Manacor puts commercial figures in order: "The big competitor comes with a van"

PalmThe city of Manacor has a total of 1,364 active commercial establishments. This is what emerges from the first census compiled by the local administration in its entire history. Previously there were approximate counts, “but we did not have a base from which to start developing campaigns or solutions”, explains the delegate for Commerce, Paula Asegurado.

Of these premises, 648 correspond to the service sector, with a special presence of hairdressers, mechanical workshops, real estate agencies, and consultancies; 548 are commercial establishments, mainly clothing, accessories, and food stores; and 168 belong to the catering sector.

In percentage terms, the service sector represents 47.5% of the total, the commercial sector 40.2%, and the catering sector 12.3%, data that confirm an economic model strongly linked to services and local commerce.

The census has also identified 218 vacant premises, a figure that represents approximately 15% of the total, key information for activating available spaces and detecting new economic opportunities. Furthermore, nearly 80% of the establishments have a surface area equal to or less than 250 square meters, a fact that reinforces the weight of small and medium-sized urban commerce within the municipality.

This knowledge, which will be updated periodically, will allow the City Council to strengthen commercial axes, promote entrepreneurship, better guide revitalization actions, and consolidate future tools such as the Commerce Observatory. This was explained this Tuesday by the same delegate for Commerce; the mayor of Manacor, Miquel Oliver; and Antònia Blanes, representing CIFP Llevant.

The initiative has been possible thanks to the collaboration of the students from the Higher Vocational Training Cycles in Marketing and Advertising from the Llevant Politècnic Integrated Vocational Training Center, and from the Geography degree at the UIB.

This precise radiography of the local economic fabric allows for understanding the distribution of establishments, detecting the presence of vacant premises, analyzing urban commercial dynamics, and more accurately guiding public economic promotion policies.

Artificial intelligenceBased on this, the City Council will deploy the Manacor LocalDigital.ai project, already approved and awarded by the Local Government Board. This new tool will allow the incorporation of artificial intelligence and digital analysis into the commercial management of the municipality.

The project will facilitate the evaluation of the digital maturity of establishments, the study of online demand, the analysis of the digital reputation of local businesses, and the detection of new growth opportunities. “This information will be essential for improving decision-making in economic promotion, urban planning, and commercial modernization,” explains the council.

Among the planned actions, the creation of a unique brand for Manacor's local commerce and a website that will centralize all information also stands out, with a commercial directory of Manacor accessible to all citizens, which will allow for consulting and visualizing the entire local commercial fabric.

“The big competitor is not the neighborhood shop, the big competitor comes by van,” said Asegurado, referring to online purchases through large platforms. In this regard, the delegate for Commerce emphasized that “from the City Council, we want to provide local commerce with real tools so that it can compete, adapt, and grow, without losing its essence or its link with the town and the region. We are committed to a vibrant, modern, and rooted commercial model that continues to be the economic and social engine of Manacor”.

Antònia Blanes, representing CIFP Politècnic Llevant, highly valued the students' participation in the project: “It has been a complex but very stimulating job, which has allowed students to develop real fieldwork experience. For Politècnic, it has been especially important to be able to create synergies with the City Council and the commercial fabric of Manacor, building bridges between training, institutions, and the local economic reality”.