Property consultant Savills has signed up to use Callcredit Information Group’s RetailVision modelling software to advise clients on retail performance and consumer behaviour; including site selection, revenue estimates and customer flows.

Retail brands including Costa are reported to be benefiting from the service, as a result.

Savills is also using RetailVision’s ‘scenario’ function, which allows users to speculatively change the features of an existing retail landscape and predict the impact.

RetailVision covers four retail categories – grocery, fashion, homewares/DIY, and electricals – and 17,000 retail centres. 

According to Callcredit, the software can assess the catchment area of a given retail centre and determine whether the products and brands within that centre are a strong fit with the local population.

Savills is also benefiting from so-called CAMEO Geodemographics which, linked with TGI survey data, provides the profiles of individuals known to shop with a specific, competitor retailer. This can then be used to find retail centres that have individuals with similar profiles living within the catchment area, in order to help with site selection.

RetailVision forms part of Callcredit’s Microvision software package, which enables users to map and spatially analyse consumer and market data to support business decisions.

Tom Whittington, director of Retail Research at Savills, said: “We’ve found RetailVision really enhances the service we offer our clients by providing the ability to fully understand consumer behaviour, shopping patterns and retail turnovers. The functionality to change the retail landscape by opening or closing a store and model the consequent revenue flows is unique. We have had extremely good feedback from clients who have been assisted in making reliable and informed decisions on sites.”

Chris Duley, director of Callcredit’s retail planning team, said: “Times on the high street are tough, so it is vital retailers have a wide range of data at their disposal to make accurate business decisions and therefore maximise their revenues.

“RetailVision was developed to meet these needs by providing information not only on potential and existing sites, but more importantly, on the types of people who might shop there. We are delighted Savills and their clients are seeing the benefits this insight can deliver.”