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Plain Talk
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Attention Retailers: Small is the New Black
From The Buxton Co Just like less is more, bigger isn’t always better – especially when referring to a retailer’s store size. Retailers across the country are rightsizing their brick and mortar stores to attract new customers and adapt to a changing retail environment that’s being driven by the need for omnichannel strategies and the desire to expand into urban environments – among other factors. For these retailers, recalibrating the size of their stores means less square footage, and that requires retailers and developers to re-evaluate their development and expansion strategies. Because even though they’re moving to smaller footprint stores, they’re most likely going to be faced with a higher rent than what they were being charged in their larger box spaces. Not to mention the even more difficult challenges of determining the right types and right amount of merchandise to fit into the limited space available while still telling their brand story, sharing their brand values and connecting with their current and potential customers. Those retailers who are rightsizing their stores have to develop a strategy that determines what elements of their overall brand to import into the smaller store design and experience in order to execute successfully in the new space. Given that, there are no one-size-fits-all strategies. It’s important for you to remember that the assumptions that may hold true for other property types don’t always work for smaller locations or urban locations. There are too many other factors and variables at play. What Size is the Right Size? Luckily for retailers, more advanced technological and analytical tools have been developed to help assist retailers with making the best decisions when it comes to picking the right store location, determining the right size store, and forecasting how each size store and market will affect their bottom line. Rightsizing your store network is a potentially perilous undertaking. That’s why it’s still imperative that retailers pick the best markets and the best sites within those markets for their new locations, determine the optimal number of locations for each market and keep up with consumer expectations of what the in-store experience should be. The good news is that with customer data and insight, retailers can understand their customers, understand how their best customers want to interact with their brand and deliver an experience that meets their customers’ expectations. Analytic insights help retailers keep their best customers’ desires and needs in focus when assessing the potential of new markets and new sites.
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