Who is likely to use the business at this property, and where will those customers come from? A real estate team's trade-area map supports that part of a site review. The surrounding area may include people making regular local trips, people traveling to a specific destination, or customers coming from farther away. The site memo needs to explain which customer geography the team is examining, so a reviewer can understand the area shown around the property.
| Area basis | What it shows | Key assumption | Evidence to check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Distance radius | Locations within a chosen distance of an origin | Distance is a useful screening rule | Barriers and actual customer origins |
| Drive time | Modeled reach over the road network | Perfect driving conditions | Real approaches and traffic conditions |
| Customer origins | Locations tied to observed customers | Records represent the intended customer group | Address precision, store relationship, and period |
Choose what the trade area should show
Use a modeled reach rule deliberately
Decide what the team needs to compare before drawing the area. If the request is to inspect demand within a set distance of each property, a radius gives you that screen. If road access matters, use a drive-time area and review its assumptions.
Write down why you chose the distance or time threshold. It may come from a service standard, evidence from stores already open, or an agreed screening rule. Use the same basis across comparable sites. If you use a different limit for each site, you can make one look better without showing a real difference between the properties.
Avoid adopting a fixed mileage or customer-percentage rule just because it is familiar. A business serving frequent convenience trips may need a different screen from one people visit for a purchase at a particular destination. Local barriers and customer travel patterns matter too.
You can test a second threshold, but label it as another assumption. Keep the original available so the reviewer can see what changed when the area expanded.
Start from customer origins when available
For an existing location, collect the customer records that answer the question you're studying. Retain the customer ID, origin address, store visited or assigned, observation period, and any relevant segment. A tourist's home address and a local customer's home address describe different patterns, so keep a supplied segment field when it helps interpret the spread.
Street addresses give you more precise origin locations than ZIP-only records. If ZIP codes are all you have, label that level of detail in the memo. Don't describe the resulting point as the customer's exact home or infer a precise trip from it.
Use the observed origins to inspect whether your modeled threshold includes the customers you care about. Keep known customers beyond it in the review. Their presence may reflect destination demand, commuting, tourism, or a problem in the source data that needs checking.
Use the customer points as evidence for the area. Choose and check the area yourself. Do not expect Maptive to draw an automatic customer-penetration polygon for you. If the team wants an area covering a chosen share of its customers, write down that target and how the chosen records support the area you draw.
Create the property and customer workfile
Give the table a Type column to distinguish property records from customer records. Preserve a Site ID or Customer ID on every row, with the location, which store the record is tied to, and the data period. Optional sales values can add context when they have a consistent definition.
Decide what each row represents before importing. If the question is unique customers, prepare one row per customer location and add up the transactions that matter to the question in the source spreadsheet. If the question is visits or sales events, retain those rows and describe the counts that way. A transaction table may plot the same customer address repeatedly.
Create New Map in Maptive, enter a name identifying the site review, and select Continue. Add the file with its headers or paste the table under Your Data. Select Map Now, check the requested column matches, and finish with Done.
Categorize Data lets you repair an address match later through the Data tab or a marker's gears. Check the address fields in Section 1 and title or contact fields in Section 2. Changes to these matches apply to all the markers, so inspect both a property and a customer after the correction.
Use Map Tools and Filter Tool to separate the record types. Choose Create Filters, or the gear for an existing setup, and select Group beside Type. Select Date for the observation period when you need a set period for the customers. Check the filtered records against the source list before measuring reach.
Keep properties available as origins, but make clear whether a count includes them. One site record inside its own area is still a row in the dataset. It shouldn't count as one more customer in the site memo.
Draw distance or driving areas
For a distance screen, use this sequence in Maptive.
- Open Map Tools and Distance Radius Circles.
- Enter the full address under Starting Location, or use a marker's tools and Add Radius.
- Set the distance under Proximity Within and choose miles or kilometers.
- Adjust the appearance if needed, then select Add Proximity Radius.
Inspect the resulting circle against the site and customer points. Keep the chosen units consistent across the candidate set. Use a name that tells the reviewer which property and threshold the circle represents.
For road-based reach, select Drive Time Polygon Tool from Map Tools. Add the property's address or use its marker's right menu, enter the hours and minutes, and select Add Drive Time Polygon.
The drive-time calculation assumes perfect conditions and excludes historical and current traffic. Say that when you use it to support a site comparison. Check busy roads or hard-to-reach entrances on their own. Do that before you trust access near a modeled edge during the hours the business trades.
Use an area's three-dot menu and Edit Proximity to change its name or settings, then Save. When the team tests another travel threshold, make clear what changed. Otherwise, a later screenshot or export may be matched to the assumptions from an earlier area.
Read the candidate areas using equal thresholds first. If the operating concept calls for a different rule at a particular site, explain that decision in the memo and present it separately from the equal-threshold comparison.
Add demographic context
Load surrounding demographic data through Map Tools and Boundary Tool. Select Boundary Set, choose Demographic Census Data, then select Demographic Group and Fill Data. Click Load Boundaries. Record the selected geography, measure, and displayed source period beside the trade-area assumptions. Population tells you about the people who live near a property. Income can help you judge the nearby market. Those area measures do not tell you about each customer. Don't average boundary income medians to claim a true combined median for the trade area. Keep the period for the customer data in the memo too, especially if it differs from the demographic period.
Validate what falls inside the trade area
Check origins against access
Inspect customer points near the edges and around barriers. A radius may include an origin across a river even though the practical trip is much longer. An area based on roads can help you check that difference, with its traffic assumption in mind.
Compare the model with known customer relationships. A customer outside the shape who regularly visits the existing business is useful evidence. Check the source address and store relationship before expanding the area to include them.
Review origins in useful groups when the source records support them. Local residents, commuters, and visitors may draw from different places. Apply a Group filter to the segment column in your data and keep the period consistent. Don't infer the segment solely from a point's distance from the store.
When two modeled site areas overlap, they show shared reach. It doesn't establish that customers will switch stores or that a proposed property will divert a particular amount of sales. Keep that question tied to observed behavior and sales evidence.
Separate overlapping counts
Click a radius or drive-time polygon to inspect the included-location count and aggregated metrics. Use Customize Metrics to select the measures relevant to the review. Confirm the field represents customers, visits, or supplied sales before you put its total in the memo.
If one customer lies inside two candidate areas, each area's count may include that row. Adding the area totals would then count the customer twice. Decide whether the memo needs separate candidate reach counts or a combined list with no duplicates.
For circle exports, the option to include each row once for its closest circle can help you assign records without duplicates. That rule assigns records by distance. It doesn't establish which store the customer uses, and it doesn't make the circle an exclusive territory.
Check the IDs in the supporting export. A customer-level table with duplicate IDs still needs source cleanup, even if each exported row appears only once. If a customer has several locations that you mean to keep, give each a clear ID. That way you will not remove valid demand records when you remove duplicates.
Export the site memo's evidence
Use the area's three-dot menu and Export Locations for the records inside one area. Export File provides the export for all polygons or radii. Select the format and the options you need, check the distance basis when it applies, and click Export Now.
For a selected customer segment or property set, the map's Export Data control also offers Export Filtered Data. It follows the filters and other restrictions you've applied. Export Data Visible on Map follows the viewport, so it may omit distant customer origins that matter to this review.
Check that the exported IDs match the intended records. Attach the property names and the method for the area to the memo. Include the limit and units you used, the periods for customer and demographic data, and any rule for assigning records in overlapping areas. Note which edge locations still need an access or source-data check. The reviewer should be able to connect a reported count to the records and area that produced it.
