How do you introduce new retailers (or
traders) into a product category while limiting any damage to the existing
retailers in that category?
This was the dilemma faced by a UK
shopping centre when it wanted to introduce new food & beverage operators
without damaging the business of one of its prime current tenants. The prime
tenant sold Japanese food.
The answer for this centre lay in the
readily available sales data for UK shopping centres which enabled them to
compare the takings of Japanese food restaurants and cross link with other
types of food outlets.
They found that Mexican, American and
Italian restaurants were less likely to impact on their Japanese food outlet
and so they targeted those types of restaurants to fill their vacancies.
One example where comprehensive data
can be very useful.