Changes in how people live and work, the advent of the Internet, and shifts in consumer preferences all impact retail areas.
Retail centres are places where people gather and where commerce takes place, meaning they often play a dual role that needs to be understood in the context of both traditional retail environments – such as enclosed shopping centres, high street retail or bulky goods outlets – and emerging retail spaces such as pop-ups or shorter-term creative lets.
From our extensive research and understanding of the dynamics of the retail sector, we developed the SGS Retail Gravity Model, which allows us to predict future retail spending and floorspace demand for the planning of existing or new centres.
The Model looks at the entire retail landscape to simulate the flows of shoppers to different retail centres taking into account ease of access, floorspace size and ‘attractiveness’ (visual and functional attributes) of various centres. From this, we translate our forecasts into evidence-rich recommendations in terms of appropriate centre size, locations and retail mix.
Ultimately, we help understand how best to plan for retail-focused centres that meet the needs of residents, workers, tourists and businesses.
