RETAIL REPORT CARD

The ‘Retail Report Card’ provides Councils and their business communities with a snapshot of the current state of their mainstreet or town centre. The Report Card provides an overview of 4 key areas: mainstreet governance, mainstreet marketing & promotion, mainstreet business mix and mainstreet streetscape. The results can be benchmarked against other Australian mainstreets and opportunites for improvement can be identified. The next step is to develop action sheets that define key actions and areas of responsibility for the public and private sector.

The retail report card provides a snapshot of key mainstreet dynamics including:

Governance
Marketing / Promotions / Events
Business Mix
Streetscape

The 4 key areas

Premier Retail Marketing will assess governance accountability and transparency, the effectiveness of marketing, promotional and event activity, business mix sustainability and the quality of the streetscape against best practice examples. The overall goal is to improve the customer and visitor experience, increase business success and deliver better outcomes for the community. Council, businesses, property owners and leasing agents all play an important role.

Governance

Having the correct governace structure in place to manage and co-ordinate a retail area is key to a successful mainstreet or retail precinct. Many of the processes used when developing a business improvement district can be applied to your mainstreet including business engagement and business needs surveys. Premier Retail Marketing will assess your governance model and make recommendations about business representation, strategic planning, transparency, succession planning, place management, street presentation and customer facilities. We provide an independent assessment of all areas of mainstreet governance.

Marketing / Promotion / Events

Promoting a retail area and marketing the strengths of the retail area is key to staying at the top of a customers mind. Hosting a range of events may bring visitors to a mainstreet but do you leverage the visits to increase dwell time and increase spend? Engaging businesses in the development of events will increase their level of involvement and commitment. Many retailers do not actively participate in marketing or promotional activity but creating opportunities for collaborative marketing is a powerful tool available to all mainstreets.

Business Mix Development

The correct mix of retailers that make up a retail area can strongly impact the performance of a mainstreet or retail area. Before and after the pandemic mainstreets have had an issue with vacant premises. The mix of retail, hospitality and professional service businesses is poorly skewed towards one category or another. Mainstreets can learn many techniques used by shopping centres to keep their vacancy levels low. Business attraction is often the key weakness and many tactics could be utilised to address this weakness. David West has worked with Westfield and other shopping centres groups and he is very qualified to advise you in this area of expertise.

Streetscape

Streetscape is all about the customer experience and creating a business environment that drives demand and encourages small independent businesses to set up in your mainstreet. Often some key design features are not conducive for good business due to limitations of delivery facilities or outdoor dining. Signage and wayfinding to help customers navigate parking areas, public facilities and visitor information may need attention. Development of the unique character and brand of your mainstreet should flow through all areas of marketing and presentation.