Much of the modern economy focuses on data, information and social networking, but in retail, the age old adage “location, location, location” still fits. For retail technology, the goal of any advanced data, information or social networking is to find and engage the perfect market, and in a physical retail space your location defines your target market.
Why Location Still Matters
Many people interested in starting a franchise retail store are interested and invested in modern business systems, and want to know why the old adage is still applied to modern businesses. It is simple, a retail franchise must interact with customers, find them and bring them into a place where they can purchase products.
Although much is made of online retail (a very profitable business), the online retail space is not limited by location, so a small start-up is either going to be part and parcel of one of the billion dollar enterprises already in the retail space (Amazon, Ebay, Etsy) or trying to compete against them.
The great opportunity of a physical location is the fact that it is physical. When you are operating a store in a location, there is no one else in that space. Traffic is limited by your location, which means you have a custom-made niche already set up for your business, the moment you open your doors.
Demographics
The right retail technology gives you the ability to choose location based upon up-to date demographics through the use of heat mapping in territory creation. Understanding the demographics of the location where your business will locate is essential to remaining in business and creating profits. If the people passing your door are not interested or able to buy your product, or if they just aren’t there at all, you will not have profit.
The most important decision for building your business is to have the right customers for the product you are selling, and good retail mapping technology gives you the tools to locate and choose your target demographic before ever setting up shop, increasing your chance to make profit because you have invested customers.
Here’s another article that you might like: Are Demographics the Key to Predicting Retail Shopping Habits
