A Guide to Conducting Retail Market Research to Launch Your First Store

Today’s markets have changed drastically as compared to the traditional state of affairs. No longer is product price the only factor that influences customer buying behavior. Today, multiple other factors come into play to power consumers’ attitudes and buying decisions across different industries, including the retail sector. It is imperative to be in a position to read the minds of customers, which is where retail market research comes into the picture. If you are about to start an online or offline store, there are certain things you should keep in mind. In this blog, we provide you with a guide to conducting retail market research to launch your first store.

What is retail market research and its importance?

Retail market research can be defined as the data that you gather over time about your industry, your competitors, and your target audience. Using such data, you can make concrete decisions about the following:

• Building retail partnerships
• Producing and offering functional products
• Creating an effective marketing strategy
• Developing your USP (unique selling proposition)

Through market research, you can keep track of all the important factors that contribute to your online or offline store’s success. You are able to detect gaps in your industry and develop products that cater to the customer’s needs, enabling you to position your brand as a success.

How to conduct retail market research

Depending on the sector in which you operate, you can adopt different research approaches. For instance, food and beverage market research is different from energy market research and chemical market research. The same goes for healthcare market research. Nevertheless, today, we are discussing the ins and outs of conducting retail research.

1. Collect data

First, you need to collect relevant data that will provide insights to help you make the right decisions. When it comes to data collection, you need to understand how big your potential market is and whether it's expanding or shrinking. You must analyze multiple data sources to get reliable and actionable insights regarding your target market. It pays to work with a leading global market research agency to gather high-quality, relevant data.

2. Understand your customer base

After you have collected enough data, you need to understand who your customers are. For instance, if you are about to start an online food store, food industry market research should help you understand which section of the entire customer base would be your target audience. You cannot cater to 100% of the market. Market research helps you to narrow down your audience, enabling you to produce laser-focused strategies to attract specific buyer personas, based on the following factors:

• Demography
• Gender
• Income, etc.

3. Competition research

Even if you have all the data at your disposal, without understanding your competition, seldom can you succeed in the retail business. Again, as said earlier, markets are changing significantly every year. To stay on top of your business capabilities, you must have a clear idea of what your competitors are up to. This is where retail market research can help. Through market research, you would get to know the following factors related to your competitors:

• Quality of their products
• The volume of their staff
• The overall design of their store
• Their marketing efforts

Once you get hold of these data points, you can craft superior business strategies to outperform your competitors.

Final Word

Retail market research helps new players gain crucial information about the market and competitors. The insights are a necessity when looking to craft winning strategies in an industry that is characterized by stiff competition. When looking for industry market research services, you can never go wrong with Unimrkt Research. We are a leading market research company with proven expertise in conducting business market research for a variety of industries on a global scale and in myriad languages. To learn more about our market research services, call +91-124-424-5210 or fill out our contact form.