Choosing locations for new convenience stores

What is shaping retail

Retailers and D2C brands compete across stores, apps and marketplaces. Store experience, availability and convenience decide where shoppers go next.

• Shoppers move freely between online and offline
• Store experience is a key differentiator
• Loyalty programmes and personalisation drive repeat

A convenience store chain, working in Malaysia & Indonesia. Client identity is withheld to protect confidentiality.

Organisation

A convenience store chain

Sector

Retail

Team engaged

Market Research

Services

Research consultancy, Data analytics & dashboards, Offline data collection

The chain planned to open dozens of new convenience stores in Malaysia and Indonesia, but several recent openings had underperformed. Locations had been chosen mainly on rent and availability, and leadership wanted a more reliable way to predict which sites would succeed.

• Deliver on the brief: choosing locations for new convenience stores.
• Understand the views, needs and behaviour of candidate sites.
• Produce results that can be compared across groups and locations.
• Give the client evidence it can act on within 8 weeks.

The work focused on 60 candidate sites.

• candidate sites60

Audiences we typically reach in retail

ShoppersStore staff and managersOnline customersLoyalty membersFranchisees

Coverage: Malaysia & Indonesia. Markets: Malaysia and Indonesia.

• Malaysia
• Indonesia

A structured analytical design combining desk research, modelling and primary evidence.

1. 1Brief
2. 2Footfall counts
3. 3Catchment surveys
4. 4Location scoring model
5. 5Insight

Field teams counted pedestrian and vehicle traffic at each candidate site at morning, lunchtime and evening peaks, and surveyed nearby residents, office workers and students about their shopping habits, spending and preferred stores, in Malay, Bahasa Indonesia and English. Competitor stores were mapped, and a scoring model combined demand, competition, visibility and access.

Research consultancyData analytics & dashboardsOffline data collection

candidate sites

60

• Respondents were selected across Malaysia & Indonesia using quotas set in advance for each location and respondent type, so no single area or group dominated.
• Telephone contacts were dialled from verified lists, with quotas tracked live by the field team.

• Trained local-language interviewers conducted interviews in person, supervised in the field.
• Telephone interviews were run from our CATI centre, with calls monitored for quality.
• Secondary sources and client data were compiled and cross-checked before modelling.

• Back-checks on a share of completed interviews
• Time and location checks on field interviews
• Supervisor accompaniment in the field
• Live call monitoring and recording review
• Call-back verification
• Logic and range checks on the final data
• Work carried out under our ISO 20252 quality procedures

• Cross-tabulation by key groups and locations
• Significance testing on the differences that mattered
• Market model built from secondary data and primary evidence
• Interactive dashboard for ongoing tracking

• The model became part of the standard approval process for new locations.

Measuring demand on the ground beat choosing sites by rent alone.

• Build on the core insight: measuring demand on the ground beat choosing sites by rent alone.
• Focus effort where the evidence was strongest: the model became part of the standard approval process for new locations.
• Re-measure after the changes to confirm the effect.

• The chain opened stores at the highest-scoring sites first, and new stores reached sales targets faster than earlier openings.

What changed in the business as a result of the work. Impact is described qualitatively.

• Insight report and management presentation
• Cleaned data file and data tables
• Interactive dashboard

• Repeat the measure after changes are in place to track progress.
• A natural follow-on question: what drives repeat purchase?