Stores need to measure and report their success. Use Placer to highlight your store’s strengths by showing reach and visitor draw. Analyze visitation data and compare it to competitors, analyze trade areas, and understand how your store ranks.

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

1. How can you compare your store’s visitation data to a competitor's?
2. How do you analyze trade areas to understand reach and visitor draw?
3. How can you evaluate the performance of your store? 

Get started with the following steps:

Step 1: Analyze visitation data and compare it to competitors

a. Navigate to Explore and type your POI^{Point (Location) of Interest.} into the search bar. Up to 8 POIs can be chosen at one time by checking the empty white box next to your POI in the center of the page or on the left sidebar. The number of POIs selected will appear at the bottom of the left sidebar. Once the POIs are selected, click Open Report and select Property. This will open the Property report.

b. Adjust the dates to any custom range. Reports will default to the last 12 months, so you can click the calendar icon and choose the preferred date range, then click Apply. For example, analyze and compare data side by side for your POI and its competitor. Look at the estimated number of customers and visits (Metrics), the visit trends (Visits Trend), the performance of your locations (Ranking Overview), visits at any time of day (Hourly Visits), visits by day of the week (Daily Visits), and how long visitors spent at your locations (Length of Stay).

Learn about Foot Traffic Metrics

Step 2: Show store reach and visitor draw by analyzing trade areas

Navigate to Trade Area^{Representation of the dispersion of home and work locations that drive traffic to any venue.} in the left sidebar. Understand your visitors’ True Trade Area (Trade Area) and see the distance in miles required for visitors to reach the store (Trade Area Coverage by Distance). Filter by visitors’ home or work location, and by visit frequency to understand the travel patterns of more loyal visitors.

Learn about Trade Area Coverage by Distance

Step 3: See how your store ranks

a. Navigate to Ranking in the left sidebar and view the performance of your store.

b. You can rank your store against others in the same category or against its chain. You can also rank using total Visits or Visits per Square Foot.

c. You will see the POI’s rankings at the national, state (including options for DMA or CBSA), and local mileage ring granularities.

d. The Ranking Index section at the bottom of the page allows for a filtered view of the ranked locations.

Learn about Ranking Overview