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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
This section walks through the step-by-step creation of four key Geo Map reports that reveal business insights from store-level data.
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
- From the dataset, click the Create icon and select Chart View.

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

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

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

- Under the Map tab, click Map control and enable Display Specific Country Map.
- 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.

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

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

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

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

- Toggle Enable Layers to add a second layer.

- 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.

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

- 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:
- Below 2,000
- 2,000-4,000
- 4,000-6,000
- 6,000-8,000
- 8,000-10000
- Above 10,000

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

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

- Change the Marker type under Maps → Marker tab.

- Under the Map tab, change the map to Albers USA Projection.
- 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.
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
- From the dataset, click the Create icon and select Chart View.
- In the chart designer, drag and drop the following columns into their respective shelves:
- Latitude → X-Axis
- Longitude, Male (%), Female (%) → Y-Axis
- City, Store ID, Average Customer Age, Store Type → Tooltip
- Click Generate Graph.

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

- 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.

- Add Store Type as User Filters to slice down store-wise gender distribution.
- 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.
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.
|
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.
Recent Topics
Prevent Unapproved Quotes from Exporting to Zoho CRM Finance Module
Is it possible to prevent unapproved quotes in Zoho Books from being exported from Zoho Finance module inside Zoho CRM?
Updates for Zoho Campaigns: Merge tag, footer, and autoresponder migration
Hello everyone, We'd like to inform you of some upcoming changes with regard to Zoho Campaigns. We understand that change can be difficult, but we're dedicated to ensuring a smooth transition while keeping you all informed and engaged throughout the process.
Process between CRM and Campaigns to ensure double opt-in contacts?
I would like to ask for a few clarifications to ensure we fully comply with best practices and legal requirements: According to the documentation (Zoho Campaigns CRM sync – Default option), the best and recommended way to sync contacts is by using the
What's New in Zoho Inventory | August – October 2025
Hello customers, The last quarter has been incredibly productive! We've released a powerful slate of new features and enhancements in Zoho Inventory designed to give you better control, greater efficiency, and expanded functionality across your inventory
Let's Talk Recruit: Meet Zia, your all-in-one AI assistant (Part-2)
Welcome back to Let’s Talk Recruit series. In Part 1, we introduced Zia and how AI is reshaping the way recruiters work. This time, we’re taking a closer look at how far Zia has come and how each update continues to simplify your everyday tasks. When
Zoho Developer - Feature Request Platform
Zoho Developer is one of the most underatted platform in zoho ecosystem, however, it may just be what zoho needs to welcome more people to use Zoho Services. The more developers you have creating zoho creator applications and zoho extensions the more
Last/Previous month in relative date filter
In the relative date filter, what is the difference between "Last 2 months" and "Previous 2 months"? So, if we are on 25-July, then is my understanding correct of the following: Last 2 months :=: 25-May~24 July Previous 2 months :=: 01-May~30-June Thanks.
Tags get removed from notes on mobile
I don't know why this keeps happening even after all these app updates but if you log out and log back into the app or you reinstall it, all the tags you assigned to your notes get taken off, but if you go on the desktop version the tags are still there.
Show Zoom Link in Recipient's Calendar
We set up meetings within a record, selecting the "Make this an online meeting". We use Zoom. Most of the recipients go to their calendar (usually Gmail or Outlook, corporate) to join the Zoom meeting, but there is no Zoom link in the calendar. Can this
How to fetch custom fields for time entries in Zoho Project API v3
In the previous Zoho Projects REST API, we were able to retrieve custom field details for time entries, including picklist options, using the endpoint: GET /restapi/portal/[PORTAL_ID]/timesheetcustomfields
In the new Zoho Projects API v3, we tried using
VAT rates - exempt and out of scope
Good Evening, UK based company here. I am a bit confused in respect of setting up VAT rates for exempt goods and services; at present I am simply leaving the VAT rate blank in the transactions in order to prevent any VAT appearing in the VAT return. When
Introducing Lead Capture: Empower exhibitors to capture leads effortlessly
Events provide a great opportunity for exhibitors to generate awareness and engage with potential customers. Efficiently distributing attendee information to exhibitors through a seamless and secure way is of paramount importance. Introducing Lead Capture
Work Order Creation Issue
Dear Team, I would like to inquire about the daily limit for Work Order creation in Zoho FSM. Yesterday (02/05/2025) at around 6:30 PM GST, I attempted to create a Work Order, but I have been unable to do so since then. Please find the attached image
Accessing shared mailboxes through Trident (Windows)
Hi, I have a created a couple of shared mailboxes. The mailboxes are showing up on the browser based Zoho workplace, but I cannot seem to figure out how to access my shared inboxes through Trident (Windows). Am I missing something or is this feature not
URGENT: ChatGPT Extension Failing With “gpt-3 Access Error” (Priority Support)
Appreciate support reviewing this urgently. I am a Priority Support member and need immediate clarification on a recurring issue involving the ChatGPT extensions inside Zoho Desk. Both extensions — including the version created and published by Zoho —
Zoho Desk iOS update: Custom buttons, follow/ unfollow option on tickets
Hello everyone! In the most recent Zoho Desk iOS app update, we have brought in support to access the custom buttons configured on web app(desk.zoho.com). Using custom buttons you can seamlessly execute predefined actions directly from their mobile devices,
Zoho pdf suit
Pl. design products with following feature: 1. Please add all features given in Ilovepdf website to work on pdf files. It is mandatory to use pdf in court work. 2. Courts have prescribed New Times Roman, pl. add this font as well 3. Indexing, signature
Zoho Not Working
Today Zoho not wokring
Dynamically autofill fields with URL parameters
I have a zoho form embedded in my organization's WP website. Our users find their account with a search tool, and then can select to open this page with the embedded form. The URL of the page holds the parameter that I need, but I cannot figure out how
User Automation: User based workflow rules & webhooks
User management is an undeniable part of project management and requires adequate monitoring. As teams grow and projects multiply, manual coordination for updating users & permissions becomes difficult and can give way to errors. User automation in Zoho
Integrate Projects for Desk KB article release tasks
Could you please look into the possibility of integrating project tasks for Zoho Desk article release processes? We are looking for an internal integration between Zoho Projects and Zoho Desk's KB article drafting, reviewing and releasing tasks. We could
Issue in Annual Leave
We created a policy to credit 21 days at the Start of the Year An employee has taken 16 days of leaves thought the year, so we expect to see 5 Leaves remaining right? But Zoho People is Showing 12 Days of Leave Balance Available If we check the Leave
Use the searchBy parameter to find user by email address
I'm trying to find a user is Zoho Desk via the Api. In the documentation I see that there is the possibility to add a searchBy parameter in the request. But I can't find how the search values should be formatted. I've tried multiple things and get either
Zoho CRM Community Digest - September 2025 | Part 2
Hello Everyone! Mid-September vibes: fresh tips, smart hacks, and practical Zoho CRM updates all in one place. Let’s dive in. Product Updates: The All-New Address Field! The new Address field type makes it easier to capture complete addresses in one structured
Zoho Vault API: Create new Secrets
Hello, I attempt to Post Secrets to the vault, since the encrypted entries are almost impossible to decrypt, since there is no documentation on how to decrypt them. Like with the lack of documentation on how to descrypt, there are missing information regarding on how to create new secrets/post secrets. Source: https://www.zoho.com/vault/api/#create-a-new-secret When I try to send JSON Informationen as a POST-Request I only receive the error message: { "operation": { "result": { "error_code": "",
CRM and Finance Tab - Add Invoice "Subject " Column
When On a contact in CRM, and you click the Zoho Finace tab, how can I put in the invoice subject line? Or even a custom field for this. We need to see what that invoice is for, without opening it. If we have tons of invoices we need a way to quick
Collections Management: #4 Before, During & After Payment Processing
"Mark, I think the payment link isn't working. Can you send it again?" Staring at a message, Mark got on his phone. This was the third time the same customer had asked him that week. A few minutes later, another message came, "Hey, the invoice total seems
Account name not populating when importing contacts
When importing a csv file to add contacts the account name is blank? Every other filed gets mapped and imported correctly, i.e contact name, phone number. However not the account name which I have mapped to "company" field in my csv file
Suggestion to improve zoho writer
I am using your product, I believe it is very useful, however, i was writing a note and I needed to draw an arrow in different angles to explain a point and I couldn't. it would be helpful, to add draw functions to the zoho writer. thanks
webhook basic authentication
II want to use a webhook to send out a SMS. Unfortunately Twilio does not use an authToken but basic authentication. I created the webhook as POST and get this url: https://{username}:{password}@api.twilio.com/2010-04-01/Accounts/{account}/Messages?body=<BODY>&to=+155555555&from=+1555555555
Custom function return type
Hi, How do I create a custom deluge function in Zoho CRM that returns a string? e.g. Setup->Workflow->Custom Functions->Configure->Write own During create or edit of the function I don't see a way to change the default 'void' to anything else. Adding
Issue with Hour Calculation in Zoho People Attendance Module
I have noticed an issue in the attendance regularization feature of Zoho People. When trying to regularize past dates, the total working hours are not calculated correctly. For example, if I enter a check-in and check-out time for a previous day, the
Push Notification for New Bookings in Zoho Bookings App
when a someone schedules an appointment through the booking page, is there any option to receive a push notification in the mobile app?
Automation in Zoho Sprints
Hi. I have a Sprints board with the following statuses: ToDo, InProgress, CodeReview, Testing, Preprod, Live When a ticket is moved from e.g. Testing to Preprod, the following tags should be modified: remove 'tested OK' remove 'ready for Preprod' add
Export Purchase orders as Excel
Is it possible to export purchase orders as excel rather than PDF? Our suppliers don't want orders made in PDF, they need it to be excel
Draft & Schedule Emails Directly in Bigin
Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're happy to announce a few recent enhancements we've made to email in Bigin. We'll go over each one in detail, but here's a quick overview: Previously, you couldn't draft or schedule emails in Bigin, but
Create CRM Deal from Books Quote and Auto Update Deal Stage
I want to set up an automation where, whenever a Quote is created in Zoho Books, a Deal is automatically created in Zoho CRM with the Quote amount, customer details, and some custom fields from Zoho Books. Additionally, when the Sales Order is converted
Send email template "permission denied to access the api"
Hello, Per the title, I'm trying to send a Zoho CRM Email template based on the advice given here: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/specify-an-email-template-when-sending-emails-in-custom-functions (I'd prefer to send right from Deluge
Zia’s AI Assist now helps you write clearer notes — in seconds
After helping recruiters craft job descriptions, emails, and assessments, Zia’s AI Assist is now stepping in to make note-taking effortless too. Whether you’re recording feedback after an interview or sharing quick updates with your team, you can now
Shortcut to fill a range of cells
Good evening: I'm writing because I haven't been able to find a feature that allows you to select a range of cells, type in one of them, and then use a key combination to type in all of them. In Excel, the keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Enter. I haven't found
Next Page