Retailers don’t have it easy. They continue to face pressure from players in the e-commerce space while simultaneously battling the perpetual myth that their industry is dying.
As we’ve reported before, this simply isn’t the case. Across industries, retailers are opening new stores as their customer base and profits continue to grow. According to real estate and investment management firm JLL, the number of grocery store openings rose by 30% in 2018 compared with the prior year. In fact, there were almost twice as many store openings as closings.
What’s more, even though some retailers like J.C. Penney and Gymboree are closing up shop, other major brands continue to expand in the US. Spanning markets and target audiences, these retailers include Target, Costco; Dollar General, which will open 975 new locations; and Lululemon Athletica, which plans to establish 12 new stores before mid-year.
How to Supercharge Your Store Opening
With so many new stores set to open in the months to come, and continued competition from online retailers, businesses are in need of a way to attract and retain customers from day one onward. The solution lies in supercharging your marketing with the help of location data.
GroundTruth’s industry-leading location data, paired with location based mobile advertising, helps companies reach the right audience, drive immediate awareness, boost visits, and increase sales. This is especially important when you’re planning a grand opening with the intention of gaining a foothold in a new region or neighborhood, as well as when you need to drive foot traffic fast.
Such was the case with Ulta Beauty, who recently partnered with us to support several of its new locations. By leveraging our visitation data and combining it with both location-based targeting and location-based analytics, the beauty retailer’s stores were 2.5x more likely to reach their state average weekly visitation than non-supported stores.
What’s more, we found that Ulta Beauty’s new stores reached state average visitation 43% faster — or about 26 days sooner — than non-supported stores. This amounts to nearly four extra weeks of high visitation levels. For stores that need to establish a relationship with customers and demonstrate their value to corporate stakeholders, these kinds of results are huge.
Open Your Marketing Strategy to Location Data
Because it’s designed to reach consumers when they’re actively shopping in your area, location data is equipped to drive results faster and positively impact your bottom line as quickly as possible.
This technology allows you to customize audience segments composed of customers who visit your competitors’ locations and other points of interest, and engage them with messaging that leads shoppers straight to your shop. You can also interact with them in real-time when they’re nearby — including when they’re at a competitor’s store — and serve dynamic creative like maps that makes it easy for them to calculate the distance from their current location to your door.
There are plenty of branding benefits to using location data, too. By using data for retargeting, retailers can improve brand recall. It’s also an effective way of keeping your brand top of mind while consumers are deciding where they should shop. Making a strong brand connection with them early on, when your new store first opens, can have a lasting effect on how customers perceive your business and brand in the future.
With location data, you can make your grand opening as grand as it deserves to be. For more information on our platform and all of our location data-powered products, visit us online.
