How a Global Sports Retailer Optimised its EMEA Strategy with huq

How a Global Sports Retailer Optimised its EMEA Strategy with huq

As a leading global retailer in the sports and lifestyle sector, this company operates an extensive store network across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA). In an increasingly competitive retail landscape, they sought to optimise their store performance by gaining a clearer understanding of consumer movement patterns, catchment demographics, and spending behaviours. To maintain a strong market position, the company needed a data-driven approach to assess retail locations, benchmark performance against competitors, and refine its expansion strategy. However, fragmented regional data and inconsistent reporting methodologies made it challenging to derive actionable insights. The business required a scalable, standardised solution to support strategic decision-making and enhance collaboration across multiple territories.

"Understanding consumer movement and market dynamics across multiple territories has been a persistent challenge. We needed a reliable, data-driven solution to optimise store performance, benchmark against competitors, and make informed expansion decisions."

huq's Solution

Our goal was to equip the client with precise, real-time insights into consumer movement and market dynamics, enabling them to optimise store performance and confidently drive strategic growth.

The primary objective of huq was to provide accurate, scalable, and standardised location intelligence that enabled the company to optimise store performance, benchmark against competitors, and make data-driven expansion decisions across multiple territories.

Key features of huq's solution included:

• huq's platform enabled the measurement of footfall trends and dwell times in key retail locations. By analysing aggregated and anonymised GPS data, huq provided insights into visitor behaviour within stores and surrounding areas.
• The client utilised dynamic and aggregated KPI tracking, enabling consistent reporting across its territories. The platform's flexibility allowed the analysis of macroeconomic retail trends alongside store-specific data.
• huq facilitated the integration of historical data to provide longitudinal analyses and insights into trends over time.

How huq's Solution Helped

Since implementing huq's solution, the retailer has made significant strides in addressing its business challenges. The integration of huq's data into their retail planning and reporting workflows has empowered the company to:

• Use huq's catchment and footfall analysis to prioritise investments in high-impact retail locations. The EMEA team leveraged these insights to assess the performance of existing stores and identify opportunities for expansion, including evaluating trade zones in European retail parks and high streets to guide decisions around new store openings.
• Use huq's dynamic KPI reporting as a critical tool in the client's Monthly Business Reviews (MBRs). The EMEA team has consistently used huq's data since the summer of 2023 to track key performance indicators and benchmark store performance at a country and regional level.
• Analyse footfall and spending trends at a macro level to identify shifts in consumer behaviour, particularly valuable during seasonal peaks such as 'Back to School' and Black Friday.

Final comments

The partnership with Huq Industries exemplifies the value of leveraging advanced data solutions to overcome complex business challenges. Through huq's detailed insights into footfall, consumer spending, and competitor benchmarking, the retailer has been able to refine its retail strategy, enhance reporting consistency, and stay ahead in a highly competitive market.

"huq's data solutions have been instrumental in helping us understand consumer behaviour at a granular level while also providing the flexibility to assess broader market trends. Their insights have enabled us to optimise our retail network and make data-driven decisions with confidence."

Omnichannel and Digital Returns Insights and Analytics Head (EMEA)