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Digital transformation, which accelerated with the pandemic, started a new era in the franchise industry. Expressing the trends of this year, Yahya Pulat, founder of the rental and franchise management consultancy company Dealer, pointed out that successful initiatives are in the minority and said, “A mass that has not had franchise experience before is preparing to enter the market.”

*** This release is originally published in Turkish.
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İSTANBUL (TR) - The pandemic, which has been the main agenda item of the entire world for more than a year, has taken expectations and behaviors to another dimension by fundamentally changing consumer habits with the restrictions it brings. One of the areas most affected by the current table was the franchise sector. In this process, Yahya Pulat, the founder of the rental and franchise management consultancy company Dealer, who said that many brands doubled the number of franchise applications in this process, announced the macro trends that will guide the franchise sector in 2021.

“An audience with no previous franchise experience is getting ready to enter the market”

Yahya Pulat pointed out that white-collar employees, who had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with them especially during the pandemic period, started to take steps to realize their dreams and said, “This group mainly focused on jobs requiring investment of 350-700 thousand TL. In other words, a mass that has not experienced franchise before is preparing to enter the market. However, this situation will take us towards a period in which the middle class mass is shrinking in the long run. As a matter of fact, according to the Gini coefficient data, it is predicted that income inequality will increase even more in 2021. At this point, brands will need to know this fact and review their pricing and new store development strategy. It may become a necessity for local governments to start producing retail solutions that will eliminate income inequality.”

Time spared for shopping will decrease, street merchandising will rise

Stating that the new shopping experience brings practicality to people, Yahya Pulat pointed out that it will not be possible to give up this gain in the long term: “Long-term shopping will turn into a more optimized experience. Especially in textile retailing, this experience architecture revision will become a bigger need. Both the store layout and the rituals of product display, presentation and storage will change radically. On the other hand, consumers will turn to open spaces with an accumulated longing. The psychological effect of closed areas will keep people away from shopping malls. In this period, the streets where the number of store closures are quite high will return to business life more strongly.”

Little heroes of the local will take their place across the big chains

Pointing out that businesses in many small provinces and districts that offer a special shopping experience will become heroic against big brands, Pulat said, “The increase in online commerce and the visibility of local businesses with their private businesses created a new area of ​​experience for consumers. Now people can easily access a deli in Kars or a specialty product of any region and want to try it out. In addition, women can enter the business world with a reliable method from an isolated area. All this points to the fact that local players will now meet the special shopping experiences that consumers want to experience. Therefore, it is an inevitable necessity for brand managers and franchise developers to prepare for this new era.”

There are shortcomings in branding and sustainability

Yahya Pulat also shared the problems and solution methods they identified in the sector as Dealer: “We found that there are close to a thousand structures in the franchise work, but there are very few successful ones. Subsequently, we started to investigate the reasons by collaborating with Goodjob Marka Danışmanlık company. We encountered two main problems: Branding and inadequacy in establishing sustainable structures. However, it is very easy to overcome these problems by getting professional support. As a dealer, we serve both franchisees and those who want to be franchise investors. We support franchisors in setting up the model, market verification and right leasing, while guiding entrepreneurs to make the right franchise investment. We guide you through the process from leasing negotiations to building the right businesses. Our aim is to ensure that the investors and brands that we serve with the analysis methods we have developed in the light of our experience make the most accurate decisions and engage in continuous commercial activities.”