“Many of our customers, especially the global brands, have encouraged us to enter new markets so they can use GapMaps overseas. This contributes to decisions on where we expanded the business,” Tim Shaw, GapMap’s Director, Market Planning, said.
In India, GapMaps has seen strong growth in the fast-food delivery channel, which is creating demand for data and insights that enable retailers to better plan for and capture the potential of this growing market.
“Since 2018, we’ve been adding five new markets each year and double-digit revenue growth year-on-year,” says Anthony Villanti, GapMaps Managing Director and Founder. “This growth is due to the ease-of-use and sophistication of our mapping software, which uses the very latest demographic, government and industry data to help clients choose the right physical location specific to their business needs.”
He went on to add that currently today there are approximately 500 brands using GapMaps in sectors where a physical location is required, such as fitness, fuel, grocery, quick service restaurant, shopping centres and convenience stores.
As India emerges from COVID-19 restrictions GapMaps is observing and monitoring increases in pedestrian activity in central areas, shopping malls and other retail precincts.
“What’s been interesting is the variability in the COVID-19 recovery process,” adds Shaw. “We expected to see variability between countries due to different lockdown restrictions and when those were loosened or removed. However, we see significant variation in the pace of recovery between large and small shopping malls and central precincts, an inconsistency observed across large urban centres when compared with smaller urban and regional centres,” Shaw said.
GapMap’s clients contributing to international growth include brands like Domino’s, KFC, Starbucks, Burger King, Subway and McDonalds. Eat’n’Go, the franchisee for Domino’s, Cold Stone and Pinkberry in Kenya and Nigeria, all benefitting from the data insights GapMaps provides.
“In India, quick service restaurants are one of the fastest growing sectors. Although population growth has slowed down in recent years, the consuming class growth can be up to four times that rate, which is driving store and shopping precinct investments from global brands,” the company said in a statement.
Access to demographic data in some markets has traditionally been challenging, with a reliance on census data that can be more than a decade old. That data is often too broad and not appropriate for local catchment analysis to support a location decision.
“With GapMaps we can analyse different local demographic, industry and government data to provide insights at a granular level, often drilling down to a 100 – 250 metre grid to pinpoint an optimum store catchment,” said Shaw. “That gives customers the same market planning processes and experience they use in Australia.”
Aside from retail, GapMaps will expand into some of its other key sectors already supported in Australia like aged care, medical and health, as data in these international countries becomes more accessible.
“For now, in India, our focus is on retail and food delivery, which is where we can add immediate value to our clients,” Shaw said.
GapMaps has appointed Subhashish Dey as Client Services Director. Dey is an experienced location intelligence specialist who brings a unique and expert perspective to clients in India and across the Asia-Pacific region.
Further, a GapMaps Advisory team has also been established to support customers in all markets. This team, which is the same people who built the GapMaps platform, provide consulting services, in-depth data analysis and research to help clients with new insights, strategies, and business plans.
