a good fit for market expansion.
These could be close to where existing staff are based. Alternatively, you can analyse local demographics within a defined area to assess the feasibility of assembling a new workforce.
Black Friday will place additional strain on your logistics network. You will need to ensure an adequate supply of relevant products can be delivered conveniently and stored on-site.
Locating close to a distribution centre would also allow you to call on contingency, to meet unexpectedly high product demand.
Periscope® enables you to identify optimal locations by visualising all your existing retail and distribution centre locations. You can also use HR data to plot where staff are based, or census data to identify areas in which you could cultivate a workforce.
Use of targeted marketing resources
Black Friday breaks the bonds of customer loyalty. 75% of UK consumers claim product cost is the most important decision-making factor during this period (TechRadar).
You should therefore go all-in on marketing your Black Friday offers, to both new and potential customers.
Location intelligence software such as Periscope® can help you identify the types of customer who might purchase from you at a discounted rate.
Use it to identify where these customers live/work, what marketing formats they’re likely to best react to, and where advertisements could be positioned to have maximum effect.
Discover how Periscope® provides the insights you need to optimise your Black Friday sales strategy. Request a 10-minute demo today.