This popular seasonal retail store opens more than 900 locations in 48 states each year with CoStar.

Problem

In the process of opening 900 individual stores each year, in a very short time frame, this CoStar Real Estate Manager customer’s method entailed dispersing information via multiple weekly reports that were not frequent nor accurate. Due to lack of version control for the various reports, there was no “single source of truth” for this critical information. To add to this challenge, a combination of Microsoft Excel spreadsheets and Microsoft Access databases were utilized in an attempt to manage their process for analyzing opportunities for improvement.  These systems were inefficient and were not scalable enough to accommodate the rapid growth of the business and the continuing need for more properties each year. Significant time was spent going back and forth between physical retail locations, gathering information and then entering it upon return to the office.  This lengthened the duration of the store selection process, greatly increasing the risk of not meeting the deadline for timely store openings.

Solution

CoStar Real Estate Manager technology provides the customer with the ability to view deal comparisons and run reports from this data to support their aggressive pursuit of finding the best locations they can quickly. The information in these reports consolidates key data points across all zones and potential sites, including population density and demographics, relation to other high-volume stores, and many more.  In addition, CoStar Real Estate Manager also provides offline reporting, allowing this customer’s field managers to travel to various markets and efficiently collect and enter data while onsite at particular store locations.  This information is then easily uploaded into the CoStar Real Estate Manager system, automatically updating existing data.  Once sites are selected, the company negotiates and executes more than 900 leases in a very short period of time.  CoStar Real Estate Manager facilitates the creation of the common documents needed for the lease execution process by extracting data directly from the system, resulting in the standardization of lease documents across all locations.  Documents can also be generated to set up site utilities, simplifying another step in the process.  Integration from CoStar Real Estate Manager to the company’s portal and vice versa enables continuous updating of information to create consistency of information and further speed up the selection process.

Results

By providing this customer with the ability to collect, view and share data in real time, CoStar Real Estate Manager has improved the company’s ability to open its seasonal stores in record time! Sharing visibility into all departments has resulted in greater coordination for the company, allowing each department to work efficiently as leases are executed.  Greater ownership of the site selection and lease process is now managed in the field, resulting in increased efficiencies and quality in data collection.  The CoStar Real Estate Manager technology solution has also helped this customer to set a defined and repeatable process for finding and evaluating potential sites very quickly, making it easier to add more and more locations each year.  Since implementing CoStar Real Estate Manager, the data quality has increased significantly, leading the company to make more informed decisions and select the best sites possible for their needs.