THE TIME FOR MICRO-RETAIL MANAGEMENT IS NOW

Sales As A Science – Universities in 2021

Knowledge is a powerful force. Universities are built on this simple premise. The uncharted waters and lingering impacts of the pandemic continue to create significant headwinds for universities, especially in maintaining retail tenants and retail rents. B&P has found ways to use data commonly collected by universities relating to building occupancy to guide the retail response to the current trading environment. By sharing this data with tenants and helping them craft appropriate menus, pricepoints and specials, tenants can maximise their revenue and their ability to pay higher percentages of their pre CoVID rents.

The decline in International students and the varied on-line learning practices across university campuses has also resulted in an inequality of sales impacts between various cuisines or locations of retail on a campus. Using University data on building occupancy rates allows us to assist retailers in pairing back menus or back-of-house production systems to match demand more profitably.

The two significant variable costs for campus food outlets are labour and cost of goods. In addition, the need to eliminate wastage in food businesses has never been more profound as sales (and more critically margins) are challenged by unpredictable demand. Providing data on student and staff campus participation by building, day of week and time of day at least allows retailers to plan to minimise costs and better identify sales opportunities.

For example, we have worked with Asian style tenancies (more affected by sales declines on campuses that had a larger Intl student cohort pre-CoVID) to reduce their menu choices to manage waste better. For tenancies more affected due to their building being less populated, we have used the building population data to identify time-appropriate specials and new locations for the specials signage to maximise exposure to potential customers at the right times.

At the heart of this approach is the need to share data by both parties (universities and retailers). Universities should seek to encourage retailers to use the data to identify sales opportunities and provide feedback to the university on how they will use the data.

Retailers must use data to create a more targeted approach to constructing offers that speak specifically to the needs of those on campus (by faculty, time of day, day of week). Understanding who is on campus, and when,  can further assist retailers in planning meaningful promotions in a far more targeted fashion.