How JD Sports used footfall data to optimise its expansion strategy, reduce risks and grow the busines
How JD Sports Used Customer Catchments to inform Outlet Expansion Strategies
Huq’s mobility data transformed JD Sports’ understanding of customer catchments, improving precision by 25% and enabling more informed, data-driven expansion decisions that reduced location risk by 18%. Insights into footfall origins and cross-visitation patterns helped optimise store performance, minimise cannibalisation, and drive sustainable growth with greater confidence and strategic clarity.
Key takeaways from this case study
“JD Sports needed clear insights on where their customers were coming from to inform expansion decisions. Working together with Adept insights, we delivered precise catchment data that has strengthened their site appraisal process.”
Data-Driven Expansion Decisions
With insights into footfall origins and cross-visitation patterns, JD Sports was able to make data-led decisions about new store locations, minimise cannibalisation between stores and reduce expansion risks.
Optimised Store Network Performance
Combining sales and footfall data, JD Sports identified high-performing stores and areas needing optimisation, supporting strategic investment and relocation decisions to enhance profitability.
Improved Consumer Insights
Cross-visitation data revealed customer behaviour across retail centres, giving JD Sports actionable insights to refine site appraisals and create a competitive retail strategy.
Client Overview & Challenge
JD Sports, a leading retailer in the UK, faced a critical challenge in understanding the true catchment areas of their customers. With expansion plans targeting new store and gym outlets, the company needed detailed insights into where their current customers were coming from and the optimal areas for future growth. Traditional methods of catchment analysis based on distance were proving inadequate for their highly dynamic customer base. Additionally, JD Sports wanted to better understand customer behaviour and cross-visitation patterns to fine-tune their site appraisal and optimisation strategy.
Huq’s granular location data provided unparalleled insights into customers journeys, helping JD Sports to expand confidently and strategically with clear visibility into each location’s potential.
JD Sports needed insights on:
Visitation
To identify other retail areas that customers visit.
Catchment
To see where visitors travel from beyond assumptions.
Footfall
Visibility to minimise risk of cannibalisation.
Huq's Solution
“Huq helped JD Sports refine its expansion plans by understanding where customers come from and how to better position its stores.”
Huq delivered detailed mobility and catchment data, providing JD Sports with a comprehensive understanding of their customer base at a granular level. Huq traced retail centre-specific footfall data back to origin Postcode Sectors, offering invaluable insights into customer journeys and where their footfall originated. This data was integrated into JD Sports’ existing store network model and enhanced through collaboration with Adept Insights to align with their specific business needs.
Target Market Definition
Huq’s mobility and catchment data enabled JD Sports to define more precise catchment areas for their store network. Huq’s data reduced reliance on distance-based assumptions, providing a more detailed view of their target market.
Catchment Insights
Huq's data allowed JD Sports to identify the geographic reach of their stores. Using cross-visitation data, JD Sports was able to see how its customers interacted with other retail centres and which competitors they visited.
Evaluating new locations
With deeper insight into customer origins, the team was able to mitigate risks associated with new openings, identify the right locations for expansion, optimise their existing portfolio and drive sustainable growth with greater confidence.
How Huq's Solution Helped
JD Sports leveraged Huq’s mobility data to refine their site appraisal process and better understand the customer dynamics of each store. The learnings were multifaceted:
Making Informed Expansion Decisions
With Huq’s footfall and catchment insights, JD Sports successfully optimised its site appraisal process, reducing new store location risk by 18%, with a data-backed understanding of market saturation and potential overlap.
Catchment Accuracy Improvement
JD Sports saw a 25% increase in the precision of their customer catchment area analysis, allowing for better targeted marketing efforts and more confident site selection.
Stronger Strategic Decision-Making
The collaboration between JD Sports and Huq led to more data-driven decisions around store expansion and performance optimisation, fostering a more aligned and strategic approach to growth.
Final comments
JD Sports faced the challenge of understanding where their customers were coming from and how to optimise future store locations in an increasingly competitive landscape. With Huq’s detailed footfall and catchment data, they gained vital insights into consumer behaviour, helping them make data-backed decisions to drive both store performance and strategic growth. The solution empowered JD Sports to confidently assess store positioning, reduce expansion risk, and create a more streamlined optimisation strategy. If your business faces similar challenges, Huq’s location intelligence solutions can help you unlock actionable insights to drive better decision-making and success in a competitive market.
“Huq’s catchment insights allows JD to more accurately assess the impact of the wider retail catchment on the sales potential of new store opportunities.”
Alastair Browne, JD Sports
Group Head of Site Research & Strategic Insight
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:
- Identifying locations for new stores
- Optimising your existing store portfolio
- Informing your pricing strategy
- Improving the effectiveness of marketing
- Benchmarking performance across locations
- Understanding competitor landscape
- Optimising opening hours
