If a retailer has two customers who each spend R2 000 a month, a conventional sales dashboard will see them as identical. Because, on paper, that’s what the data says. But add location intelligence, and a different picture emerges.
Maybe Customer A lives five minutes from one of the retailer’s stores and spends smaller amounts regularly, usually later in the day. Customer B lives 30km from the nearest store, but regularly orders online. Additionally, Customer B lives in a fast-growing residential development alongside thousands of other potential customers.
Knowing where these customers live allows the retailer to target them more strategically. Customer A’s buying patterns and location suggest they shop at this store because it is convenient. They are popping in after work to pick up a few essentials rather than doing a weekly shop. To encourage larger baskets, the retailer could offer a promotion on complementary products or a discount above a certain spend. For Customer B, the retailer might want to explore how expanding delivery options could attract similar customers, and assess if the population around Customer B could support a collection point or even a new store.
According to David Barkhuisen, Esri South Africa’s senior geospatial consultant for data, most business data is connected to a physical place. “But a lot of businesses don’t understand the value of location data. Something as simple as an address is a valuable piece of business intelligence that can show where demand is growing, where gaps exist, and where your next opportunity might be,” he says. Without knowing where things happen, it’s easy to miss important patterns. “Location intelligence adds a spatial layer and can reveal relationships that ordinary dashboards don't. This data helps you see the business opportunities that others miss.”
If a restaurant chain has a store that is performing poorly, it’s easy to assume that the problem is the manager, the staff or the pricing. But by mapping data around the location, you might find out that a competitor opened nearby or that recent roadworks are affecting store access.
According to Barkhuizen, businesses already hold so much customer data that can be enriched by adding a location. When viewing store sales alongside geographic data, a retailer can identify the characteristics shared by its best-performing locations, understand how purchasing habits differ between neighbourhoods and regions, and determine whether customers are travelling further than necessary to access their products or services. This same retailer might also use location data to address customer complaints. If the data shows that certain problems are more prevalent in a particular area, or that certain stores consistently miss customer expectations, location data can help the retailer take more targeted action to resolve the issue.
An e-commerce brand might be able to rethink its delivery strategy by assessing if failed deliveries are clustered geographically or if certain routes are less efficient than others. Similarly, businesses with a website or app can use location to better understand where digital demand is highest and where poor connectivity may be limiting digital engagement.
If you’re still unsure about how location intelligence can add value for your business, Esri South Africa has developed an interactive online story map to help businesses understand the value of location in everyday decision-making. Called Know What’s Around You, this experience combines a series of automated maps to showcase how starting with something as simple as a street address can uncover meaningful insights about the surrounding environment. “The idea behind Know What’s Around You is really to illustrate that maps can help organisations make more informed decisions by revealing patterns and relationships that are often hidden in traditional reports and spreadsheets,” he says.
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