Latest news with #CuriousCatTrail
Forbes
25-03-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Mobility Data Is The Missing Link In Competitive Analysis
Geoff Michener is the CEO of dataplor, a startup focused on helping companies succeed abroad through high-quality geospatial data. getty Businesses seeking to outmaneuver their competition need deeper insights into real-world customer engagement. Sales figures, customer reviews and market reports often lack insight into what is happening on the ground and fail to account for physical customer engagement or location-specific trends. If businesses want to stay competitive, they must start at the foundation: physical storefronts and consumer behavior. Mobility data offers a powerful solution by providing deep insights into customer engagement and competitive positioning. Foot traffic patterns help businesses identify underserved markets, assess customers' interactions with competitor locations, refine strategies and remain agile to future shifts in behavior. Mobility data equips businesses with the tools to analyze their competitors' store locations. Organizations can see under what circumstances customers choose competitors by analyzing time spent at locations, hourly popularity scores and estimated visitor counts. This information lets businesses see where, when and why customers choose competitors. For example, downtown Portland saw 27.3 million visits in 2024. Data indicated their foot traffic peaked during the summer, with significant events like Coraline's Curious Cat Trail leading to an 11%-14% increase in weekend traffic. Looking for localized trends and analyzing competitors' performance near high-traffic events, like Coraline's Curious Cat Trail, could help a business ascertain when and where to open new locations in the Portland area, run promotions or create pop-up shops. A restaurant franchise could similarly use mobility data to determine why foot traffic increases on weekends at its competitor's store. By analyzing peak customer flow times at competitor locations, they can look at dwell time, surrounding attractions and promotions and decide when to offer discounts or ensure their locations aren't over or understaffed. The restaurant can even better understand consumer behavior by seeing which store customers are most likely to visit based on other stores they frequent. The granular insights from location intelligence help businesses identify the factors that influence customer loyalty and refine their marketing strategies and customer experiences. Additionally, knowing and understanding when customers favor a competitor can help companies optimize promotions and product offerings to align with customer preferences. Location intelligence also reveals areas with high foot traffic but low supplies of specific goods or services, empowering decision-makers with ideal areas for market entry. It can showcase underserved neighborhoods or regions based on traffic density and customer flow. This information removes the guesswork regarding site selection to prioritize high-potential, high-impact markets. Global retailers can use mobility to expand into new regions and identify areas with heavy foot traffic but minimal competition. By evaluating competitors' existing storefronts, businesses can enter markets with high demand and low risk of oversaturation. Data is already being utilized by hospitality platforms which use location intelligence to optimize pricing against their competitors. Analyzing neighborhood characteristics, distance to public transportation and local attractions help to ensure they are offering competitive rates and can increase bookings. Competitors that rely on static pricing or adapt too slowly will struggle to keep up in underserved or highly competitive areas. However, privacy is a critical undercurrent to any discussion about data-driven decision-making at scale. Companies should ensure they use anonymized foot traffic data, as it's the only approach that preserves individual privacy and adheres to domestic and international regulatory environments. Policy trends will continue to favor privacy and security—businesses adopting a privacy-centric approach will meet these evolving compliance requirements and help build consumer trust. Organizations no longer have to guess when it comes to site selection. Using mobility data, they can prioritize sites with high demand, avoid oversaturation and ensure they pursue impactful opportunities to compete in new markets. Mobility data enables robust comparisons against competitors and helps businesses identify where they could lose market share or fall behind. These trends help companies predict and counter competitor strategies, such as new openings or seasonal promotions. Unlocking these insights allows organizations to pivot quickly based on real-time competitor behavior. A grocery store with a new competitor location opening up down the street, for instance, could monitor the competitor's latest store opening and how it impacts customer flow in nearby storefronts. Then, they could use the data to adjust advertising strategies, launch local promotions or introduce loyalty programs to retain customers. They might also utilize foot traffic data to understand where locations perform the best and if there are businesses nearby that their target audience also visits. Real estate investors might use mobility data to identify high-traffic areas with strong commercial potential. Foot traffic trends help pinpoint emerging neighborhoods, evaluate property values based on visitor patterns and assess the viability of mixed-use or retail developments. Consumer-packaged goods brands can also benefit. Analyzing consumer behavior near outlets helps them anticipate stock demands and adjust distribution strategies. Foot traffic gives businesses unmatched insight into customer behavior, market opportunities and competitor activities. Rather than relying on incomplete information, companies can use mobility data to locate high-traffic areas ideal for expansion, refine strategies based on competitors' foot traffic trends and see consumer movement trends to adjust marketing and promotions. These insights unlock benefits across industries, from retail and consumer packaged goods to marketing, real estate, urban planning by city governments and quick-service restaurants. Mobility data offers more than just clarity on what's happening now. It gives business leaders powerful data to understand how consumer movement impacts business growth and where to plot future pivot points and growth strategies. Forbes Business Council is the foremost growth and networking organization for business owners and leaders. Do I qualify?
Yahoo
28-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Downtown Portland saw ‘encouraging' increase in foot traffic, employee presence in 2024: Report
PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – Downtown Portland saw an increase in foot traffic and worker presence in 2024 — marking an 'encouraging sign' in the city's appeal and resilience post-pandemic, according to a new report from Downtown Portland Clean & Safe. Since 2009, Downtown Portland Clean & Safe has been tracking foot traffic as part of the organization's mission to encourage vitality of the city's core. According to the latest foot traffic report, released January 21, Downtown Portland is continuing to see 'strong signs of recovery.' Oregon one of the worst states for retirement, WalletHub says Overall, foot traffic saw a 3% increase in 2024 compared to 2023, along with a post-pandemic high of more than 2.4 million visitors in five separate months, the report says. Additionally, foot traffic has increased by 54% compared to downtown's pandemic low in 2021. Downtown Portland Clean & Safe credits the rise in foot traffic, in part, to the return of major events in the city — including the Rockstar Energy Open, which brought thousands of people to Tom McCall Waterfront Park, and concerts at Providence Park — notably, the show, which brought 30,000 attendees downtown, according to the report. Close Thanks for signing up! Watch for us in your inbox. Subscribe Now In addition to those events, the report also credits improvements in other key areas that led to increased foot traffic. This includes employee presence, which has risen by 8% in 2024 compared to 2023, the report states, noting Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays are 'the most favored days' for employees to be in the district. Additionally, the report highlights the opening of nearly 40 retail businesses and a recovery in tourism bringing more foot traffic to the city's core. An earthquake rattled the Cascadia fault 325 years ago. Here's what we know about the massive quake According to the report, tourism's 'strong recovery,' was especially seen in June and July when demand for downtown Portland rooms grew by more than 10%. In August, room demand increased by more than 17%, with that trend continuing into the fall. 'The return of iconic events like Project Pabst and new attractions like the Rockstar Energy Open and Coraline's Curious Cat Trail, combined with consistent growth in worker traffic and visitor numbers, shows that Portland is reclaiming its status as a premier destination for both culture and commerce,' said Andrew Hoan, president and CEO of the Portland Business Alliance and the Portland Metro Chamber. 'We're seeing a revitalized downtown that's attracting both local workers and tourists, creating an increasingly dynamic city center.' Mark Wells, the executive director of Downtown Portland's Clean & Safe added, 'Downtown Portland continues to show encouraging signs of recovery, with five months reaching the significant milestone of 2.4 million visitors in 2024,' noting, 'The steady increase in overall foot traffic, and particularly the notable uptick in worker presence downtown, demonstrates that our recovery continues to move in the right direction.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
