Geo-Powered Retail Intelligence with Zoho Analytics

Geo-Powered Retail Intelligence with Zoho Analytics

In today’s highly competitive retail landscape, data-driven decisions are no longer optional — they’re essential. While businesses collect vast volumes of data across regions, stores, and customer segments, the real value lies in how effectively this data is visualized and interpreted.

Geo Maps in Zoho Analytics bring location intelligence to the forefront of decision-making. With powerful spatial analytics capabilities, retail businesses can now visualize store performance, identify untapped opportunities, and track customer behavior trends with a simple glance at a map.


This solution demonstrates how Zoho Analytics' Geo Maps can be leveraged to solve real retail business problems, using a step-by-step approach grounded in a practical, ready-to-use dataset.

Business scenario

Imagine you're a retail chain operating hundreds of stores across the United States. Each store generates data—sales, visitor footfall, customer satisfaction, marketing spend—but these numbers alone don’t explain why some stores succeed while others under-perform.
Key challenges include:
  • Identifying stores that are struggling before sales drop significantly.
  • Understanding whether poor performance is due to location, low visibility, or intense competition.
  • Evaluating which regions offer true expansion potential—and which are over-saturated.
With no visual correlation between location and business KPIs, many decisions remain reactive instead of proactive. This is where Geo Maps make all the difference—by transforming isolated data into contextual geographic insights.

Dataset Overview

To power this solution, we’ve created a comprehensive and realistic retail dataset that mirrors how actual store data behaves across geographies.
The dataset includes:
  • Store-level performance data: revenue, average purchase value, and satisfaction.
  • Customer insights: foot traffic, age, gender distribution.
  • Market context: competitor presence and market share, population density, and economic growth rate.
  • Geospatial data: zip code, city, state, latitude, and longitude of each store location.

Problem Description

Retail chains often operate on thin margins, and even minor under-performance at store level can have significant impacts across the organization. While dashboards provide revenue and performance trends, they often miss one critical dimension—geography.
Without geographic context, businesses face several recurring challenges:
  • Underperforming stores go unnoticed until major losses occur.
  • Ghost zones—areas with low store presence but high potential—remain unexplored.
  • Marketing budgets get wasted in regions where returns are consistently low.
  • Competitor pressure is misjudged due to lack of visibility on regional saturation.
  • Store closures become reactive decisions, made after performance has already declined.
In short, data without location awareness leaves decision-makers blind to spatial trends and risks. Businesses need a smarter, more intuitive way to analyze store performance with geographical clarity—before it’s too late.

Why Geo Maps Become a Game-Changer

Geo Maps in Zoho Analytics address this gap by unlocking a visual layer of intelligence that traditional charts can’t offer.


Here’s what makes them a game-changer:
  • Location-first insights: Instantly identify how store performance varies across the map - by city, state, or neighborhood.
  • Visual correlation of multiple KPIs: Compare revenue, satisfaction, and foot traffic geographically to detect hidden patterns.
  • Clutter-free, customizable visuals: Choose the right map type - bubble, filled, pie, or scatter - to match the data you want to analyze.
Unlike static dashboards, Geo Maps enable you to see the problem, context, and opportunity—all in one frame. Whether it's spotting trends, reallocating marketing spend, or planning expansion, this spatial layer puts decision-makers back in control.

Solution Implementation – Report Creation

This section walks through the step-by-step creation of four key Geo Map reports that reveal business insights from store-level data.

1. Store Performance Analysis (Map – Bubble)

To identify how stores are performing across different regions in terms of revenue and customer satisfaction, using a clean, visual-first map representation.
This helps uncover:
  • High-performing stores in key zones
  • Underperforming regions needing intervention
  • Patterns related to location-based store success

Why Map - Bubble?

The Map - Bubble chart is ideal for visualizing store-level metrics using geolocation.
  • Size indicates magnitude (e.g., Monthly Revenue)
  • Color indicates health or quality (e.g., Customer Satisfaction)
  • Each store appears as a distinct bubble based on its lat/long.

Procedure

  1. From the dataset, click the Create icon and select Chart View.

  2. On the designer page, drag and drop the following columns into their respective shelves:
    1. Latitude → X-Axis
    2. Longitude → Y-Axis
    3. Customer Satisfaction (out of 10) → Color
    4. Monthly Revenue (USD) → Size
    5. Store ID, Store Type, City → Tooltip

  3. Click Generate Graph.
  4. Click on the ellipsis icon and select the chart type as Map - Bubble.

  5. Click the Settings icon, and under the General tab, click Legend.
  6. In the Colors section, customize the color scale from red to green to represent satisfaction ranges.

  7. Under the Map tab, click Map control and enable Display Specific Country Map.
  8. From the drop-down, select Albers USA Projection. This displays the USA map by placing Alaska and Hawaii below the mainland USA on a single map.

  9. Rename the report as Store Performance and click Save.
Tip:
Add a User filter such as Store type or State to analyze performance by segment.
This configuration creates a bubble for every store, sized by its revenue and colored by customer satisfaction — instantly showing how happy customers are in high- or low-revenue zones.


Key Insights

Large bubble + Red color - High revenue but poor satisfaction — risk of churn!


Small bubble + Green color - Low revenue but high satisfaction — possibly underserved


Large bubble + Green color - Healthy performers — consider replicating success


Small bubble + Red color - Low performers — review for possible closure or revamp.


Business Interpretation

This chart acts as a live performance map for executives and analysts. Instead of scanning through tables or KPIs, stakeholders can instantly spot outliers, prioritize investments, and plan corrective actions by just glancing at the map.


2. Revenue-to-Traffic Ratio with Ghost Zone Detection (Map - Filled + Scatter)

To evaluate how efficiently each state is converting foot traffic into store revenue — and more importantly, to identify high-footfall regions without store presence, often referred to as ghost zones.
This chart helps:
  • Compare state-level foot traffic against actual revenue
  • Spot underutilized or over-performing regions
  • Discover untapped markets with high visitor potential but less to no physical stores

Why Map - Filled + Scatter?

  • The Map - Filled chart provides a regional perspective of traffic density and revenue generation.
  • The Scatter layer overlays actual store locations based on latitude and longitude.
This powerful combo allows you to measure performance where you’re active and spot opportunities where you're not.

Procedure

  1. From the dataset, click the Create icon and select Chart View.
  2. On the designer page, drag and drop the following columns into their respective shelves:
    1. State → X-Axis
    2. Foot Traffic (visitors/month) → Color
    3. Monthly Revenue (USD) → Text
    4. Marketing Spend (USD), Population Density (people/sq km), ROI (%) → Tooltip
  3. Click Generate Graph.

  4. Click on more option and select the chart type as Map-Filled.

  5. Click the Settings icon, then click Legend.
  6. In the Colors section, assign from light to dark green colors for the below range of foot traffic:
    1. Below 5,000
    2. 5,000–10,000
    3. 10,000–15,000
    4. Above 15,000

  7. Under the Map tab, change the map to Albers USA Projection.
    This filled layer highlights traffic and revenue across states.

  8. Toggle Enable Layers to add a second layer.

  9. In the new layer, drag and drop Latitude and Longitude into the X-Axis and Y-Axis respectively, Population density into the Color shelf, and click Generate Graph.

  10. Click Layer Controls, select Chart Chooser besides Latitude and choose the map as Map - Scatter from the list.

  11. To customize the second layer, go to Settings → Map → Latitude → Legend, and assign from light to dark red colors for the below range of population density:
    1. Below 2,000
    2. 2,000-4,000
    3. 4,000-6,000
    4. 6,000-8,000
    5. 8,000-10000
    6. Above 10,000

  12. Rename the report as Revenue-to-Traffic Ratio with Ghost Zone Detection and click Save.
This scatter layer marks the exact store locations, allowing visual correlation with high-traffic regions, revenue, and population density.

Key Insights

Dark green filled (high traffic) + Low revenue - Poor conversion - evaluate strategy or in-store experience


Mid to Dark green filled (high to mid traffic) + balanced revenue - Efficient zones — consider scaling efforts


Light green filled (low traffic) + high marketing spend (from tooltip) - Budget drain — reduce spend or re-evaluate targeting


Dark red marker (high population density) + less to no store markers - Ghost Zones — high opportunity areas for expansion


Example: In Las Vegas from Nevada, with a population density of 10,428 people/sq km and only two stores handling 10K–15K visitors/month, monthly revenue of the state remains modest at ~$278K. This indicates a high-opportunity zone for expansion, with strong footfall but untapped revenue potential.

Interpretation & Use

This map is designed for marketing and expansion teams who need to:
  • Justify where to open new stores
  • Optimize existing resource allocation
It visually answers the question:
Are we generating revenue where people are actually showing up?
Also, with the scatter layer:
Where are we not present — but should be?

​

3. Competitor Pressure Zones (Map – Scatter)

To evaluate how store performance is impacted by nearby competition, using a scatter map that plots every store across the U.S. and reflects competitor market share through color intensity.
This view helps:
  • Detect locations under competitive stress
  • Identify high-risk zones where your market share is at risk
  • Correlate competitor presence with satisfaction and store performance

Why Map - Scatter?

Map - Scatter offers a clean and lightweight visual that plots each store based on its exact coordinates. By encoding competitor market share as color and overlaying other attributes via tooltip, this chart becomes a competitive pressure radar.

Procedure

  1. From the dataset, click the Create icon and select Chart View.
  2. In the chart designer, drag and drop the following columns into their respective shelves:
    1. Latitude → X-Axis
    2. Longitude → Y-Axis
    3. Competitors market share → Color
    4. Competitors nearby, Monthly Revenue, and Store Type → Tooltip
  3. Click Generate Graph.

  4. Click on the more option and select the chart type as Map-Scatter.
  5. In the Settings panel, adjust the color gradient to reflect pressure levels
    1. 0 → Green
    2. 1-30 → Cyan
    3. 30-60 → Orange
    4. 60-80 → Pale red
    5. Above 80 → Red

  6. Change the Marker type under Maps → Marker tab.

  7. Under the Map tab, change the map to Albers USA Projection.
  8. Rename the report as Competitor Pressure Zones and click Save.
The resulting chart uses color to signal competitive heat around each store, allowing you to scan pressure zones across all regions visually.


Key Insights

Red (80-100%) - High competitor dominance — urgent intervention zone


Orange (30-60%) + low revenue - Growing pressure — performance risk emerging


Green (0%) + strong revenue - Market leader — low competition, strong position


Cyan (1-30%) + moderate revenue - Mild competition — possible opportunity to scale further


Business Interpretation

This chart empowers regional and strategy teams to:
  • Detect overcrowded areas where stores are losing share
  • Identify safe zones where your brand leads the market
  • Spot emerging competitor influence before it cuts into your margins
It acts as a competitive intelligence dashboard, mapping how your store network stands against external threats.

​

4. Customer Gender Distribution (Map - Pie)

To visualize how the gender distribution of customers varies across store locations. This helps identify stores with significant demographic skews, allowing for more personalized marketing, product selection, and in-store experience.

Why Map - Pie?

The Map - Pie chart is ideal for visualizing data composition across geographical locations.By breaking down each store’s customer base into Male (%) and Female (%) segments, this chart reveals who your customers are and where gender-targeted strategies might work best.

Procedure

  1. From the dataset, click the Create icon and select Chart View.
  2. In the chart designer, drag and drop the following columns into their respective shelves:
    1. Latitude → X-Axis
    2. Longitude, Male (%), Female (%) → Y-Axis
    3. City, Store ID, Average Customer Age, Store Type → Tooltip
  3. Click Generate Graph.

  4. In Settings, under the Map tab, change the map to Albers USA Projection.
  5. Click on Markers, adjust the Marker Size as shown.

  6. Click on Data Label, and enable the Show corresponding Y axis value as data label on the chart to display the percentage values on the map.

  7. Add Store Type as User Filters to slice down store-wise gender distribution.
  8. Rename the report as Customer Gender Distribution and click Save.
Each store will now display a pie chart representing the gender split among its customers, directly on the map.

Key Insights

Uneven gender split (e.g., 70% Male) - Potential to tailor offerings, branding, or promotions for the dominant gender


Balanced split (≈50/50) - Opportunity to run inclusive or diversified campaigns


High female ratio + specialty store - Indicates demand for niche products — expand category offerings


Business Interpretation

This chart allows marketing and merchandising teams to:
  • Understand gender-based customer clustering across regions
  • Launch targeted campaigns (e.g., loyalty programs, promotions)
  • Refine product assortments to suit local preferences
For example: A store with 70% female shoppers may benefit from deeper investment in lifestyle categories, while a balanced store could serve as a testing ground for unisex offerings.

​

Summary

In this phase, we laid the foundation for geo-powered retail intelligence using Zoho Analytics. Through a single, well-structured dataset and four powerful geo map visualizations, we transformed raw store data into real, actionable business insights.

Here’s what we achieved:

Report
Business Insights
Store Performance (Bubble)
Identified stores that are over performing or at churn risk based on revenue and satisfaction.
Revenue-to-Traffic Ratio (Filled + Scatter)
Detected ghost zones and optimized marketing ROI by comparing traffic and revenue.
Competitor Pressure Zones (Scatter)
 Mapped out competitor dominance and spotted at-risk or saturated regions.
Customer Gender Distribution (Pie)
Uncovered demographic patterns to tailor product, marketing, and in-store experience.

Click here to access the sample workspace.
These visualizations brought spatial awareness into every performance metric — turning maps into a strategic business tool.

And this... is just the beginning.

Stay tuned for Phase 2 — where Multi-Layer Geo Maps and Network Charts come together to supercharge your business strategy with even deeper spatial insights.

    • Sticky Posts

    • What's New in Zoho Analytics - October 2025

      Hello Users! We're are back with a fresh set of updates and enhancements to make data analysis faster and more insightful. Take a quick look at what’s new and see how these updates can power up your reports and dashboards. Explore What's New! Extreme

    • What’s New in Zoho Analytics – September 2025

      Hello Users!! In this month’s update, we’re raising the bar across multiple touchpoints, from how you bring in data, plan and track projects to how you design and brand your dashboards. We’ve added the all-new Gantt chart for project visualization, expanded

    • Announcing Agentic AI - Ask Zia!

      We are delighted to roll out the new agentic AI capabilities in Ask Zia, where every stage of the BI workflow is assisted by AI. With a human-in-the-loop approach, Ask Zia ensures that you’re in command of the decision, while AI handles the complexity.

    • Invitation-Based User Access in Zoho Analytics

      Hello everyone, We’re rolling out an important update on how users are added to your Zoho Analytics Organization and Workspaces. Previously, when admins added users, they were automatically added to the organization. Moving forward, to improve security

    • Zoholics Europe 2025: Your Ultimate Data Analysis (Zoho Analytics) Workshop Experience

      Why should you attend? This year, Zoholics Europe 2025 is putting data analysis centre stage. With a dedicated workshop designed to answer all your data-related questions, you’ll gain practical skills, real-time solutions, and expert insights that you

    • Recent Topics

    • Tip of the week #35: Migrate to Zoho Calendar from Google Calendar.

      If you are looking to move your Google Calendar events to Zoho Calendar, never worry about missing out the events from your Google Calendar. You can migrate the events from Google Calendar using the export option and import it to Zoho Calendar and manage

    • Tip of the week #36: Migrate to Zoho Calendar from Outlook Calendar.

      If you've been using Outlook calendar and looking to migrate to Zoho Calendar, you can seamlessly export your calendars from Outlook and import them into Zoho Calendar without losing any events, participants, and the reminders set for each event. To migrate

    • Shared calendar issues and duplications

      Apparently there was a calendar update?  Now when I schedule an event for a team member that has shared his calendar with me, the event makes me the organizer and adds the event to my calendar as well.  Previous to this "update" I would scheduled an event

    • Subscribed Calendar

      Hi i have subscribed to a calendar for Holidays in Canada it shows all the holidays perfectly but every one of them has the word Canada before the rest of the name is there a way to remove that word Canada? It takes up a lot of space in the square on

    • The year that was at Zoho Calendar 2023- Part 1

      Hello, amazing community members! Happy new year from all of us here at Zoho Calendar. As we begin the new year, we'd like to thank each and everyone of our community members for your unwavering support and love that you have shown for Zoho Calendar.

    • Zoho Calendar 2024: A Year in Review

      Hello, community members! Happy new year from all of us here at Zoho Calendar. As we turn the page to a new year, we extend our heartfelt gratitude to every member of our Zoho Calendar community for your continued support and enthusiasm. Your feedback

    • Zoho Calendar not syncing correctly with personal Google Calendar

      Coming to this forum as Zoho Calendar support team is not responding, any more. For the past 8 weeks, I have been having an issue with Zoho Calendar not syncing with my personal Google Calendar correctly. I subscribed to Zoho Calendar iCal in my personal

    • MTA - BAD IP reputation by outlook/hotmail

      Messages to Microsoft email servers are bouncing back due to poor reputation. Message: 4.7.650 The mail server [136.143.188.206] has been temporarily rate limited due to IP reputation. For e-mail delivery information see https://postmaster.live.com (S775)

    • Zeptomail API error 500 internal server error

      Hi Everyone, getting this eror continuously! Can anyone please guide around the same! Zeptomail API error 500 internal server error Best Regards

    • Waiting multiple days to buy credits, causing my website to suffer

      So I own a fairly large website that gets a lot of registered users. I use transmail send activation emails, and also forgot password emails. I sent an email to zoho's presales team when I was only at 4K/10K emails sent, hoping to buy more credits before

    • Follow up

      Hello, I sent a message 2 days ago but I don't receive any response and I cannot find my ticket here. this is the ticket: Your ticket has been created with the ticket ID 68925465 and subject "Fwd: Fishing-alert" looking forward to seeing your response.

    • What's new in TransMail!

      Note: TransMail is now ZeptoMail. Click here to know more. Hello again, everyone! We've recently crossed the 6 months mark of TransMail's launch. In this time post our launch, we have been constantly working on updating our platform and adding new features

    • June 2021 in TransMail!

      Note: TransMail is now ZeptoMail. Click here to know more. Hello again, everyone! Hope you and your loved ones are doing well. If you're doing less than fine, we truly hope that things only get better for you.  We've had a few updates in the past month

    • TransMail has a new name—ZeptoMail!

      Tried navigating to TransMail's community forum but see a different name now? That's because TransMail has a new name. TransMail is now ZeptoMail! As we’ve grown from an internal service used mainly by other Zoho products to an up-and-coming competitor

    • July 2021 in ZeptoMail!

      Note: TransMail is now ZeptoMail. Click here to know more. Hello again, everyone! Hope you and your loved ones are doing well.  We've had a few updates in the past month in ZeptoMail—some new features and some important announcements. Take look at what

    • Send Email From the ZeptoMail BY API

      What is Zeptomail:- Transactional email service with reliable and fast delivery How we can Create a Connection for Zeptomail in Zoho CRM Go to the Setup Click on Connection Enter Connection Details:- Generate Consumer Key & Consumer Secret Using Zoho

    • Customer email on Opencart 3

      When I place an order, 2 emails are sent: 1) administrator 2) to the user The administrator receives a beautiful letter, but the user receives a damaged letter (see screenshot). What could be the problem?

    • [Announcement] Insert image from URL changes in Zoho Writer

      Hi Zoho Writer users! We'd like to let you know that we've changed the behavior of the Insert image from URL option in Zoho Writer for security reasons. Earlier behavior Once you inserted an image URL in a Writer document, the image would be fetched from

    • Dynamic Signature - Record owner

      Hi everyone, I’m using Zoho Writer merge templates from Zoho CRM and have two questions: Owner signature: How can I automatically insert the CRM record owner’s signature in the merged document? I’m not sure where this signature is stored or how to reference

    • Writer sing up problom

      Zoho writer sing up prolom face

    • Unable to copy into a new document

      Whe I create a new Writer doc and attemp to copy and past I get this message. The only way to copy into a document is I duplicate an existing document, erase the text and save it under a different name and then paste the information. Not ideal. Can you

    • [Webinar] Live demos and user Q&A with Zoho Writer product experts

      Join us on June 12, 2025 for live demos based on your use cases and real-world scenarios raised via form. This is also an opportunity to get your questions answered directly by product experts from the Zoho Writer team. Webinar agenda Live demos based

    • Zoho Writer's built-in citation and bibliography generator

      Hey researchers and writers! Do you manually format citations and bibliographies, spending hours jumping between apps and tabs? If so, then check out Zoho Writer's built-in "Citations and Bibliography" feature. Imagine you're writing a thesis on the future

    • Single and group checkboxes in Zoho Writer's fillable forms

      Hey Writer Fam, Are you making the most out of single and group checkboxes in fillable forms in Zoho Writer? Here is a handy tip to optimize your use of checkboxes, both single and group, and enhance your data collection process. Single checkboxes: Single

    • Collaborate efficiently with Zoho Writer's track changes feature

      Hi Zoho Writer Community, Zoho Writer's track changes feature is a simple, built-in solution that helps you and your team work together efficiently. Instead of juggling multiple versions of a document or building up a long email chain of comments, each

    • Zoho Writer's WordPress extensions

      Hey Zoho Writer users! Say goodbye to all your WordPress content publishing woes with Zoho Writer's WordPress extensions. Publish content with all your formatting and images, republish content when you update a document, and more—from a single window

    • Time-saving table hacks

      Hey Zoho Writer Community, Do you find yourself using a lot of tables in your documents? We're here to share some of our time-saving hacks that will help you work more efficiently, organize your data, and make your documents look neat and professional.

    • Automating document approval and signing with Zoho Writer and Zoho Sign

      Hey Zoho Writer Community! Here's another automation tip to make your processes more efficient! Question: Can I send a document for client approval first, then automatically send it for signing with Zoho Sign if they approve? Since it's the same person

    • Customization hacks in Zoho Writer - Part 2

      Hey community, We're back with some more tricks to personalize your documents, save time, and get in the zone when you work in Writer. Check out part 1 of this post if you haven't already. Let's dive right in! Document ruler units Imagine you're creating

    • Simplify your tax calculations with Zoho Writer

      Hello Zoho Writer Community! Tax season can be stressful, but with Zoho Writer, managing your income tax calculations becomes straightforward and efficient. Here’s an example of how you can use the tables and formulae of Zoho Writer to calculate income

    • Enhance document navigation with headings and TOC

      Hey Zoho Writer Community! We're back with some useful features in Zoho Writer that can simplify your document creation and navigation process. Let's dive right in! Check out our video on how to make the most of Zoho Writer's heading and table of contents

    • Use and download in PDF format of Zoho wirter Merge template using deluge

      Hello Zoho Developers. Here is some information about Zoho Writer. Writer is not just another online word processor, it's a powerful tool for editing, collaboration, and publishing. Even with its wide range of features, Writer's pared-down user interface

    • Customization hacks in Zoho Writer - Part 3

      Hello everyone, Welcome back to Part 3 of our customization tips in Zoho Writer! In this third installment, we'll be diving into some essential customization settings that can enhance your document creation experience. Sender email address in mail merge

    • Daytime saving timezones messing up writer pdf

      Hi, I need help for something I can't figure out. I created a Form to collect data and it is set up with my current Daylight Saving Time (GMT-3). This form is used to generate a contract (pdf Writer) with dates from an event that is being held in 4 months

    • Issue with locked content in Writer

      Hi, I have seen the documentation which outlines how to lock specific content within a Writer document so that it can't be modified by collaborators, but I have come across an issue. When the editor locks a paragraph for example, then a collaborator can't

    • Deprecation of certain URL patterns for published Zoho Writer documents

      Hi Zoho Writer users! We'd like to let you know that we have deprecated certain URL patterns for published and embedded documents in Zoho Writer due to security reasons. If the published or embedded documents are in any of these URL patterns, then their

    • Using Mail Merge Template to Print Documents with One Subform Record's Fields per Document

      Hello, We have a Mail Merge template created in Zoho Writer which is not able to perform the functionality which is currently required to automate the documentation task portion of our process. The CRM module we are primarily using is based on a "Loans"

    • Problem with Writer and Workdrive

      Hi team, I’m the super admin for our Zoho One org. WorkDrive is active, and Zoho Docs is deprecated for our org. However, Zoho Writer cannot connect to WorkDrive at all — we’ve cleared cache, tried incognito, and restarted several times. I was able to

    • Set to Review for all

      We are testing the use of Writer as part of an internal review process for statement of work documents and have found that when the document is changed from Compose to Review by one person, that is not reflected for all others who view the document. Is

    • I’ve noticed that Zoho Sheet currently doesn’t have a feature similar to the QUERY formula in Google Sheets or Power Query in Microsoft Excel.

      These tools are extremely helpful for: Filtering and extracting data using simple SQL-like queries Combining or transforming data from multiple sheets or tables Creating dynamic reports without using complex formulas Having a Query-like function in Zoho

    • Next Page