GfK has released a new study on the drawing power of stationary retail in Germany. The study "GfK Retail Centrality 2013" shows that eight of the ten districts with the highest retail centrality are located in Bavaria. These retail locations generate turnover in excess of the funds available to the local population, which means they attract customers from other areas.

GfK Retail Centrality is a measure of the attractiveness of a city in terms of its ability to draw and sustain retail trade. An attractive city from a retail point of view is one with a turnover level that exceeds the purchasing power available to its immediate inhabitants. .

According to the study "GfK Retail Centrality 2013", the locations best able to do this are small Bavarian cities with between 40,000-60,000 inhabitants. These cities have centrality ratings between 180 and 220. A centrality rating of 100 means that purchasing power inflow and outflow are equal. Values under 100 indicate an outflow of purchasing power, while values in excess of 100 indicate an inflow of purchasing power from beyond the location in question.

"One of the factors that determines retail drawing power is the role a given location plays in the encompassing region," says Simone Baecker-Neuchl, GfK market data expert. "Cities such as Straubing, Passau and Weiden function as supply centers for the surrounding rural areas. The quality of the retail offering in a given area is also decisive in terms of whether nearby consumers travel there for their shopping needs or choose to go to a larger city or shopping center further afield. Stationary retailers can therefore improve their chances of success by luring consumers with an attractive offering."

Unsurprisingly, the top spots are predominately occupied by urban districts, as retail offerings in a city generally have more drawing power than those in the surrounding region. Exceptions are large retail objects located beyond city boundaries, such as decentralized shopping centers and factory outlet centers, both of which often attract shoppers from far afield. This phenomenon is apparent in the case of Zweibrücken.

The noticeably high centrality ratings of some urban and rural districts with small to mid-sized populations is also a mathematical result of having a small number of inhabitants coupled with the presence of dense retail offerings. Locations with both the most inhabitants and turnover often only have middling centrality rankings. Even so, these locations are indispensable for retailers given their high level of total potential.

"The centrality study gives retailers interested in expanding a valuable point of reference for an initial evaluation of the total potential available in pro-spective locations," says Baecker-Neuchl. "But it's also important to ar-range for a detailed evaluation of branch- and location-specific factors as well as an assessment of the drawing power of a prospective location that considers the role played by competitors. Also, in some cases a low cen-trality rating can indicate that a location has development potential - in other words, that it is a market that can still grow and is not yet saturated. This is something that can be evaluated on the basis of data on the retail purchasing power of the local population, which is also included in the study."

About the study A city's retail drawing power can be measured by comparing local demand (GfK Retail Purchasing Power) with retail turnover (GfK Retail Turnover). This yields the GfK Retail Centrality. A centrality rating in excess of 100 indicates an inflow of purchasing power, while a value less than 100 indi-cates an outflow of purchasing power.

GfK Retail Centrality provides retailers with an objective benchmark for identifying the regions, cities and postcodes in a given city that are able to draw and sustain particularly high levels of purchasing power thanks to the existing retail offering. As such, this data is indispensable for planning and evaluating locations. In the case of expansion decisions, the retail centrality values should be considered in association with the number of inhabitants, GfK Retail Turnover and GfK Retail Purchasing Power. All three market indicators are consequently included in the "GfK Retail Centrality" study.

The regionalized data on retail centrality is available for many additional European countries and provided down to the most detailed postal and administrative levels (with at least 10,000 inhabitants).

The regionalized data on retail centrality is available for many additional European countries and provided down to the most detailed postal and administrative levels (with at least 10,000 inhabitants).

Additional informatio on the GfK Retail Centrality study can be found at www.gfk-geomarketing.com/centrality.

GfK GeoMarketing's headquarters are located in Bruchsal, Germany. The company is a subsidiary of GfK. GfK is one of the world’s largest research companies, with around 13,000 experts working to discover new insights into the way people live, think and shop, in over 100 markets, every day. GfK is constantly innovating and using the latest technologies and the smartest methodologies to give its clients the clearest understanding of the most important people in the world: their customers. In 2012, GfK’s sales amounted to €1.51 billion

Additional information can be found at www.gfk-geomarketing.com.

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