More sophisticated indicators of retail park performance are being adopted than just the number of potential shoppers within a scheme's catchment.
'What drove performance and decision-making on retail parks previously was the number of chimney pots and the size of the catchment,' Experian director of planning Martin Davies told delegates.
'Today, decision-making and performance is much more demanding and similar to what happens on the high street.'
Marketing, increasing dwell-times, tenant mix issues, positioning in the retail hierarchy and the operation of schemes in the shadow of other parks has added complexity to retail park operations.
Key for today's retail park operator is how to extend catchment penetration.
'Everyone wants to understand how to penetrate catchments,' said Davies.
Recent inclusion of a series of questions in Experian's National Lifestyle Surveys on shopping habits has allowed retail park developers and retailers to gauge the characteristics of consumers in the actual catchment. This gives them a better picture of their local market than one based solely on the estimated size of a catchment derived from drive-time data.
This better understanding of the catchment and consumer profile of individual parks will enable retailers to compare proposed stores with existing outlets on retail parks that mirror the catchment characteristics of retail parks they are interested in.
Experian has also been examining a means of grading retail parks according to tenant mix.
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