Delineating retail conurbations: A rules-based algorithmic approach

Abstract

Retail conurbations may be defined as market areas with high intra-market movement. A limited range of approaches has been used to delineate such retail conurbations. This paper evaluates a simplified version of an existing zone design method used to define labour market areas, the Travel-To-Work-Area algorithm (TTWA), for application in a retail context. Geocoded loyalty card spend data recorded by Boots UK Limited, a large health and beauty retailer, were used to develop retail conurbations (newly termed Travel-To-Store-Areas (TTSAs)) for several UK regions using this algorithm. The output TTSA boundaries displayed significantly greater intra-zone flows compared to existing retail conurbation delineation approaches. There is thus scope for researchers and analysts to broaden the zone design approaches used to develop retail conurbations.

Location Data Analytics in the Business Value Chain: A Systematic Literature Review

“…In retail, we found a diverse set of approaches, several of them focused on analyzing market behavior, prices and economic conurbations [121], [125], [127]. Yu et al [17] exploit location information for shop type recommendation, i.e., given a particular location, recommend the best shop type to open there.…”

“…Other data sources correspond to dedicated location information providers such as the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI 1 ), Openstreetmap 2 , and Google [11], [12], [17], [24], [44], [45], [47]- [50], [52], [54], [55], [60], [64], [76], [78], [80]- [85], [87]- [93], [95]- [97], [107], [108], [111]- [114], [117], [118], [121], [126], [127], [129], [132], [137], [138], [143], [147], [149]- [154], [156], [157], [159], [168], [169], [171], [175]- [184], [192], [197], [199]...…”

“…Use cases involving business and operational data range from exploiting city dynamics for car-sharing solutions [14] to planning distribution networks and hub-port locations [96], [144], [145]. Retail is a similar case where business data is useful for market and customer analysis [121]- [123], [127].…”

“…Content may change prior to final publication. [13], [44], [45], [47], [49]- [51], [53]- [56], [58], [60], [64], [76], [78], [82]- [84], [86]- [90], [93]- [98], [101], [102], [106]- [111], [113], [114], [116]- [120], [122]- [124], [127], [128], [132], [134]- [138], [143], [148], [149], [153], [155], [156], [158], [160], [161], [163], [167], [171], [175], [178]- [183], …”

“…Some cases focused purely on analyzing variables related to location context. For example, analyzing hotel room price variations according to location context [135], as well as identifying retail centers and customer interactions according to their intra-market movement patterns [18], [125], [127]. Spatial analysis was also a complementary tool in other cases where a clear business objective was the target of the study.…”