TRADE AREA ANALYSIS

Trade Area Analysis, Development and Mapping
Trade area analysis and mapping describe the characteristics of the area around a store or network of stores. Without accurate trade area definitions, you cannot measure the key statistics that impact a store's performance.
Use trade area analysis to aid site selection and target marketing.
Trade area analysis and mapping tell you:
• Where a store's customers are coming from
• How many customers you have in a trade area
• Where to look for for more customers
Benefits of Trade Area Analysis
• Identify gaps or overlaps in the market coverage of your existing store network, and make corrections by opening, closing or moving stores
• Make better site selection …show more content…
Drive Time Analyses:
Recently, GIS based tools for modeling the drive time or drive distance from a location have become available. These tools use digitized roadway systems that indicate the type of road such as a city street or a divided highway. Speed limits are assigned based on the type of road, the mode of transportation (car, truck, motorcycle, etc.), congestion parameters, and the time of day. These parameters are used to dictate the ease of traveling along road segments. Through this process, a polygon is generated to represent the extent to which a vehicle can travel outward from the site in all directions along the existing roadway system. Unlike the radial distance or gravity model-based trade area approximations, GIS based drive time analyses account for logistical barriers.
Drive time analyses are generally considered to be valid for “convenience” store scenarios, where patrons are expected to go to the closest or most logistically convenient location. Since this analysis is governed by the presence of properly located and attributed roadway systems, the accuracy of the drive time analysis can be limited by the availability of accurate and up-to-date digitized road data. Figure 3a. Drive time analysis showing areas that can be reached within 5, 10 and 15-minute drive times. Figure 3b. Drive time analysis showing the location of demographic samples. The blue colored dots represent the demographic sample sites that fall within a