JLL launches PinPoint tech tool

JLL may not have the same heroic swagger as Wonder Woman, but the company is using its own magic lasso to define consumer behavior patterns. Using a virtual lasso, commonly referred to as a geofence, JLL is tracking the holy grail of consumer data: an accurate profile of shoppers entering a property through its new tech tool, PinPoint. This new geofencing software tool analyzes mobile data (both cellular and GPS) at specific geo-locations to track and measure which consumers enter the geofence and how long they stay on site, all in real time. The insights gathered, powered by Alexander Babbage®, aim to inform investments and marketing strategies for JLL’s investor and retailer clients and give them the upper hand to better locate and lease space.

PinPoint will be used at JLL-managed and leased centers including traditional centers, open-air centers, ground-up developments, tourist locations, and more. While JLL’s initial focus is on delivering to the retail industry, geofencing has valuable applications to every property type.

“Consumers behave very differently today than they did even three years ago. We can’t rely on archaic methods to remain competitive in the digital age,” stressed Greg Maloney, CEO of Retail at JLL. “The key to geofencing is to garner the most accurate and statistically sound data and then translate it into actionable insights. We’ve run our test pilot program on several centers and each time it has blown away the demographics found in radius and mileage rings.”

Geofences are transforming how retailers and retail real estate owners understand shopper behavior. It is expected to be a $39.87 billion industry by 2019, according to MarketsandMarkets, up almost five-fold of $8.12 billion in 2014.

“Shopping center owners and developers are in a fight for retailer and consumer dollars. The fight is powered by big data, and the winners will be those who successfully couple depth and breadth of data with experience and critical thinking,” added Alan McKeon, CEO of Alexander Babbage. “We have built a vast, precise and up-to-date data set that delivers complex information in an elegant and easy-to-use system, then coupled it with expert analysis. With PinPoint, JLL and the company’s clients have the ability to leverage tens of millions of shopping trips and billions of consumer observations to visualize and deliver actionable strategies for thousands of locations including shopping centers as well as the full spectrum of real estate uses.”

Today, retail property investors use trade area and mileage rings and make assumptions on what market share of each person in that demographic region will frequent a local shopping center. Those are old school metrics that rely on assumptions versus empirical data available today that can pinpoint, pun intended, who is in the center, where else they shop and what other lifestyle choices are important to them. It’s no longer about demographics, as companies shift to now evaluate “consumeristics,” the behavior of your shopper. Consumeristics is the in-depth study of consumers and their behaviors, derived from the root word consumption.

PinPoint helps owners create new leasing strategies tailored to a center’s shoppers, heighten the value of an investment analysis by showing your true center traffic, and ultimately attract new shoppers and increase sales through targeted marketing. It also helps retailers understand where their customers are actually coming from to avoid location cannibalization.