It gives us valuable insight when evaluating strategies for our shopping centres

Could you introduce LCP and your role within the company? 

Andrew Wood: LCP owns more than 500 commercial properties within the UK and looks after Germany, France, and Poland portfolios. Our portfolio includes shopping centres, local convenience stores, shopping parades and retail parks. 

As a financial controller, I’m in charge of analysing and understanding our properties' performance. I manage matters related to rents, profits, and our properties' overall performance. We use Mytraffic to measure the performance of 21 properties all over the UK.

Why do you think Mytraffic is better than footfall counters?  

Andrew Wood: Footfall counters only give us the number of people who’ve come in and out of your shopping centres. Whereas with Mytraffic we get more valuable data, like hotspots analysis with footfall during a specific time of the day. This helps us understand where most people congregate and what attracts them to your site. 

Also, with your qualitative data, socio-demographic profiles, visitors’ origin and penetration rate, we understand what type of customers we are attracting, where they work, which part of the country they’ve travelled from etc. Overall, with Mytraffic, we have a better understanding of our customers base. We can then adapt or reconsider our offer in the shopping centre.  

How did our data improve your performance evaluations?

Andrew Wood: Instead of basing our decisions on peoples' experiences and opinions, we can now clearly see which shops are attracting the most customers. We understand the occupancy of our properties and how it changes during the day and over certain months.

For example, when a new tenant comes in, we analyse the attractiveness of their shop based on the intensity of the footfall at their location. We know now if a particular tenant is attracting visitors and creating hotspots within the shopping centre. We now know which tenants bring the most visitors and can identify retailers more likely to succeed. 

Why is it easier now to convince retailers to rent vacant units?

Andrew Wood: We use Mytraffic’s data in our marketing campaigns. When we promote new shops, we usually show drone footage of what the property looks like and the environment. Now, when we talk to retailers, we show heatmaps and socio-demographic profiles. 

They have a better understanding of their locations within the site and how the footfall compares to other retailers. Plus, they can assess how compatible their customer base is with the visitors. By using Mytraffic, we can identify opportunities for future retailers and select in advance the area they can occupy within our properties. 

In addition, we use your tool to compare our shopping centres with our direct competitors. What is unique with Mytraffic is that you can get accurate data on your competition. So when one of our locations is more attractive than a competitor, we are now able to prove it to future tenants. 

A final word? 

Andrew Wood: Mytraffic gives us valuable insight when we’re evaluating strategies for our shopping centres. We now make more informed decisions, supported by facts and accurate data. I would say that LCP now has a thorough understanding of the customers visiting the properties and their behaviours.