Smyths Toys Superstores is a multinational company providing children's toys and entertainment products. With over 200 shops across the UK and Europe, Smyths is the leading European toy store.

Can you introduce Smyths Toys and your role within the company?

Kai Fontana: As the fastest-growing toy retailer in Europe, we always aim to open our stores in strategic locations. Our retail strategy consists of opening large stores located in retail parks. In addition, we try to target large cities to reach as many people as possible and generate enough ROI in our locations.

As the Commercial Director for Central Europe, my goal is to find and analyse the most attractive commercial locations. I gather and utilise insights to select stores and maintain our profitability.

Why did you choose Mytraffic? And how does the platform help you in your site selection process?

Kai Fontana: Before Mytraffic, we were not using any solution to measure pedestrian flows. We needed a tool to measure the footfall potential when new locations were proposed to us. With the platform, we assess if the footfall is big enough for us to consider the site. We also look at visitors' origins to understand our catchment area's size. Mytraffic also gives us historical data on how many people have been in a location.

We now understand the footfall dynamics in new sites. But we are also able to compare the data to our current stores. By benchmarking against ourselves, we can identify the characteristics of a good location and try to find those similarities for potential new ones. Also, we sometimes have multiple offers, and we use Mytraffic's data to enrich our comparative studies.

How does Mytraffic help you with revenue predictions?

Kai Fontana: When we have proposals for new locations, we enter a site selection process phase. Smyths Toys uses this process to determine whether or not investing in this commercial location would be profitable. Mytraffic's insights enrich this process by providing analyses of the footfall and visitors' profiles.

In order to predict revenue for new openings, we gather different types of data, and footfall data is part of them. Currently, we have 90% accuracy on revenue predictions for new stores. Mytraffic validates our approach and confirms the accuracy of our predictive location studies.

Which analysis do you use the most?

Kai Fontana: Here at Smyths, Dynamic footfall and catchment area are the most used analysis. We have both quantitative and qualitative data. We ensure that the footfall is high enough and that our target audience visits the location.

A final word?

Kai Fontana: If you don't have any data, you're playing a guessing game. For any company today, it is essential to have quality and up-to-date data. Without this, it is impossible to anticipate and make the right decisions. Mytraffic helps us make better decisions and maintain our accuracy.

Even if you are a big retailer and already have experience in the industry, the world is changing, and data-driven decisions are the present and the future.