Retail competitive intelligence involves the collection and analysis of data to gain insights into the competitive landscape of the retail industry. This data can be used by retailers to make informed decisions about their business strategy and stay ahead of the competition.
How to get retail competitive intelligence data
One way to collect this type of intelligence is through the use of human mobility data and foot traffic data. This information can provide valuable insights into consumer behavior, market trends, and the effectiveness of a retailer's location, marketing efforts, and product offerings.
Human mobility data is information about the movement of individuals within a given area, whether it's neighborhood activity or a migration to a new city. This data can be collected through a variety of methods, but most often through GPS tracking. By analyzing this data, retailers can gain insights into where their customers are coming from, how they are moving through the world, and how long they spend in each area.
Foot traffic data, on the other hand, is information about the number of people visiting a specific location, e.g. entering and exiting a retail location. By analyzing foot traffic data, retailers can gain insights into the busiest times of day for a given store, the most popular parts of a store, and the effectiveness of specific promotions.
Together, human mobility data and foot traffic data can provide valuable insights for retailers looking to gain a competitive edge. For example, a retailer may use this information to identify underperforming locations to either close them or optimize their marketing and product offerings to drive foot traffic and sales. Additionally, retailers can use this data to better understand their customers' behavior and preferences, allowing them to tailor their in-store experience and improve customer satisfaction.
How to work with retail competitive intelligence data
Mobility data can be used as retail competitive intelligence data by investigating a specific competitor's performance — whether at the store level or within a specific market. You can get an in-depth understanding of your competitors' foot traffic trends, trade areas, and capture rate.
When combined with other forms of competitive intelligence data, such as POS data and pricing intelligence, retailers can use mobility data get a truly comprehensive view of their competitors performance. They can dig into the rate at which competitors are able to convert foot traffic into sales, and consider their pricing strategies accordingly. They can understand the cross-shopping behavior of their customers, and their competitors' customers, to identify strategic partnerships or new product offerings. They can also find gaps in store placement by looking at customer origins and distances traveled, to get ahead of their competitors in selecting new brick and mortar locations.
Human mobility data and foot traffic data can provide more context to competitive intelligence data by enabling a more comprehensive view of the retail consumer behavior landscape. By understanding the full picture and benchmarking across industries, markets, and categories, this data is critical for helping retailers understand the markets they serve.
Summary
Overall, the use of human mobility data and foot traffic data can be a valuable tool for retailers looking to understand their competitive landscape. This type of retail competitive intelligence data is necessary for brands that want to stay ahead of the competition and gain market share. To learn more about Unacast's competitive intelligence solution, you can book a meeting with us today.
