“Many of our customers, especially global brands, have encouraged us to enter new markets using Gapmaps overseas. This contributed to the decisions about where we expanded business,” said Tim Shaw, Gapmap director of market planning said.
In India, Gapmaps has seen strong growth in the fast-food delivery channel, creating demand for data and insights that enable retailers to better plan for and capture the potential of this growing market.
“Since 2018, we have been adding five new markets each year and growing double-digit revenue year-over-year,” says Anthony Villanti, managing director and founder of Gapmaps. “This growth is due to the ease of use and sophistication of our mapping software, which harnesses the latest demographic, government and industry data to help customers choose the right physical location for their business needs.”
He further added that currently around 500 brands are using Gapmaps in areas where physical space is required, such as fitness, fuel, grocery, quick service restaurants, shopping centers and convenience stores.
As India emerges from the COVID-19 restrictions, Gapmap is observing and monitoring an increase in pedestrian activity in central areas, shopping malls and other retail areas.
“What has been interesting is the variability in the COVID-19 recovery process,” says Shaw. “We expected to see variability between countries because of the different lockdown restrictions and when they were loosened or removed. While we see significant variation in the speed of recovery between large and small shopping malls and central campuses, a dissonance has been observed in large urban centers compared to smaller urban and regional centres,” Shaw said.
Gapmap’s clients contributing to international growth include brands such as Domino’s, KFC, Starbucks, Burger King, Subway and McDonald’s. Eat’n’Go, a franchisee of Domino’s, Cold Stone and Pinkberry in Kenya and Nigeria, is benefiting from the data insights provided by Gapmaps.
“In India, quick service restaurants are one of the fastest growing sectors. Although population growth has slowed in recent years, the growth rate of the consumer segment could be up to four times that rate, with global brands investing in stores and shopping premises,” the company said in a statement.
Access to demographic data has traditionally been challenging in some markets, with reliance on census data that may be more than a decade old. That data is often too broad and not suitable for local catchment analysis to support a location decision.
Shaw said, “With Gapmaps we can analyze a variety of local demographic, industry and government data to provide fine-scale insights, often drilling down to a 100 – 250 m grid to pinpoint an optimal store catchment.” She goes.” “It gives customers the same market planning process and experience they’re used to Australia,
In addition to retail, Gapmaps will expand into some of its other key areas already supported in Australia, such as aged care, medicine and health, as data becomes more accessible in these international countries.
“For now, in India, our focus is on retail and food delivery, where we can add instant value to our customers,” Shaw said.
Gapmaps has appointed Subhasish Dey as Director of Customer Service. Dey is a seasoned location intelligence specialist who brings a unique and expert perspective to clients in India and the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition, a Gapmaps advisory team has also been established to support clients in all markets. This team, who are 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.