By The Greenberg Group Insights Team
For decades, retail expansion was a game of instinct. The best site selectors had a feel for where the market was heading, the ability to read a street like a story, and an intuition honed by years in the field. They could tell you which corner was going to pop before the data ever caught up.
Today, those instincts still matter—but they’re no longer enough. The retail landscape has become too dynamic, too data-rich, and too competitive for gut feel alone to carry the day. The most successful brands are blending human insight with advanced analytics to make faster, smarter, and more profitable location decisions.
At The Greenberg Group, we call this balance the art and science of site selection.
The Data Revolution in Retail Real Estate
Over the last five years, data has transformed how retailers understand markets and customers. Tools like mobility tracking, psychographic segmentation, and AI-driven revenue forecasting now provide near real-time intelligence on consumer behavior and trade area performance.
Where once a retailer had to rely on static census data, they can now see how many customers visit a center, where they came from, and how long they stayed—all verified by anonymized cell phone pings. This new level of visibility allows for:
- Demand validation before signing a lease
- Trade area optimization based on true drive patterns
- Competitive overlap analysis that maps actual foot traffic cannibalization
- Sales forecasting that aligns site potential with rent affordability
The result: brands can now test and validate potential sites with the same rigor they apply to product or marketing decisions.
The Human Element Still Wins
But while data has made the process smarter, it hasn’t made it simple. In fact, the abundance of information can create new blind spots if not interpreted correctly.
For example, a site with high visitation might seem ideal until you realize the traffic is driven by the wrong customer segment. Or an area that looks weak on income data may outperform because of lifestyle factors—like daytime population or tourist flow—that algorithms can’t fully quantify.
This is where the art comes in.
TGG’s analysts and field teams blend proprietary data modeling with decades of real-world experience to separate signal from noise. Our role is to make sure the analytics serve the brand’s strategy—not the other way around.
As one of our longtime clients put it:
The Greenberg Group combines just the right amount of art and science to achieve superior results.
That balance is what turns data into decisions.
How Leading Brands Are Using Data Differently
We’re seeing a shift in how growth-stage and established retailers are leveraging data:
- Emerging brands (5–20 stores) use data to find their next high-performing market—and prove scalability to investors.
- Growth brands (20–50 stores) use data to balance expansion speed with unit economics, ensuring no two stores compete for the same trade area.
- Established brands (50+ stores) use data to refresh their portfolios, renegotiate leases, and optimize underperforming locations.
In every case, success comes from connecting the numbers to a brand’s DNA—who their customer is, what makes them loyal, and how real estate supports the experience.
From Gut Feel to Ground Truth
The best retail real estate decisions happen when experience and evidence align. The future belongs to those who can translate data into insight, insight into action, and action into profitable stores.
At The Greenberg Group, we believe that the art of intuition and the science of analytics aren’t in competition—they’re in partnership. One informs the other, ensuring that every new store location doesn’t just look right on paper, but performs right in practice.
Ready to make data work harder for your brand?
Request a Retail Data Strategy Session with our insights team to see how we can help you turn information into expansion intelligence.
