Analyzing the effectiveness of a change in strategy, store format, or performance by region can be difficult when financial metrics or performance is often given as an aggregate across the entire chain, making it difficult to determine the success of an investment decision or proof of concept in select locations. Using Placer’s tag and custom chains features, you can group stores into cohorts and compare based on any criteria, whether one region to another, new store format to old store format, or any other grouping necessary, helping you evaluate the success of strategic initiatives.

You’ll be able to answer these questions after reading this article:

1. How can you analyze one group of stores vs. another within the same chain? 
2. How are new store formats or concepts performing vs. existing stores? 
3. How is a group of stores performing vs. its parent chain?

Get started with the following steps:

Step 1: Create a new tag to group properties of interest

A tag is a Placer tool that allows you to name and group any combination of properties, then use that same collection of properties for future analysis and comparison. For this article, we will look at the performance of Kohl’s stores vs. Kohl’s + Sephora stores, to understand how Sephora retailers inside of Kohl’s has impacted foot traffic compared to the rest of the Kohl's chain.

a. Navigate to the My-Zone page and click on My Tags in the left sidebar. Then click on Create a New Tag.

b. Give the group of properties a name that describes their logical grouping (NE region, New Store Layout, 2022 Grand Opening Stores, etc.), then click Done.

c. Click Add Venue and input all properties of interest

d. Once all properties have been added, click Done. The tag how will display and track all properties in your portfolio of interest,

Pro Tip: Once a Tag is created, the Tag will appear under "My Tags" and for all other members of your organization, the Tag will be automatically visible under "Company Tags." Users in your organization can view and use Tags that you have created, but cannot edit or remove them.

Step 2: Analyze the performance of the tagged properties as a custom chain

Once grouped into a custom tag, the properties of interest can be treated as any standard chain within Placer, helping you analyze YoY trends, visitation changes, market share, and more. 

a. To analyze the chain, click on View as a Chain at the top right. It will load the tagged properties as a custom chain

b. It will load the tagged properties as a custom chain in the Chains page, where you can analyze performance or compare it to the broader chain. To compare it to its larger chain, simply click the “+” to pick the chain, choose the chain, then click on Update Report.

‍