The scoring factors developed by Global Markets is based on four main elements, accessibility, demographics, competition, and building design. Each of the elements is divided into sub factors to clearly identify the value of the location.

Global Markets developed the above mentioned factors based on the hundreds of face-to-face interviews conducted with store managers in different industries. Users however are free to adjust their weights per industry in the settings page.

Data elements that are aggregated automatically from the Umbrella platform based on the selected site location intended for evaluation.

Data elements that require manual scoring within the site analysis tool such as parking count, lease rate, car to store distance, etc.

Population is analyzed based on income and nationality. Higher income populations with more locals are rated higher than those with lower income population. Global Markets identifies the residing their profiles from government portals and rental rates by neighborhoods.

The definition of demand generators is nearby establishments or activities that attract consumer and generate positive consumer traffic to the studied location. There are two types of demand generators, supporting and cannibalizing. Supporting demand generators are those that are complementary to the studied location in terms of activity. For example, a restaurant complex adjacent to a government building with high employee traffic. The highest rating is given to locations with nearby demand generators providing constant high flow of consumer traffic such as shopping malls. Seasonal demand generates such as beaches and water parks are considered supporting demand generators but operate at specific periods of the years. Cannibalizing demand generators are those targeting similar consumer segments by the studied location and thus negatively impacting the expected consumer traffic. For example, two shopping malls next to each other with similar tenant mix. Seasonal cannibalizing demand generators are those that operate at limited times of months and only compete with the studied location during those times. Outdoor markets and events during winter months is an example for this category.

The platform aggregates revenues performances from the Umbrella Platform of direct competitors of the intended brand and benchmark their performances with performances in the country. The purpose of the comparison is enabling the users to project store revenues of the store and compare it with the overall performance average in a bigger catchment.

Based on Umbrella’s lease rate database, the selected location’s lease rate is benchmarked with the average within its 3-5 km radius to provide a reference of how expensive/cheap the lease rate within its catchment area is.

Captivity level measures the freedom level consumers have accessing the proposed location. Captive stores are stores located within a building either on the ground floor and/or other levels and can only access the store if the building is accessible. Non captive stores are accessible independently from their host real estate.

The traffic elements take in consideration how congested the roads leading the proposed location during weekends and weekdays. The easier the traffic flow is, the better it is for consumers to reach the proposed location.

The analysis takes in consideration the count of parking spaces available within or adjacent to the evaluated location.

The estimated time for guests to find a parking space to park is critical and plays a factor in retaining customers. The shorter seeking time the better score.

The estimated travel time from the parking space inside the parking garage or surface parking to inside the building hosting the studied store. The shorter the travel time the better score.

The manual entry of the proposed store area is used to compare the offer with the brand’s standard area.

The store façade that is visible to the public. The bigger storefront the more exposure and attraction the store gets.

Stores adjacent to main entrances and located on ground floor are exposed to higher rates of consumer traffic than those located on other levels and require more travel time to reach. The higher exposure and easier reached stores are scored higher than those located on higher or lower levels in the studied development.

Escalators, elevators, and moving walks are facilities installed by developers to ease the transition of consumers between levels. Owners and property developers often overlook the importance of developing a consistent consumer flow within their development mainly because of cost. Consumers however always enjoy their shopping experience with higher number of elevator and escalator facilities because they reduce their travel time from point A to point B.

Building hosting the studied stores with exposure to highways and major landmarks are scored higher than buildings located on unknown inner streets without recognizable landmarks.

Road accessibility is to assist in evaluating how easy for consumers to access the road leading to the building containing the evaluated location.

Is the containing building of the evaluated location accessible 7 days a week? For example, government buildings are accessible 5 days a week.

Developments with higher diversity of tenants attract more consumers. As per Global Markets findings, retail and entertainment components that attract consistent traffic positively impact surrounding retailers and restaurants.

A location type analysis is a classification approach to organize real estate buildings by their common use. Global Markets identified ten main building uses in Kuwait to include; business, residential, retail malls, retail strips, sports, entertainment (cinemas, parks, and amusement parks), F&B, government, healthcare, and industrial. The advantages and disadvantages of placing a foodservice outlet in each of location types differ based on two main factors, targeted consumer segments and captivity level. The more diverse the tenant mix in a location the more consumer segments it attracts. For example, retail malls attract bigger pools of demographics than business locations because they attract families, couples, teenagers, and tourists. Captivity level measures the freedom level consumers have when selecting their foodservice brand in a given location type. There are three captivity levels, non-captive, semi-captive, and captive. Jails are captive locations where prisoners have one choice of foodservice selection that is the prison cafeteria. Semi-captive locations are foodservice outlets that have a contractual agreement with their location host. Bringing outside food is either difficult or forbidden in semi-captive locations. Cinemas, stadiums, and airport terminals are examples of semi-captive locations. Non-captive locations such as retail malls, F&B complexes, business and residential towers provide easier consumer access to larger selection of restaurants than the other two captivity levels.

The count of staff working within the analyzed building or those who frequent the area due to their work habit can be assigned in the visiting population element.