Your Broker Is Using a Flip Phone in an AI World
In this retail Darwinian moment, the winners aren't just the ones left standing. They're the ones who built on solid data.
The Emperor's New Analytics
(The Broker's New Clothes)
The commercial real estate broker's role is changing.
The giants of the industry—CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield—know this. They're racing to bolt on data analytics to their traditional brokerage services. They're acquiring tech companies, partnering with data providers, and marketing their "proprietary platforms" as differentiators.
And they should. Because they know what we know:
The future belongs to those who can harness data, not just relationships.
Our research into the major U.S. commercial real estate brokers reveals a transformation in progress:
- CBRE acquired Forum Analytics to create its "Retail Analytics" division, offering demographics, mobile phone location data, and predictive modeling.
- JLL developed "PinPoint" to analyze foot traffic through geofencing, showing customer origins and dwell times.
- Cushman & Wakefield partnered with Placer.ai to access foot traffic analytics.
- Newmark launched "NewliticQuest," an AI-powered platform for portfolio decisions.
- Colliers speaks of machine learning models correlating "hundreds of metrics" with store success.
But here's what they don't tell you...
The Broker's Dilemma
Handed a violin, can you play Mozart tomorrow?
Of course not.
Yet we expect brokers to transform from relationship managers into data scientists overnight.
These poor souls are trying to juggle contracts with one hand while mastering AI with the other. It's like watching someone attempt brain surgery after watching a YouTube tutorial.
"My broker sends me these demographic reports," a retail ops director confessed last week, "then can't explain what the numbers actually mean for my business."
Sound familiar?
The Implementation Gap
Buying a Ferrari doesn't make you a race car driver.
Just like buying a data platform doesn't make your broker a data scientist.
Our research exposes the dirty truth:
- Brokers bolt on analytics as an afterthought, not a foundation
- You can't touch their tech—it's locked behind the broker wall
- Their models are one-size-fits-nobody, not tailored to your retail category
- Their "ecosystem" is actually five disconnected tools stitched together with digital duct tape
- Their platforms sit in splendid isolation from your actual business systems
Cushman & Wakefield even admits their value is "in how they interpret and apply the data," not in the tools themselves.
Translation: "We bought expensive tech we barely understand, but trust us anyway."
When the Tool Becomes the Solution
Remember when you had to call a travel agent to book a flight?
Neither do we.
What if retail real estate worked the same way?
That's GrowthFactor.
We didn't jam analytics into a broken brokerage model. We built an entirely new operating system from the foundation up.
Want to see the difference?
Imagine emailing an address to your AI agent at 9:03 AM.
By 9:04 AM, you have:
- A complete site evaluation with traffic patterns
- Demographic breakdowns by income, age, and education
- Projected cannibalization impact on your existing stores
- Revenue forecasts based on your actual store performance
- A committee-ready report that would make your broker weep with envy
Meet Waldo, our AI site evaluation agent. He doesn't sleep. Doesn't take vacations. Doesn't forget details. And definitely doesn't charge commissions.
His colleague Clara? She devours 90-page lease documents in seconds, extracting every key term while you pour your coffee.
This isn't science fiction. It's what our clients use every day.
The Retail Extinction Event
Not Most Locations—Best Locations
Ever seen a gold rush in reverse?
That's retail right now. 15,000 stores closing. Only 5,800 opening. A full-blown retail extinction event.
Some retailers are vanishing into the fossil record. Rite Aid filing for Chapter 22 bankruptcy (yes, their second Chapter 11 in under a year). Joann Fabrics liquidating 800 stores after 82 years in business.
Others are evolving and thriving. Burlington devouring 45 former Joann locations. Opening 101 new stores last year while posting a 14.6% profit jump.
What's the difference between the extinct and the evolved?
Not luck. Data.
Smart retail expansion today isn't about opening the most locations—it's about finding the best locations for your ideal customer profile. As store closures accelerate, the opportunity to secure prime real estate at favorable terms presents itself—but only for those who can accurately identify which locations will perform.
As our customers say:
"GrowthFactor is open all. day. long on my computer. Other tools you'll log in, get one thing and log out, GrowthFactor is multi-dimensional. It has everything I need." – Brandon, Real Estate Manager, Cavenders
The Natural Selection Moment
Retail's evolutionary pressures are intensifying. Adapt or perish.
It's not just stores closing. It's an entire ecosystem reconfiguring itself:
• While dinosaur retailers go extinct, nimble digital-physical hybrids flourish
• As product-pushers disappear, experience-creators multiply
• While department store megafauna die off, specialized niche concepts thrive
• As legacy retailers vanish, value-driven upstarts claim their territory
In this Darwinian moment, guessing isn't just expensive. It's terminal.
Think Burlington is grabbing those 45 former Joann spaces based on broker intuition and gut feeling?
Think again.
They're using sophisticated predictive models that simulate exactly how their treasure-hunt experience will perform in those locations. They're running the numbers before they run the leases.
That's what separates the survivors from the extinct.
Choosing Your Path Forward
The Middlemen Vs the Operating System
Four Rules for Surviving the Retail Revival
Forget what you learned in retail real estate school. That playbook is as relevant as a rotary phone.
Here's what matters now:
- The extinction event creates opportunity.
15,000 stores closing creates prime real estate vacancies. The evolved players are swooping in with favorable terms while others hesitate. When will you make your move? - Your gut feeling is your worst enemy.
That "perfect location" your intuition loves? Our AI might show it cannibalizes 32% of your existing store's sales. Feelings lie. Numbers don't. - Rigid leases are evolutionary dead ends.
The retailers who survive 2025 have escape hatches built into every agreement. Our AI agent Clara finds them like a bloodhound, sniffing out favorable terms hiding in 90-page documents. - Your new stores will eat your old stores.
As retailers rush to backfill vacant spaces, cannibalization isn't just possible—it's guaranteed. We identify trade area overlaps and determine how much of the population separate stores are serving.
Two Paths Diverge
There are two types of retail real estate professionals in 2025:
Those still waiting for broker reports. And those already acting on AI insights.
Which are you?
While CBRE and JLL race to build tomorrow's tools, we've already built them.While they train brokers to understand data, our AI understands your business. While they talk about the future, our clients are living it.
You have a simple choice.
Wait for your broker to evolve. Or evolve beyond your broker.
Feeling brave? Let's talk.
Citations
This article is based on comprehensive research comparing the capabilities of major U.S. retail real estate brokerage firms including CBRE, JLL, Cushman & Wakefield, Colliers, Newmark, and Marcus & Millichap as of 2025.
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