Catchment Area Analysis for Retail Business

Whether you are a brick & mortar retail chain or one who sells off a website, it is mighty important to know, from which geography your customers come from. These are pin codes/zip codes where most of your customers live or work. If this is so, then your next customer is most likely to come from those pin codes. That's because people of a certain economic profile, with similar interests and dispositions tend to live near each other. As a retailer, you can identify pin codes where the customer count is higher, where the average bill value is increasing and the range of items they buy from you, is higher than average. Then you can attribute behavioral characteristics to these geographies like frequency of purchase, value of purchase and any seasonal afflictions. Then identify the preponderance of certain products that are bought in these pin codes. Finally give creative names to these pin codes for memorability and easy identification. For example a zip code with a higher proportion of denim apparel purchases can be called the "Denim Diaspora Drive" or a pin code with higher than average white shirts and shops predominantly on weekends, can be called "White Collar Weekender Walk". Similarly "Jeans & Sneakers Circus" or "High Heel Habitat" and even a "Tee Shirt Trail". This way, retailers can give personas to a geographical neighbourhood and bring it to life. When a recommendation engine is run on each of these personas (using collaborative filters or association analysis) you now have a "next best product to sell" to these pin codes. Why not splash these product combinations across billboards or OOH media only in those pin codes. Or use geo targeting and serve ads only to prospects in these pin codes. If you have a store nearby, invite a walk-in. And don't forget to time these communications rightly, as it is possible that certain pin codes shop during certain months or on certain days. Here's what you do on Monday when you get back to work. Extract your customer database, and create these personas. Identify the next best product to sell to each persona and run catchment area campaigns. When the results come in, it is highly possible that you would have immensely profited from this divide and rule policy. And also proved the truth in Ben Sira's biblical adage that "birds of a feather, do flock together".