What is Urbanicom ?

► What is urbanicom ?

Urbanicom has become an essential tool for benchmarking. The detailed and updated database processes information, in real time, such as average turnover and performance and average expenditure per inhabitant from the records of the Departmental Retail Facility Commission (CDEC) on a national scale.

This database was thoroughly devised and is updated daily by 161 french Chambers of Commerce and Industry. This extranet is unique on the national market and provides information, in real time, with regard to strategies and key figures of mass retailing outlets.

In January 2007, Urbanicom was the first French Agency to publish a national statement of the records of the Departmental Retail Facility Commission (CDEC) for 2006.

A reminder of the commercial urbanism legislation in France

Today, in France, any retail outlet above 300 sqm must submit a record to the Departmental Retail Facility Commission to get an administrative authorisation before opening. This procedure was outlined in 1973 by a law ‘loi Royer’ modified in 1996 by another law ‘loi Raffarin’.

National coverage

Urbanicom : the figures

► 19 535 processed records

► 21.8 M sqm requested by the retail outlets

► 4 419 retail outlets in supermarket distribution

► brand marks

► 148 local chambers of commerce and 13 regional

► Chambers of Commerce and Industry

► 850 end-user technicians

The partnerships

The products

“ UrbanicomChiffresClés “

To display the major economic ratios connected to the trading area, the commercial activity and the workforce with more than 200 retail outlets over one or two year.

“ UrbanicomDéclic ”

To draw up in a few minutes statistics on creation, extension and movements of registered or rejected square meters over a given year. Registered records will have to be generated within the two following years which means that this tool provides a clear vision of the short term evolution of the leasing area.

Consultancy:

Our experience at the service of your projects

Giving support to networks implemented to develop perspectives and common tools online with regard to added value figures :

► workforce

► network

► specifications

► online tools

► roll-out

► experimentation

► stimulation …

Training

Taking place on a regular basis in Valence, in Paris or in any region to cater the expertise needs of collaborators...

► Objective

To implement the first European Information System,
in real time, with regard to the retail activities development.

The project is specifically geared to advance cooperation and encourage networking. It will lead to the development of an ICT tool providing information, in real time, on the evolution of the retail facilities in Europe giving an accurate analysis on impacts of futur commercial projects in transborder areas :

► analysis of trading areas and assessment of the land acquired by futur projects

► spreading over the alpine borders thanks to the inter-operability of the data

► transnational and comparative analysis of the various retail activities’ performance

► real time follow up of retail facilities implementation in Europe

► State of the art

Retailing is an economic sector presenting a large economic perspective with value adding and jobs in European states (retailers represent 60% of the global commercial sector in Europe). Moreover it is not affected by relocations and it is of major impotance to point out that the well-known retail outlets are modifying their national status for a European leasing . They should be guaranteed to have easy access to “Euro consistent” and standardized strategic information, reinforcing competitiveness among European states.

Indeed this sector has a direct impact on the life quality of Europeans as for the service provided, for land-use planning, for urbanism and for sustainable development. This project will be geared to develop a common tool improving marketing intelligence and generating sustainable and balanced development.

► Stakeholders : their needs

(1) Reinforce their position on the market when confronting competitors,

(1) adapt to commercial urbanism legislations; develop new marketing methods

(2) Provide the analysis capacity for a transborder trading area

(2) composition and elaboration of records

(3) Planify a balanced commercial development giving support to decision-makers

(3) when evaluating records.

► Activities

A tight analysis of the commercial legislation and a description of the state of the art for each partner country shall precede the implementation of the tool to determine common objectives :

► with national sub-networks, to be identified :

► interested in retail facilities evolution, commercial urbanism and land-use planning

► with access economic and geographic data for the creation of retail facilities

► Forming a consortium team

► Benchmarking and defining comon data

► Drawing up the specificationsfor the futur extranet gathering universal data to generate statistics analysis and to provide solutions to the needs of information expressed by partners and stakeholders.

► Field testing the ICT tool, evaluating and improving

► Day to day use in real time, and widespreading the network

► Manifestation of interest

If you are interested and want to be a partner to the project or if you wish to make recommendations or exchange best practices on a similar issue or on the implementation of a transnational project, please contact us.