We have just finished a review of the published academic retail, shopping and town centre literature so we can identify all the factors that affect high street performance. We have read over 170 studies and identified a range of factors that affect performance (more of those in a future blog). However, what we have found really surprising is the number of different interpretations of performance. In other words, what researchers choose to study. These are either factors they investigate because they may be changing (e.g. levels of investment) or ones they think should be improved (e.g. visitor satisfaction). Of course we have evidence that researchers use the ‘old favourites’ such as footfall, vacancy rates, vitality and viability. But we have found 98 others!
I have published the full list below, along with our definition (see * for exceptions) and an example of an article that refers to the factor. Our next step will be to identify the ones that have the most validity – or mean the same thing to both academics researching performance and practitioners who are trying to measure it. As always we are grateful for any advice, opinions and feedback.
Performance Measure | Definition | Example Reference |
Accessibility | Centre accessible by a variety of transport modes (walking, bike, car, bus etc.) | Brockman, 2008; Clark, 2006 |
Achieving town centre business plan | Achieving plan agreed by town centre stakeholders | Paddison, 2003 |
Adaptability | Centre’s ability to absorb or react to global economic and social change | Hall, 2011 |
Amount of multiple retailers represented in a centre | Measure to establish position in order of centres | Schiller and Jarrett, 1985 |
Anchor stores | Presence of anchor stores – which give locations their basic character and signify importance | Thorpe, 1968 |
Attractiveness of centre | How attractive centre is to consumer – how attractive they find stores and overall offer | Dennis et al, 2003 |
Availability of sites for retail development | Available of sites in in or near central locations for development | Adams et al, 2002 |
BID’s | Establishment of a Business Improvement District enabling local businesses, services and council to collaborate | De Magalhaes, 2012 |
Business rates | Business rates are related to rentable value | Singleton, 2014 |
Carpark usage | Occupancy rate of car-park spaces | Hogg etal, 2004 |
Catchment area | Area from which catchment is drawn – e.g. how far shoppers are willing to travel to centre | Dennis et al, 2002 |
Centre choice | The propensity of shoppers to choose one centre over others | Thomas et al, 2007 |
Patronage | Preference of centre – implies frequency and/or convenience | Reimers and Clulow, 2009 |
Resilience | Ability of a centre to absorb shock or reconfigure/restructure and adapt to it | Wrigley and Dolega, 2011; Balsas 2014 |
Centre turnover/sales | Usually measured in sales per m2 , so comparisons across centres can be made | Mingardo and van Meerkerk, 2012 |
Centre image | Merchandising, accessibility, service and atmospherics. Adapted from shopping centre image | Sit, Merrilees and Birch, 2003 |
Commercial yields | Level of return on commercial property investment | Hutchinson et al, 2008 |
Concentration of retail | Co-location of retail in a specific area. The opposite of retail fragmentation. | Robertson, 1997 |
Consumer utility | Pedestrian route choice, heavily influenced by entry-points, location pattern of shops and distance | Borgers and Timmermans, 1986 |
Covenant strength risk | The risk associated with the financial worth of a particular tenant | Hutchinson et al, 2008 |
Cross shopping | Visiting more that one store when visiting a retail centre | Bodkin and Lord, 1997 |
Customer preference of one format over the other (mall vs street) | % of catchment that prefer traditional shopping centres vs shopping centres (or have no preference) | Reimers and Clulow, 2009 |
Customer satisfaction with centre | The level of satisfaction with the global level of service offered by a centre | Leo and Philipe, 2002 |
Customer/catchment views and behaviour (inc. patronage) | The perceptions of the centre held by customers/catchment and use of the centre by customers/catchment | Powe and Hart, 2008; Oppewal et al, 2007 |
Dealing with retail change | Actively managing retail change | Tomalin and Pal, 1994 |
Development of out-of-town centre | Proxy measure for inability of local planning controls to restrict out-of-town development. | Guy, 1999 |
Dissatisfaction with grocery-shopping opportunities | Dissatisfactition with grocery-shopping opportunities is proposed to be a major factor in out-shopping | Thomas and Bromley, 2003; Findlay and Sparks 2009. |
Revitilisation | Increasing activity, sales and property prices. Improving safety and public realm. Bringing in more customers. | Hernandez and Jones, 2005 |
Entertainment orientation | Amount and variety of entertainment offered by a centre | De Nisco & Napolitano, 2006 |
Entry and exit of small retailers | Rate at shich small retailers enter and exit centres | Wrigley et al, 2009 |
Environmental quality | Look’ of centre, cleanliness | Bennison and Davies, 1980 |
Footfall | Number of pedestrians counted over a specific time period, in a specific location | Warnaby and Yip, 2005 |
Duration of trip/time spent in centre | Length of time spent in centre. | Teller, 2008 |
Frequency of visit | Number of times shoppers visit centre | Teller, 2008 |
Functionality | The degree to which a centre fulfills a role – e.g. service centre, employment centre, residential centre, tourist centre. | Powe and Hart, 2008 |
Structure | Physical layout of centre, store location, external appearance (fascias etc.) | Dawson, 1988 |
In-town spend vs outshopping | Amount of money spent in the (nearest) centre compared to outside of it (e.g. in another centre) | Sullivan and Savitt, 1997 |
Liveability | Centres are accessible without a car and consumers can fulfill needs without travelling to another centre | Rotem-Mindali, 2012 |
Living standards | Level of personal prosperity | Moseley, 1973 |
Loyalty | Take-up of town loyalty scheme | Hallsworth and Worthington, 2000 |
Market share | Share of total catchment spend taken by one centre | Kubis and Hartmann, 2007 |
Number of stops on shopping trip | Measure of the number of attractions (shops, services, leisure) a visitor makes | O’Kelly, 1981 |
Office, industrial and retail rental values | The rental value of commercial property in a centre, across three sectors | Jones and Orr, 1999 |
Order of centre/position in retail hierarchy | Position in the retail centre hierarchy. Super-regional, regional, sub-regional, district, local. | Teller, 2008 |
Pedestrianization | The provision and type of pedestrian space (streets, open malls, ‘skywalks’ etc.) | Cui, Allan and Lin, 2013 |
Perceptions of retail tenant mix | Shoppers’ perceptions of the retail tenant mix | Teller and Elms, 2012 |
Pleasure, arousal | Emotional reaction to centre | De Nisco and Warnaby, 2014 |
Probability of consumer at a given point of origin travelling to a given shopping centre | Contours are drawn around the centre to show the probablity of a consumer in that zone visiting centre | Huff, 1963 |
Public realm | Quality of physical public space | Biddulph, 2011 |
Public space | Amount of space that is not in private ownership, that citizens can freely use | Cohen, 1996 |
Public transport usage | Usage of different modes of public transport | Hogg et al, 2004 |
Range/quality of goods | The range of goods on offer in a centre | Thomas and Bromley, 2003 |
Regeneration | Strengthening economic linkages, development attracting commercial investment and consumers | Smith, 2004; Otsuka and Reeve, 2007 |
Repatronage | Desire to revisit a centre | DeNisco and Warnaby, 2013 |
Urban functionality | Parking spaces, accessibility, pedestrian street maintenance and ease of pedestrian movement | DeNisco and Warnaby, 213 |
Image | Overall perception of a centre, based on its attributes (e.g. ‘fashinable’, ‘functional’ etc.) | Wong and Yu, 2001 |
Centre managers’ views | Perceptions centre managers hold about their retail tenants, and their willingness to work collectively | Predergast et al, 1996 |
Marketing | Town centre effort in marketing | Stubbs et al, 2002 |
Retail centre ranking | Ranking retail centres in order, within the retail hierarchy. | Reynolds and Schiller, 2007 |
Retail centre survival | The longevity of a centre; in other words, to continue as a functioning centre. | Rogers, 1987 |
Change | Entry of new retail and non-retail businesses | Dabinett, Gore, Haywood and Lawless, 1999 |
Retail configuration | Structure of retail in different locations, e.g. central place, route centre, industrial town, tourist town | Davies, 1972 |
Centre convenience | The amount of time, effort and distance a visitor perceives they have to expend getting to and round a given centre | Clulow and Reimers, 2009 |
Decline | Loss of trade and investment | Collis, Berkeley and Fletcher, 2000 |
Retail density | Number of retail establishments in a given area | Schuetz et al, 2012 |
Retail innovation | Representation of new forms of retailing (e.g. click and collect) | Gibbs, 1987 |
Retail investment | Amount of money retailers and property developers invest in retail | Hogg et al, 2004 |
Retail offer | Retailer representation, large/small, specilaist/generalist, high service/no-frills | Brown, 1987 |
Retail offer quality | Consumers’ perceptions of merchadise quality in stores | Whitehead et al, 2006 |
Retail operational efficiency | How efficiently retailers can receive goods | Pickering, 1981 |
Centre power | How attracted consumers are to the centre. | Clarke, 2000 |
Retail provision (meets needs of catchment) | The health and vitality of a centre is based on its ability to meet the needs of the local catchment | Bennison, Warnaby and Pal, 2010 |
Retail rental growth rates | The rate and amount by which retail rents are growing | Jackson, 2002 |
Retail rents | The cost of renting retail space (usually by m2) | You et al, 2003 |
Retail saturation | The inability of the centre to sustain another outlet of a certain type | Clarke, Bennison and Guy, 1994 |
Retailer diversity | A mix of multiples and independents, range of goods, a strong anchor. | Findlay and Sparks, 2009 |
Retailer representation | Types of retailers in centre (goods/services, independents/multiples etc.) | Wrigley and Dolega, 2011 |
Retailers’ localisation | Adoption of place-based differentiation strategies (e.g. linking with the local community) | Coca-Stefaniak, Parker and Rees, 2010 |
Retailers’ views | Retailers perceptions of the performance of their store and its location | Predergast et al, 1998 |
Safety and crime | A centre KPI measuring perceptions or actual crime including shoplifting | Jones, 1990; Hogg et al, 2004 |
Service quality* (authors’ interpretation) | Space layout, functionality, store external appearance. | DeNisco and Warnaby, 2013 |
Share of hedonic consumers | Pleasure-seeking customers spend more money and visit more often. | Teller et al, 2008 |
Shop in more outlets | Includes linked trips. | Teller, 2008 |
Shopper circulation patterns | How people move around the centre, pedestrian flows | Brown, 1991 |
Shopping centre development (in-town) | Proxy measure for performance. Confidence of investors in location. Evidence of town centres first policy. | Reynolds, 1992 |
Centre similarity | The degree to which a centre replicates the offer of another centre | Davies, 2012 |
Shopping centres survival i.e. not being demolished for land value | Demonstrates the degree to which existing retail properties can be ‘turned around’ | Feldman, 2004 |
Small shop decline | Number of small, independent shops exiting the centre | Coca-Stefaniak et al, 2005 |
Split between comparison and convenience | Larger centres have a higher amount of comparison. Smaller centres have higher amont of convenience | Thorpe, 1968 |
Tenant mix | Range of goods/services and range of fascias | Teller and Elms, 2012 |
Total retail floorspace | Amount of centre floorspace dedicated to retail (m2) | Thorpe, 1968 |
Tourism views | Tourists’ perceptions of a location | Selby, 2004 |
Town centre experience | Customers experience of a town centre, in terms of convenience, functionality and social interaction | Hart et al, 2014 |
Town centre management | Decision of town to use town centre management to coordinate resources and activity | Pal and Sanders, 1997 |
Trust in centre management | Tenants feelings of trust in management (associated with longer lease renewals) | Roberts et al, 2010 |
Market analysis | Propensity of type of place management structure to undertake market analysis | Kures and Ryan, 2012 |
Unit size | Larger units are associated with larger centres. Proxy for centre power. | Clarke, 2006 |
Vacancy rates | Number of retail properties that are empty at any given time | Wrigley and Dolega, 2011 |
Vitality and viability | Vitality is reflected by the number of people present; viability refers to ability to attract investment and adapt to changing needs | Schiller, 1994. |
Vulnerability of retail offer | How near the collective offer is near a ‘tipping point’ after which it cannot serve the catchment needs | Schiller, 1994. |
Reblogged this on Places. and commented:
Professor Cathy Parker’s (Manchester Metropolitan University) research results on High Street performance. Very useful for anybody dealing with retail.
Reblogged this on duscuvorba and commented:
O excelenta analiza extrem de utila celor din domeniu