Our stories
Solving a £100m retail data challenge
How we used data and analytics to help New West End Company decide where to invest and make improvements, generating an extra £100m by 2020.
Setting the scene
New West End Company has the goal to make London's West End - the area around Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street - and Mayfair, a world-leader. They want to attract more people, encourage them to stay longer, and entice them to come back more often. All to reach £100m additional income by 2020.
We brought together new sources of data and advanced analytics, so they could make informed choices about where to invest and make improvements to meet their target.
Our work helped uncover nearly £200m in additional income that could potentially be generated - see for yourself in our online interactive tool.
How we helped
Our starting point was to help New West End Company enhance the nature and quality of their data. They always had traditional sources - like on-street surveys and information from tax-free shopping providers. But these sources had limitations.
Our pilot project created a holistic view of customers shopping and visiting the street. We brought anonymised and aggregated data together including:
- Mobile network data
- Aggregate spend data
- Global flight bookings data
This data enabled us to piece together a more insightful story and uncover the profile and preferences of visitors. Who comes to visit the West End? Where were they coming from? How much money did they spend? Where and why did they visit? How long did they spend there?
In just two weeks, our analysis created a more accurate, valid and reliable picture, helping New West End Company make a quick, informed decision and helping retailers get an advantage in a tough marketplace.
“Insights is the highest rated service we provide to our businesses in the West End. As competition in retail and hospitality rises, understanding our annual 200 million customers and how to increase spend from £9.2bn to £12bn over the next few years is key to the West End's economic success. PwC’s integrated insights is a cornerstone of our work towards achieving this aim and will deliver customer profiles in greater depth than any other global city.”
Making a difference
In what is unquestionably a tough environment for the UK retail industry, it’s more important than ever that retailers understand their customers’ wants and needs. The analysis that we provided, using our Alliance partner Microsoft’s Azure platform, created practical insights for retailers in the West End. For example:
- We found that customers from Japan and France were among the highest international spenders on Bond Street: retailers could provide a better customer experience leading to higher sales if they employed sales associates with these language skills
- It turns out that more affluent shoppers tended to visit on Wednesdays and Thursdays: retailers may wish to adapt their marketing strategies, hold events or increase staff resourcing on these days
- We also discovered that the payment method was important: ensuring retailers accepted payments preferred by international customers including Amex, which tended to see 2.4x higher transaction values
Those who want to succeed on the high street are looking to tap into data to help plan business decisions and drive a greater in-store experience. The data we’re analysing is completely anonymised, but customers will ultimately benefit as retailers look to meet shopper expectations with a personalised experience and targeted supply.