Location intelligence and foot traffic analytics are transforming the way retail strategies are defined, and department stores are no exception.
The correlation between foot traffic, sales, and the success of department stores have been studied and proven, so the development of this type of analysis has become a priority in the site selection process and expansion modeling.
New data management methodologies now allow retailers to take advantage of even the smallest piece of information to generate valuable insights that help optimize their marketing and customer loyalty strategies.
What promotions do we do to get more customers to the point of sale?
How do we make them stay longer in the store?
How do we improve the customer experience so that they buy more at each visit?
In the digital age, location intelligence and foot traffic analytics based on mobility data are changing the retail business, giving many retailers an edge over their competitors.
Location intelligence is defined as a methodology for understanding and visualizing mobility data to help solve a wide variety of retail problems.
Foot traffic analytics is derived from location intelligence, helping retailers to obtain a better understanding about how people move around physical locations and enabling new visibility into consumer behavior patterns by presenting a visualization of people's movement within a physical area, even segmented by the infinite type of consumers who pass near a store.
Whether it is a restaurant, a coffee shop, a hotel, a supermarket, or an auto parts store, location is, if not the most important, one of the most decisive factors in determining the success or failure of a business.
Real estate companies, restaurants and retail chains know better than anyone how valuable and decisive it is for the success of a business to find the best location. Technology, together with the new Big Data analysis methodologies, now allow to simplify part of this complex process of location selection, analyzing in detail the pedestrian flow in each location.
In Costa Rica the chain Almacenes El Rey will open in the next months four new points of sale in San Carlos, Perez Zeledon, Liberia and Santa Cruz.
The stores that will soon open to the public will have a different format than those already operating in other areas of the country. The concept of the new establishments will be winery type with a smaller size, when compared to the points of sale located in the Great Metropolitan Area.
After investing $17 million, Walmart opened a new store to the public on July 10, in the canton of San Pablo, province of Heredia.
This new location becomes the 14th store that the chain will operate under the Walmart format and for the operation of this supermarket, the company will hire 123 people, said the official statement.
In April, the Walmart chain invested nearly $8.5 million in the construction and opening of four new stores in Costa Rica.
The company reported that three sales points operate under the Pali format and are located in Ipis de Goicoechea, Guayabo de Bagaces and Dulce Nombre de Cartago. The other establishment operates under the brand Maxi Pali and is located in Los Guido, Desamparados.
In Costa Rica on November 9, the chain of stores El Rey plans to open a new store to the public that has an area of 2,700 square meters and is located in Guapiles.
Company executives informed that the new store has a new design and format of confectionery, which consists of providing a greater variety of products and more self-service options.
See "Where are the supermarkets in Central America?"
After making a strategic alliance with the firm Dollarama, the business conglomerate plans to open 225 new stores dedicated to the sale of home and office goods in El Salvador, Guatemala and Colombia.
It was reported that the Canadian company Dollarama reached an agreement to acquire a 50.1% stake in the chain of stores of Salvadoran origin Dollarcity, in a transaction estimated at $85 million to $95 million.
In Costa Rica, the Gollo chain of stores invested $2 million in the opening of three new sales points in Guachipelín, Tibás and San José.
Representatives of the company dedicated to commercialize electrical appliances, furniture and other similar articles, informed that $1 million was invested in the operation of the store in Guachipelín, and in the stores in Tibás and San José, the investment totaled $500,000 each.
Walmart plans to invest $48 million in Guatemala during 2019, of which $25 million will be used to open new stores and remodel existing ones.
According to information provided by representatives of Walmart, the investment projected for this year in the country will double that invested in 2018, since last year the amount disbursed totaled $24 million.
There is a growing trend in appliances stores and department stores to set up large format stores offering a better buying experience with "everything in one place."
This format allows to the diversification and expansion of the supply of products mainly in middle and upper middle income levels, especially in areas with high population density, which allows consumers to buy more conveniently and for stores to generate more revenue.
At least twelve international clothing brands have announce the opening of stores in the country.
ETA Fashion, an Ecuadorian chain of department stores, Express, a north American brand of clothing and accessories for men and women, the Spanish franchise selling children's clothing Gocco, the Brazilian store Hering and the brand of Colombian menswear Arturo Calle, are some of new brands entering the Costa Rican market.
In an area measuring 7,000 square meters distributed across 32 departments, the chain store will open its largest Carrion branch in Tegucigalpa.
The new facilities will feature innovative and environmentally friendly systems and will generate two hundred direct jobs.
The new store will feature an entire floor designed "... for articles for the home, where customers will have a wide range of products for decorating living rooms, kitchens, bedrooms, appliances and a host of unbeatable products", according to an article on the website of Retail in Detail.
The Salvadoran Siman Group, a conglomerate that operates franchises for Zara, Zara Home and Massimo Dutti and the department stores Aliss, Yamuni, Carrion and Ekono has announced expansion plans.
In 2013 the Siman Group will open a new 10,000 square meter store in the new stage of Multiplaza del Este Mall which will generate 250 jobs.
Between 2016 and 2017 it expects to have four or five outlets for which it is investigating venturing into new areas such as Heredia, Cartago and Alajuela.