How PizzaExpress optimised its Store Location Strategy with Footfall Insights and Location Data
PizzaExpress Optimises Store Performance with Huq's Footfall Data
PizzaExpress partnered with Huq to optimise store performance across its UK estate. By comparing footfall trends with sales data, PizzaExpress was able to identify whether underperformance was due to operational issues or external market factors. This data-driven approach helped validate investment decisions and optimise the store location strategy.
Key takeaways from this case study
“The collaboration with PizzaExpress has been a great example of how Huq’s data can help solve complex business challenges. Together, we’ve transformed how they assess store performance, giving them a more accurate read on their market opportunities.
Easier performance assessment
Huq’s footfall data allows Costa to more accurately quantify the performance of a location.
Valuable historical comparison
Huq enables Costa to properly assess changes to visitor numbers over longer periods.
Better strategic planning for new stores
Huq’s data-driven insights help inform retail strategies and key decisions.
Clearer visitor trends and insights
Visitor data is now more informative and actionable.
Client Overview & Challenge
PizzaExpress operates over 370 stores across the UK, each subject to its own localised market conditions. The challenge was to track performance not just through internal sales figures, but also relative to footfall and market vitality in each location. This insight would help assess whether a store’s performance was influenced by external market conditions or internal operational factors – is it Pizza Express or the market?
PizzaExpress needed an objective way to measure footfall at each of their high street locations. By partnering with Huq, the high street restaurant chain was able to benchmark sales performance with footfall data and location insights from the surrounding areas for a more holistic overview of each store’s performance. This helped provide a clearer view of how PizzaExpress was performing in certain locations, helping them refine their overall store strategy going forward.
PizzaExpress leverages local footfall data to optimise store performance, aligning sales with market dynamics to enhance customer experience and operational efficiency.
PizzaExpress needed insights to:
1
Measure footfall for each high street store to understand location performance.
2
Compare the location insights with internal sales data for a more accurate picture of store performance.
Huq's Solution
“PizzaExpress came to us with a clear challenge — understanding whether their footfall aligned with their sales performance. By working together, we provided footfall insights that allowed them to pinpoint the true drivers of store success.”
Huq delivers monthly footfall metrics for each PizzaExpress store across the UK. This data covered footfall trends in and around the stores, offering a comprehensive understanding of how many potential customers were passing by, spending time in the vicinity, and entering the stores’ trading zones. By integrating Huq’s footfall data with their internal sales data, PizzaExpress could benchmark each store’s performance against the customer heartbeat of an area.
Robust footfall data from Huq became a critical resource for PizzaExpress’s financial and operational teams. Footfall trends were monitored and compared with store performance metrics to create a more informed analysis of each store’s success. Stores with strong footfall but underperforming sales flagged potential operational issues, whereas those with lower footfall could point to external market conditions as the reason for lower performance.
Market influence
A positive correlation was found between stores with high footfall and those with stronger sales performance, helping to confirm that in-store performance is often influenced by market dynamics such as footfall volume and suitability.
Improved Efficiency
The integration of Huq’s data into monthly reporting created efficiency gains for senior teams, allowing for quicker decision-making at the executive level.
Data Driven Decisions
The ability to contextualise store performance against local consumer behaviour built trust between PizzaExpress and Huq, fostering a long-term relationship for ongoing collaboration.
How Huq's Solution Helped
PizzaExpress was able to identify which stores were outperforming or underperforming based on both sales and market footfall quality and vitality. This allowed senior management to adjust strategies, including:
Resource Allocation
Stores with solid market demand but underwhelming sales could receive more attention, staff training, or marketing budget.
Investment Decisions
The data was used to validate and support decisions around investment, including refurbishment, disposal or relocation of existing stores. It can be used in the future to help identify new store locations.
Benchmarking
By using footfall as a baseline, PizzaExpress could create a monthly benchmark report that identified correlations between sales, footfall, and store performance.
Final comments
Huq’s localised footfall data has become an indispensable tool for PizzaExpress, giving them greater visibility into their market conditions and store performance. The collaboration with Huq has improved decision-making efficiency, investment validation, and strategic planning for optimising their store portfolio across the UK. With Huq’s continued support, PizzaExpress is well-positioned to optimise resources and maximise store performance across their diverse portfolio of locations.
“PizzaExpress came to us with a clear challenge — understanding whether their footfall aligned with their sales performance. By working together, we provided footfall insights that allowed them to pinpoint the true drivers of store success.
Is your business facing similar challenges?
Our experienced team can demonstrate how to use location intelligence and analytics to augment a wide range of use cases, including:
- Mapping travel patterns
- Driving informed decision
- Pinpointing your audience
- Identifying trends and unique insights
- Benchmarking performance across locations
- Uncovering the true performance of your space
