The quality and range of the data you use is critical to retail analysis and AGS is and always has been – first and foremost – a data company. But we believe in making that data come alive by providing developers and consultants with analytical tools that are as advanced as any in the industry.
We pioneered the widespread use of drive time trade areas in 1996 with our Freeway product, which for many years has been a product of our sister company Applied Spatial Technologies. Freeway has recently become available as an API with a greatly improved data engine and global coverage (www.appliedspatialtechnology.com).
Building on a long tradition of software tools development, our latest effort Snapshot builds on our existing Snapsite platform in a range of new directions, offering a broad range of tools and exceptional performance both on web and desktop applications.
At the core of retail analytics is the concept and definition of a trade area. Snapshot easily handles the standard radius, drive-time, custom polygon, and defined geographic area (e.g. one or more ZIP codes). In this new age of widely available mobile data, trade area delineation using actual visitor data has become cost effective and simplified. Snapshot tools include the ability to define trade areas based on mobile data – whether point or area based – by using advanced spatial analytics methods that define precise trade areas based on visitor density analysis which can be easily broken down by context to yield accurate predictive trade areas used in locating new sits. The map below shows the trade area estimate for a fast food location in southwest Fort Worth, Texas with no forced contiguity of the primary trade area. Competition to the east and north of the site affect the shape of the trade area considerably, as does the semi-rural nature of the area to the southwest. In most cases, a contiguous trade area is most useful, especially when the goal is to create a “standard” trade area for proposed sites.
Snapshot uses a template system that allows complete flexibility – only the variables you specify are created, and in the form that you want them. There is no need to license costly databases in entirety when you just need a few variables or to have intermediate computations in your output.
The Snapshot formula processor includes a wide range of built-in functions that allow you to dynamically reclassify variables, undertake mathematical transformations, and implement a range of models and forecasting methods.
Together, these tools can be easily integrated into both web and desktop applications that help users analyze trade areas, create site reports and display thematic maps for them without having to manage any of the data.
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