Customer Traffic Considerations During Competitor Disruptions

Send us a text

Episode 123:  Could a major competitor's sudden closure transform your business landscape? Find out how unexpected changes in your competitive space can significantly impact your customer traffic and revenue. This episode takes you through a fascinating local case where a major retailer shut its doors—not due to poor performance, but rather a landlord's decision. We dissect the ripple effects on surrounding businesses in a bustling shopping center, providing you with essential metrics to gauge how such changes affect your operations.

Equip yourself with actionable strategies to adapt and thrive amidst market shifts. We'll explore year-over-year sales changes, variations in product types, and time-of-day traffic adjustments. Learn how to identify and fill market gaps left by a complementary business's closure. Stay ahead in your financial planning by optimizing your resources and preparing contingencies for unexpected disruptions. Join us as we offer invaluable insights to ensure your business remains resilient and responsive to changes in your competitive landscape.

Episode outline:

1. What happens when a business change occurs to a competitor,
2. What metrics and planning considerations should you analyze, and 
3. We must be continually strategic in our analysis.

Please connect with me on:

1. Instagram: stephen.mclain
2. Twitter: smclainiii
3. Facebook: stephenmclainconsultant
4. LinkedIn: stephenjmclainiii

For more resources, please visit Finance Leader Academy:  financeleaderacademy.com. 

Episode Transcript

Stephen McLain (00:05):
What happens when another business in your
competitive space makes a majorchange, for example, that
business closes its doors?
Does this affect the customertraffic for your business?
Also, when analyzing customertraffic, is it only important to
track your own traffic forchanges, or are there other

(00:27):
considerations?
Changes to customer traffic orother customer behaviors can and
will affect your traffic andyour revenue.
So be mindful and conduct yourfinancial planning and analysis.
Additionally, changes to yourcompetitors and other businesses
can do the same.
How can you prepare for changes?
Please enjoy the episode.

(00:47):
Welcome to the Finance LeaderPodcast, where leadership is
bigger than the numbers.
I am your host, S stephenMcLain.
This is the podcast fordeveloping leaders in finance
and accounting.
Please consider following me onTwitter, facebook, instagram
and LinkedIn.
My usernames and the links arein this episode's show notes,
thank you.
This is episode number 123, andI will be talking about how

(01:10):
changes to a competitor or otherbusiness in your space can
affect changes to your businessand a few planning
considerations for your financeteams.
French General and PresidentCharles de Gaulle said you have
to be fast on your feet andadaptive, or else a strategy is
useless.
This week I want to brieflydiscuss an interesting situation

(01:30):
that happened where I live andhappens all the time all over, a
major retailer closed a localpopular store abruptly, not due
to bad business but due to thebuilding landlord wanting to
bring in a different businessinto that space.
It's a brick-and-mortarbusiness that is in a popular
shopping center filled withsmaller businesses and national

(01:53):
chain stores.
The business that closed hadthe most floor space in the
shopping center.
It's a large business and,again, it was very popular.
It brought in lots of traffic.
Now this had me thinking Doesthis larger business bring in
traffic to the other businessesin the shopping center?
Well, of course it does.
It has to.
If you owned a business in thearea, what would you be thinking

(02:14):
and what would you do?
Maybe in the analysis you mayfind out it doesn't affect your
traffic and it's possible youmight find other amazing
insights to your customertraffic as it relates to this
now closed business.
If I'm a business owner in thatshopping center, what should I
be analyzing regarding trafficand other insights and what

(02:34):
should I be planning for?
Here are a couple things tothink about.
Are our customers the same inpurchasing patterns and
behaviors?
Are we competing orcomplementary in the offers we
have compared to the businessthat closed.
If our products werecomplementary, meaning that our
products and their products gotogether or are similar in
branding or functionality, thencan we add new products to our

(02:57):
lineup to meet a possible gap.
Here are some specific metricsto be analyzed.
Now we want to look atyear-over-year changes to daily
sales, year-over-year changes totypes of products sold, time of
day, traffic changes and didyour browsing non-buying traffic
change?
Here's another importantquestion and issue to look at

(03:18):
Did traffic seem to change forthe entire shopping center?
Is there less traffic overall,or did traffic stay the same but
those who are shopping at theclosed store?
Have they moved over to otherstores or another shopping
center?
For this analysis, you may haveto purchase an additional tool.
When analyzing traffic alongwith changes to our product

(03:38):
sales in a year-over-year basis,we can better optimize the
resources we have.
What if, in our analysis, thattraffic shifted from morning
hours to afternoon hours?
What would you do in youroperations to meet this change
in demand?
This is a reminder that we needto be analyzing our customer
traffic.
No matter what type of businesswe have or type of industry.

(04:00):
Traffic flows can change anytime based on a number of
variables.
We need to be vigilant in ourplanning and financial analysis.
Take nothing for granted, nocomplacency when we own a
business.
Now for action today.
Do you know what you would doif a major change happened in
your industry or nearestcompetitor, or even a business

(04:21):
that is close in vicinity, andthat this change affects traffic
to your business?
What is the plan?
Are you already planningcontingencies that this happens,
or should you start planningnow?
And, more importantly, whatbusiness can have this effect on
your business?
Do you know your space?
Please go to Finance LeaderAcademy for more resources.
I offer a self-paced onlinecourse called Advance your

(04:44):
Finance and Accounting Careerdeveloping a promotion strategy
that sets you apart.
You will also find several freeresources to help you.
Now that'sfinanceleaderacademycom.
Today I talked briefly about howchanges to a competitor or
other business in your space canaffect changes to your business
and a few planningconsiderations for your finance

(05:05):
teams.
This topic reminds me that weall need to be thinking
strategically about ourorganizations.
What external changes canaffect traffic to your
organization, how can you planfor it and what will you do when
it happens?
What analysis should you bedoing on an ongoing basis?
I hope you enjoyed the FinanceLeader Podcast.
I am focused on helping thiscommunity to become more

(05:27):
confident finance leaderscapable of transforming
organizations.
You can find this episodewherever you listen to podcasts.
If this episode helped youtoday, please share with a
colleague and leave a quickreview.
Until next time you can checkout more resources at
financeleaderacademycom and signup for my weekly updates so you
don't miss an episode of thepodcast.

(05:47):
And now you'll lead your teamand I'll see you next time,
thank you.