The April Trader’s Bulletin includes statistics on customer sources for the Queen Victoria Market and they make interesting reading, but there is evidence that they don’t give the full picture for General Merchandise Traders.
Let us say first up that having direct access to this sort of information is great. QVM management are to be congratulated for making it available to traders. The results are similar to those of previous surveys that suggested 70% of market visitors were locals. Trader’s representatives knew intuitively that the 70% figure was wrong for General Merchandise Traders so we held our own survey in the top end of the market. For the first time we are revealing those results below –
GENERAL MERCHANDISE CUSTOMER BASE SURVEY JULY 2010
OVERALL - INTERSTATE 57%
INTRASTATE 16%
METRO 26%
GIFTS/NOVELTIES
INTERSTATE 62%
INTRASTATE 20%
METRO 18% (17% weekends)
CLOTHING/ACCESSORIES
INTERSTATE 68%
INTRASTATE 10%
METRO 22% (30% weekends)
SHOES
INTERSTATE 55%
INTRASTATE 9%
METRO 36% (34% weekends)
MAKE-UP/SUNGLASSES
INTERSTATE 47%
INTRASTATE 17%
METRO 35% (35% weekends)
JEWELLERY
INTERSTATE 50%
INTRASTATE 14%
METRO 36% (43% weekends)
FOOD
INTERSTATE 63%
INTRASTATE 22%
METRO 15% (22% weekends)
Now, let us say up front that our survey was not conducted by a professional research company like the QVM one. We only surveyed through 20 top end traders, and we only surveyed over one week. However, we did survey actual customers (those that purchased goods), not just visitors wandering public areas. We believe that our results indicate further work needs to be done to determine exactly where top end customers come from and where the QVM marketing budget should be spent.
Comments:
15/04/2012 23:08:24 No surprises here, I don't know how it's possible that professional researchers could have concluded that 70% of QVM customers were locals in the first place :-)
16/04/2012 16:51:00 They talk about target customers (visitors) - we talk about actual customers. Part of their survey included interviewing residents who don't visit the market (?). We only counted customers who paid hard money for goods. That is the difference.
17/04/2012 16:36:50 Traders basic interest lies in sales, Management and Council have other primary interests. The survey questions and stats are prepared with that in mind and often skewed to deliver the desired result. For instance the Sweeney Trader Survey result supposedly show that "As a venue for business, overall satisfaction with the Market is high..." Who are they kidding?
18/04/2012 09:09:32 I'd say that these research companies come in during the week when the place is full of school kids, who in my opinion 90% of the time don't count as customers, but more so a way of keeping us alert and aware and sometime frustrated
Comments:
15/04/2012 23:08:24 No surprises here, I don't know how it's possible that professional researchers could have concluded that 70% of QVM customers were locals in the first place :-)
16/04/2012 16:51:00 They talk about target customers (visitors) - we talk about actual customers. Part of their survey included interviewing residents who don't visit the market (?). We only counted customers who paid hard money for goods. That is the difference.
17/04/2012 16:36:50 Traders basic interest lies in sales, Management and Council have other primary interests. The survey questions and stats are prepared with that in mind and often skewed to deliver the desired result. For instance the Sweeney Trader Survey result supposedly show that "As a venue for business, overall satisfaction with the Market is high..." Who are they kidding?
18/04/2012 09:09:32 I'd say that these research companies come in during the week when the place is full of school kids, who in my opinion 90% of the time don't count as customers, but more so a way of keeping us alert and aware and sometime frustrated