New business openings can significantly affect a location’s visitation and draw, as well as its foot traffic. Placer helps you gain insights into changes in visits and trade areas after a new business opening, as well as understand visitor loyalty and churn.

You’ll be able to answer these questions after reading this article:

1. How did a business opening affect visitation to your municipality or shopping area within your community?
2. How did the trade area shift after a new business opened?
3. Did a new business opening affect other locations?

Get started with the following steps:

Step 1: Use the Quick Compare Function to see data before and after the opening of interest

This feature allows you to view the same POI^{Point (Location) of Interest.} side-by-side, with different filters in place. In this example, a key experiential business opened in April 2021. 

a. Open the Placer report for the POI, navigate to the three dots in the POI header bar, and click Quick Comparison. Immediately click Go to Report before adjusting any filters - this will open the same POI side-by-side.

Learn about Quick Comparison

b. From your new report view, click Add Filters. Choose Filter per Venue on the right, and then choose the custom ranges you want to use. For example, since this new business opened in April of 2021, we use 6 months before the opening date, and 6 months after the opening date. Be sure to highlight the custom range dates and click Apply. Choose Apply again at the bottom of the section.

c. Now you have a simple view of this POI before and after the business opening. After the business opened, you can see that Visits significantly increased (Metrics) and the shopping center was ranked higher (Ranking Overview).

d. Click on Trade Area^{Representation of the dispersion of home and work locations that drive traffic to any venue.} in the left sidebar. Scroll down to Trade Area Overlap and you’ll see that the trade area was much greater after the opening (Total Trade Area), meaning expanded reach.

Learn about Trade Area

Step 2: Request a Placer XTRA Store Opening Impact report

The Store Opening Impact report helps you understand the impact a new business has on other locations. It informs you of visitors’ loyalty to an existing location, how many visit both locations, and how many have churned and only shop at the new location now. Additionally, you'll be able to see the lost trade area and more.

a. Navigate to the Advanced Reports page and click on Placer XTRA in the left sidebar. Click on Store Opening Impact (you can first filter by clicking on Retail under Reports Catalog and scrolling until you find it).

b. Search for a POI in the Name/Placer Id field. In the Date Range field, select ONLY the single date the new business opened. Click the date on the calendar, and select Apply.

Please note that this report can only be run at least 3 months following the business opening.

c. In the Existing entities field, upload a CSV file that contains just the names and addresses of the entities affected by the new business’s opening. These can be stores, shopping centers, or other POI types. 

d. When the form is complete, click Submit Request. This report has a 4-7 business day turnaround time. When complete, an interactive Tableau report will be sent directly to the requester. 

Learn about Placer XTRA

Pro Tip: use Placer’s Advanced Brand Dominance tools for additional insights and to view more macro-level trends of brands entering new markets. Placer’s Brand Dominance is a raw data feed of foot traffic and rankings on the most popular premium retail chains in the U.S. It’s used to break down the performance of brands by visits and across industry categories. The data feed and Tableau interface are updated monthly. For more information on Brand Dominance or to request pricing information, click here.