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International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B2. Istanbul 2004
3. Except for the age group of 40 and above, most shoppers
do not bother to go up higher than Level 3;
4. Concerning neighborhood effect, the food stalls and stores
of mixed products do not seem to have a great attraction to
their neighboring stores.
Figure 3 shows the results from the Prudential Center. The
following patterns are found:
I. Most shoppers use the MTR (another mass transit)
entrance and so stores near the main entrance and
escalators are found having a slightly higher rate of non-
stop shopping. However, pathways beside the other
escalators do not seem to have a higher flow volume.
2. Less shoppers walk through the dead-end pathway but
most shoppers walk through all 6 levels of this plaza.
3. The branded stores have a higher rate of shopping
frequency than the small boutiques.
Comparing the results of the two plazas, it is found that stores
next to key entrance points, especially those adjacent to mass
transit or bus terminals have a definite advantage. Besides, a
spacious and open environment will attract more passers-by
than narrow passages. However, too large a plaza will
concentrate shoppers at just the lower levels as it
Level 1 Level 2
Level 6 Level 7
Level
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Count by people pass
low rate
— medium rate
se— high rate
Figure 2 Rate of shoppers flow for the different levels of Grand
Century Place
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may be too tiring to walk through the whole plaza. The store
image and brand possess a little bit advantage but it's worth
noting that what's considered as proximity advantage to
escalators is not necessarily true.
S. CONCLUSION
This paper has presented a prototype of applying GIS in
business decision, in contrast with conventional business
software of providing mere textual or numerical answers. By
quantifying the walking pattern of shoppers and correlating
with key spatial features, consumer behavior which is often
regarded as a qualitative variable can now be better reflected.
With such information, retailers can make a better decision on
where to choose a store with better returns, plaza management
can make a better judgment on their pricing policy or future
design layout.
6. REFERENCES
Brueckner, J.K. (1993) Inter-Store Externalities and Space
Allocation in Shopping Centers, Journal of Real Estate Finance
and Economics, Vol. 7, pp.5-16.
Byrom, J.W., Bennison. D.J., Hernandez, T. and Hooper. P.D.
(2000) The use of geographical data and information in retail
locational planning, Journal of Targeting, Measurement and
Analysis for Marketing. Vol.9, No.3, pp.219-229.
Cooke, D.F. (2000) Applications of GIS Technology in
Financial Services, Financial Services Information Systems,
pp.211-215.
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