How do I use the platform?

After logging in on the site (https://app.locate.ai) you will be taken to a home page where you can choose different options to navigate through our platform: Explore, Pipeline, and Logout.

What does the explore section do?

• This section allows you to navigate throughout the continental US and analyze sites according to your customers’ psychographic breakdown.
• On the left-hand side, you will see options for different buttons. In this section, we’ll go over what each of these buttons do.

• Drop Pin allows you to drop a pin on a specific location on the map for analysis. Click on the icon, move your cursor to the desired spot on the map, and then click again. The pin will be “dropped,” and a menu of options will be provided above (these are explained in the section below).
• GPS will show your current location on the map.
• Ruler will show you the distance between two points. Select the ruler icon, move the cursor to the first desired point on the map and click, and then move the cursor to the second desired location and click again. The distance between your two points will then appear.
• Export will create a PDF of the map as it exists right now for downloading.
• Save will save the pins and trade areas you have drawn on a map for later use. Please note that this function does not save data layers on the current map. You can also save individual pins by clicking on the save icon that appears on the right side of the map (in the pin report) immediately after it has been dropped. You can also assign a pin to a different color by clicking on the pin icon below the save icon.
• Load will reload saved maps.
• Clear will reset the map, but you can always return on your saved pins in the Data Layers menu.

What do I do once I drop a pin?

Trade Area

• After you drop a pin, you will see an amorphous green blob. This green blob indicates the trade area around the site you have dropped a pin on. We take natural barriers, traffic speeds, and population density into account to make sure this green blob is as accurate as possible. Our platform is able to understand how big to make this trade area by analyzing the mobile devices of customers that enter the sites within your portfolio.

Site Summary

• The Site Summary allows you to gauge how solid a site is from a data perspective.
• The default options we set for clients within their Site Summary are: More/Less Customers Live In Trade Area Than Portfolio Median, More/Less Customers Work Here Than Portfolio Average, Safe Cannibalization, Near Retail.
• More/Less Customers Live Here Than Portfolio Median gauges whether there are more or less of your top 4 customer types that live in the trade area you are analyzing against your site portfolio median. This text also acts as a button — you can click on the text and a heatmap will appear showing you where your top 4 customer types live in accordance with your area of interest.
• More/Less Customers Work Here Than Portfolio Average gauges whether there are more or less of your top 4 customer types that work in the trade area you are analyzing against your site portfolio average. This text also acts as a button — you can click on the text and a dotted heatmap will appear showing you where your customers are located during work hours.
• Safe Cannibalization allows you to see if the area you are analyzing already has the same retail brand as yourself in the area. The icon will change from a green checkmark to an orange caution sign depending on if we gauge there to be too many of the same retailer in the trade area. This is very helpful for large, national brands like Starbucks or McDonalds.
• Near Retail allows you to see if the area you are analyzing is located within a retail corridor. This is helpful as many brands like to be situated in areas where other retailers are located in.

Top Psychographics Table

• This table compares the psychographic breakdown of your top 4 customer types of the site you are analyzing versus the average of your site portfolio.

Demographics Table

• This table compares the demographic breakdown of the site you are analyzing versus the average of your site portfolio.

Nearby Retail Table

• This table compares the retail breakdown of the site you are analyzing versus the average of your site portfolio.

Population Density Scales

• This scale indicates how dense the trade area is on a US national index. The black bar indicates the site you are currently analyzing, the orange bars indicate the Min, Average, and Max sites within your portfolio, and the blue bars show the relevant retailers.

Exploring the “Explore Menu”

• At the top of the Explore map is a menu with different options, all of which you can see here.

• When mapping these different options, zoom into the map to get a better sense of the results. (it’s easier to see the definition between boundaries the closer you get)
• Once you have examined the results from adding these layers to the map, you can remove them by hitting the X next to the layer name in the map key on the lower left.

Demographics

• The Demographics button will show you block group by block group the demographics you desire anywhere in the US. This information can be helpful for considering areas for opening new sites.
• A block group is a geographical unit used by the United States Census Bureau — it is considered bigger than a neighborhood but smaller than a zip code (with a typical population of 600 to 3,000 people), and it is the smallest geographical unit for which the bureau publishes sample data.
• To see results, select the demographics you desire and click the Map button. The darker the color on the map means a higher concentration of results, and when you click on any specific block, a summary of the block group will appear on the side.

Retailers

• The Retailers button will show you the location of a company (or all companies within an industry) across an area of interest. This function can also be done anywhere in the US.
• To see results, select the companies you desire and click the Map button.

Traffic

• The Traffic button will show the average traffic over the course of a year across an area of interest. This function can also be done anywhere in the continental US and is helpful for determining new locations of businesses that rely on a heavy volume of traffic (like a car wash).
• To see results (which are based on Inrix data), click the Map button. The darker colors represent a higher concentration of cars over the 1-year period and not current congestion (like one would see on Google Maps).

Psychographics

• The Psychographics button will show concentrations of various segments and life modes across an area of interest. This function can also be done anywhere in the US and is helpful for determining new locations of businesses that rely on specific psychographic segments or life modes.
• To see results, select the segments or life modes you desire and click the Map button. The different block group colors that show up represent the dominant life mode in that block group (use the key to differentiate them). To find out more information, you can click on the block group and a report on it will appear on the right side of the screen.
• This function can also be done in conjunction with a current location’s trade area. To set a trade area, use the radius function (more information is in the radius section on page 8 of this document) and adjust the radius to your average trade area and click the Draw Radius button. Once the trade area has been mapped, a summary will appear on the right side of the screen, and at the bottom of this summary will be the total population of each life mode within that area.

Market Scan

• Market Scan is a tool that allows you to see where there are high levels of concentration of your top customers within a market (determined through your customer profile analysis; these are not necessarily your customers, but they look like your customers). It can be performed anywhere in the continental United States.
• Click on the Market Scan button to begin and a menu will appear showing the different mapping variables. Any of the variables that are grayed out will not be used, but you can click on them once to turn them on (or back off again).
• Each variable has a default number in the field on the right, and these numbers are typically set to be the average across all our locations (but can be set to other numbers depending on organizational preference). You can change the defaults based on changing conditions — for example, if you normally operate restaurants in urban areas with higher income levels, but are considering one in a more rural location, you can lower the median income default based on the new area.
• For some variables such as age ranges or life modes, it is not important to know that there is a certain number of people in one subset of that variable, but rather that there are enough people across that entire variable (or a portion of it). In order to let Market Scan know you want to group them together, you use the Group button. If you’re not sure if the different categories can be grouped together, you can tell based on whether the number in the boxes are the same. Variables within age ranges, life mode, businesses, and population/jobs can be grouped together; only median income has no other variables with which it can be grouped.
• Use only one group number per variable. If you use Group 1 for age range, for example, you should use Group 2 for life modes. We recommend using no more than four life modes and four age ranges when creating maps so as to include not too much of the general population.
• You can also change the Greater Than button to Less Than if you desire. This feature is commonly done when looking for areas with no competing businesses — for example, if you want to be away from any Long John Silver’s, you would set that default to Less than 1.
• Once your variables have been selected, click on the Map button to generate a map of the findings. The darker the color, the more strongly the block group meets the criteria that you set.

• If you click on a specific block group, a summary will appear on the right with the totals for that group.

Data Layers

• This feature allows you to run data layers we set up within your account. By default, you will have a Customer Daytime Locations data layer set up, but we can add in custom data layers for you within your account for you to see a heatmap of where phones tend to cluster on certain days and times provided.

What do these buttons do when I drop a pin?

Radius

• This function can be done anywhere in the continental United States and allows you to set a visual drive or walk radius of a dropped pin (additionally, you need to drop a radius before completing the next function, which is Report).
• Click on the radius icon, choose either “Time” or “Distance,” select the time/distance number, and then click Draw Radius! If you drop a pin and want to see what a 10-minute drive time would be, you can change it here.
• You will then see your radius appear on the map. This radius can help you better visualize any possible overlap or cannibalization between the new location and your current location. You can also draw multiple radii around the pin to compare/contrast the result in the report generated.
• You can also draw a custom radius around the pin if you would like. Click on the point you would like to start, move your cursor, click again to change directions, and keep moving and clicking until the radius is finished. When complete, you will see an A in the dropped pin report on the right side instead of a numerical value.

Report

• This function can also be performed anywhere in the US, but you must first set a radius (see section above) or multiple radii.
• If you click on the Report button after setting a radius, it will generate a report with information about people living in that radius (numbers first, but you can scroll down for the visual representation).

Street

• This function can also be performed anywhere in the continental US, and it allows you to run a mobile GPS report for any commercial site. This report will contain consumer insights based on the GPS data, including drive times, home zip codes, work zip codes, and life mode profiles.

Analog

• This function is available anywhere in the continental US and will be helpful when looking to expand outside of your regular area (going to areas unlike where you already are).
• It will generate a report ranking your existing sites in terms of similarity (based on age, income, population, life modes, etc.) to the pin that you just dropped. The most similar site will be on top, followed by the second more similar, third-most similar, etc.
• As you go down the list and click on the existing sites, you’ll note the information in the report will change to match that current location. The report will provide not only an overall similarity rating at the top but also individual similarity ratings for each variable. If it’s important to find a new site that matches in median income of a current site, for example, you’ll be able to see it here.

Delete

• This function allows you to delete other elements of the menu. If you run a radius and want to delete it, for example, choose that option from the list and it will be removed.
• The function allows you to delete dropped pins as well.

What does the Pipeline feature do?

Explaining the Pipeline

• This section allows you to view/compare/contrast important information about sites that have been tagged using the pipeline function discussed earlier. You can also add sites directly from this page by clicking on the Add Site button on the right-hand side.
• Clicking on the Chat button within a Pipeline site will not only show you recent activity but also allow you to message other users about it. To do so, start by typing the @ symbol in the message field and a list of possible recipients will appear. Select the name of the person you wish to contact and then start your message. This will also send the person tagged an email with the message you sent.
• Clicking on the Deal button within a Pipeline site allows you to update the lease and deal terms that were entered when the site was first submitted to Pipeline.