It’s all about data

The purpose of BIDS, Business Improvement Districts, is to enhance the environment in which a business operates. In Liverpool this might cover many things, from safety and security, to the public realm and networking. An increasingly important element in the city is helping businesses to better understand the economy they are working in. By improving the access to data and information, businesses are much better placed to work successfully and sustainably, in tandem with the city wide economy.

Data can transform how you understand your business, but at Liverpool BID Company a new data hub is changing the level of insight provided for businesses, to help them plan their investment into the city.

At Liverpool BID Company, data has become a major ingredient in how we understand the city centre. It generates key insights to be shared with businesses throughout the city. The data helps to shape decision making and services, but it can also feed into how business operates within the city, understanding the economy even better.

Live footfall data helps to track how people move around the city centre. This allows businesses to understand how many people are in the city centre and what time they travel. This is crucial for those who are public and consumer facing, wanting to understand when their customers might want to engage with them. For professional services, this data helps to map how people use the public realm around them and how their staff engage with the city centre. It is vital for those who want to develop and want to map the ebb and flow of movement within the city so they can harness it as best they can.

Spend data tracks total spend each quarter, the average transaction and the spend difference. The more we know how Liverpool is performing the more we are able to benchmark our own services and investment.

Liverpool BID publishes a regular Business Insights report, allowing for a more nuanced and narrative insight into how Liverpool city centre is performing. Designed to give levy payers an illustration of the wider performance of the city centre economy, this allows for business planning decisions and can sit alongside an internal report into business capability and operations. www.liverpoolbidcompany.com

The Vacancy Rate report allows for businesses to see how many ground floor units are occupied or empty in Liverpool city centre, and what industries are performing well. Within the BID Areas, the vacancy rate is currently half that of the national average.

Through the Accommodation BID, we publish data that analyses and understands how the sector is performing. This is a vital part of understanding not simply the hotel and serviced accommodation industry, but also the wider tourism and visitor economy and the levels of development within the city centre.

Understanding how the city centre economy works, from these different angles empowers businesses to make informed decisions, helping them to make strategic decisions around their investment within the city.