Optimising the retail offering in Rotorua

THE CHALLENGE

With Rotorua becoming an international gateway with the introduction of an international airport, the Rotorua District Council wanted to use this opportunity to create economic growth in the Rotorua region – particularly in the retail sector.

To do this they needed to understand the top-level differences between the retail sectors in Rotorua, Tauranga and Queenstown. Anecdotally, they believed that Rotorua did not have the right mix of retail to service the new tourists. By identifying both opportunities and threats, appropriate actions could be identified to grow the right sort of retail offering in the Rotorua area.

THE SOLUTION

Using Westpac Business Insight data, Datamine sized the market and spending habits of residents of each destination, analysing and comparing the current retail offering in Rotorua, Tauranga and Queenstown. Datamine was able to highlight the differences between each destination’s retail sector and make some sound recommendations.

Datamine identified that while the popular, more mainstream Clothing & Footwear retailers dominate in Rotorua, there was a noticeable lack of clothing specialists present. In fact, it was possible to see evidence of a phenomenon coined ‘the Tauranga shopping trip’, as 11% of Rotorua’s residents are heading to Tauranga for their retail therapy and benefiting that town’s economy as opposed to their own.

Datamine also noted that the top three Queenstown restaurants represented about the same share of ‘top 10 food destination sales’ as the three big fast food chains in Rotorua, signalling an opportunity for additional food revenue if Rotorua enhanced its ‘tourist food destination’ offering.

THE RESULT

Rotorua District Council now understands what they need to do to increase spend by local residents, that they were losing local and tourist spend to Tauranga.

The Rotorua District Council is currently working to attract specific retailers to “fill the gap” in Rotorua’s retail offering, which will fuel economic growth in the Rotorua region.