Sales Productivity Gauge

Benching PSF [Sales per Square Foot] and AUV [Average Unit Volume]

METRICS & BENCHMARKS

  • Sales per square foot [PSF] by retail chain, brand company-owned & franchised units for core legacy, secondary and next generation formats, acquired stores, conversions & remodels
  • Average Unit Volumes [AUV sales per store] by format, retail chain and brand
  • Average annual run rate PSF and AUV for pivotal cycles [economic boom, recession, Asset bubbles, retail apocalypse, pandemic, industry disruptions]
  • Size of format [square feet] current year vs. historical change impacting four-wall sales
  • Productivity by format type [See PDF below in Coverage for extensive list of formats by sector]
  • Productivity by location in US and International [for US retailers operating overseas and foreign companies with US stores] 
  • Productivity by shopping center & freestanding format [freestanding, malls, power centers, town centers, neighborhood strip centers, factory outlets, urban street retail, mixed-use complexes, in-shops]
  • Timeline current year compared to 20-year annual history reported by each company through a series of financial reports [SEC filings, ratings agencies, Franchise Financial Disclosure documents [FDD], internal audits & press releases]. Extended timelines dating back to 1980s-90s available upon request.

COVERAGE

Company Monitor

Over 1,550 US & International retailers and brand companies  

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Subsector Sphere

180+ subsectors across seven major segments I. Fashion domain of apparel, accessories, footwear, fast fashion, beauty & department stores/ II. Mass Merchants Value sphere of wholesale clubs, supercenters, discounters, dollar stores, off-price & closeout/ III. Durable Goods in home and office sectors of home décor, home improvement DIY & DIFM, hardware stores, flooring supplies, furniture & mattresses, electronics & appliances, office supplies & co-working venues, pet supplies, auto aftermarket, electric vehicles/ IV. Recreational supplying sporting goods, outdoor & adventure gear, boats and RV campers and fitness venues from multi-sport gyms & country clubs to workout studios and at-home platforms/ V. Entertainment toys to interactive play, Fandom collectibles, indoor amusement centers, mini theme parks & golf ranges, DIY crafts, hobbies & party supplies, movie theaters, gaming, books & music/ VI. Supermarkets, grocery & drugs consisting of conventional multi-regional formats, price impact, regional conventional banners, specialty & gourmet, food halls & dining concepts, organic & natural food, ethnic grocers foreign to indigenous/ VII. Restaurants spanning Casual Dining & Eater-tainment, Family Dining & Fast Food-Fast Casual [18 segments]

PDF

Format Universe

Over 400 major format prototypes spawns over 5,100 varied formats comprising core legacy store networks in US and internationally, new brand divisions, expansion into new markets, changing location criteria including relocation off & on malls and continuous launch of new gen formats and prototypes to adapt to evolving shopping landscape and digitization.

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SAMPLE
Sales Productivity Gauge Survey

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PRICING

“1-in-3 Survey” bundles Sales Productivity Survey, Store Tracker Survey & Strategy Sweep Overview into one report for seven major retail segments.

FEATURES

  • Sales Gauge is a tool for assessing the impact of retail real estate transition and measures retailers and brand companies are taking to weather the widespread disruption, shortening cycles of merchandise, brands and formats, channel agnostic shopping, changing function of conventional stores as online prioritize on-demand fulfillment and delivery and new categories merge with retail [such as fashion and décor with hospitality, healthcare, fitness, food and dining]
  • Productivity profile captures complexity of retail marketplace covering over 1,550 companies in 180+ sectors supported by over 5,100 store formats guided by an endless array of varying strategies and endgames and new business, brand and real estate models.
  • The “Strategic Overview” and “About” sections highlight new business and store models for regenerative growth and to scale the store footprint in the US and internationally and the latest strategies to expand &/or rationalize the store network, optimize productivity by elevating the shopping experience by redesigning and reformatting layouts and size and relocations under new location criteria, rollout of next generation formats, rebranding and merchandising platforms, collaborations with third-party brands, designers, entertainment & hospitality venues, digital integration, turnarounds, acquisitions [companies, brands and store portfolios] to expand the model and market reach.
  • “About” section for each retailer and brand surveyed profiles Company divisions & banners [current list, re-bannered, acquisitions, discontinued, sold], Merchandising model [original retail concept & subsequent evolution of assortments and services, product specialization beyond the competition, rebranding initiatives, product innovation & brand collaborations, Origins [year founded and founding family & individuals, year new divisions launched & acquired] vs. reinvention of the model, Market territory [national, regional, single state, local domain [city, suburbs, rural], international], Store footprint: Current scale vs. past inflections & strategies resetting expansion, downsizing, store model, new defining formats, proposed opening-closing pipelines and online platforms & store integration, Type of ownership [public company, private company [family-owned & private equity & hedge funds firm], company-owned stores, employee-owned, franchising & licensing programs, Leadership [board of directors, CEOs current & past], Country of origin & sovereignty [US & 150 international markets], Business cycle & capitalization [Chpt. 11 & 7 status, turnarounds [BK and junk credits of LBOs], restructuring financial to real estate, recent IPO as public company, MBO buyout, mergers & acquisitions [recently acquired company/ brand by retailers/ brands], Strategic Overviews [references current & past strategies pre & post-pandemic to grow, reposition and reinvent.
  • Strategic Overview identifies structural changes in respective sectors, sources of disruption, creation of new secondary markets and online marketplaces, impact of consolidation under Retail Apocalypse, global pandemic and geo-political risks and success in adapting store models and formats to emerging competition and marketplaces. In the millennium, the transition has cut deeper at an accelerating rate steadily dismantling the old retail order that defined 20th C America of malls and superstores anchored by mass merchants and specialty no longer relevant discernible in low level store productivity, shrinking store footprint and next generation formats that lack real traction in rebranding the model and experience. 
  • Strategic plans released by management that are revised annually provide context to assess impact on  four-wall productivity growth, rebranding with new store experiences and redesigns, in-shop programs to optimize sales square footage, turnaround initiatives, next gen store models, and concept sustainability.
  • Survey tracks the impact of digital platforms and integration of physical stores and other modes of innovation in elevating four-wall productivity and sustaining growth. 
  • Reports on collaborations and partnerships with brands and renown designers and entrepreneurs within retailers’ respective sectors and outside innovating new products and categories generating new source of revenues driving four-wall sales. 
  • Survey identifies formats experiencing stagnation and/or decline in productivity due to obsolescence, overexpansion, disruption by new competition, online incursion and other forces. 
  • Identifies retail models and formats redefining the competitive landscape as seen in the trade up to luxury and higher margin experiences in the post-pandemic and extreme wealth gap globally [K-economy] while scaling back value-oriented formats behind the bottom-up transition that has been underway since the 1970s when the wholesale club, supercenter, factory outlet and dollar stores were conceived. Upscale concepts have raised the bar to extreme luxury venues from the fashion couture congomerates to niche grocers and fitness clubs [Erewhon, Kith, Equinox]. Strategic Overviews captures the shift to a new generation of high-end retail and records the launch of next gen formats.
  • Assesses the upside-downside of retail consolidation across 180+ subsectors thru productivity metrics accounting for changing contours of the physical store space fully documented in the “Store Tracker” Survey. 
  • Commoditization of brands, merchandise and store formats by algorithmic-driven digital platforms, Just Walk Out technology [Amazon] and encroaching A.I. standardizes assortments and store design, reinforces consumer conformity and dilutes the shopping experience capping levels of store productivity. Shift to experiential formats seeks to mitigate the emerging status quo store experiences but only at the margin as experiential has become formulaic after 40 years of rolling out immersive stores.
  • Impact of rampant turnover of CEOs and leadership from decades of privatization, leveraged buyouts, tentative mergers, shareholder activists and duplicitous board of directors on store productivity driven by financial agendas rather that long-term strategic value creation plans that dilute the franchise and brand experience while rendering a status quo retail entity.