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 – 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

      • [Webinar] Evolving BI & Analytics in the Age of AI

        Artificial intelligence is redefining how data is collected, analyzed, and leveraged across industries. As businesses strive to become more agile and insight-driven, traditional BI and analytics must transform to meet new demands. AI-first organizations

        • Recent Topics

        • How to refresh a ticket view ?

          I am doing a widget where I send a rest api call to make a new draft to the ticket I am viewing. The issue is sometimes it refresh a ticket view and I can see inserted draft right away, but sometimes I do not see it even if it is inserted correctly and

        • Ugh! - Text Box (Single Line) Not Enough - Text Box (Multi-line) Unavailable in PDF!

          I provide services, I do not sell items. In each estimate I send I provide a customized job description. A two or three sentence summary of the job to be performed. I need to be able to include this job description on each estimate I send as it's a critical

        • Merge Items

          Is there a work around for merging items? We currently have three names for one item, all have had a transaction associated so there is no deleting (just deactivating, which doesn't really help. It still appears so people are continuing to use it). I also can't assign inventory tracking to items used in past transactions, which I don't understand, this is an important feature moving forward.. It would be nice to merge into one item and be able to track inventory. Let me know if this is possible.

        • Supervisor Rules - Zoho Desk

          Hi, I have set up a Supervisor Rule in Zoho Desk to send an email alert when a ticket has been on hold for 48 hours. Is there a way to change it so that the alert only sends once and not on an hourly basis? Thank you Laura

        • ResponseCode 421, 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 136.143.188.51 temporarily deferred due to user complaints

          Had email bounce. Let me know if you can fix this. Thanks. Michael

        • Zoho Canvas - Custom templates for related lists

          Hi, I see that the example pages load always one of our related lists in a custom template, but I dont know how to work with that:  1) How can i make my own custom templates for related lists?  2) Where and how can i check out existing custom templates?

        • Automation #15: Automatically Adding Static Secondary Contacts

          Rockel is a top-tier client of Zylker traders. Marcus handles communications with Rockel and would like to add Terence, the CTO of Zylker traders to the email conversations. In this case, the emails coming from user address rockel.com should have Terence

        • New Zoho triggers Google Dangerous flag due toabnormal charcters

          Just signed up and doing my first email test. I sent it to my google email account but it got flagged as Dangerous" due abnormal characters. My DNS setup looks ok. Page snips attached Help Please Thanks, Rick DC PowerWorld

        • Is there a API to fetch tasks in a Board/Section

          I am writing a scheduled function that retrieves all the tasks and send an reminder on cliq. I cannot seem to find a API to fetch tasks (by user / board / section) What are the way to fetch tasks?

        • Having trouble fetching contents of Zoho Connect Feeds using the API, requesting alternative API documentation.

          I'm trying to retrieve feed/post data from Zoho Connect using the API but facing challenges with the current documentation. What I've tried: OAuth authentication is working correctly (getting 200 OK responses) Tested multiple endpoints: /pulse/nativeapi/v2/feeds,

        • Adding an Account Name to Tasks/Reminders

          Does anyone know how to add the related account name to a task?  When we look at the list of activities and when the reminders pop up, there is no way of quickly seeing who the account is. 

        • Top Bar Shifting issue still not fixed yet

          I mentioned in a previous ticket that on Android, the top bar shifts up when you view collections or when you're in the settings. That issue still hasn't been fixed yet. I don't wanna have to reinstall the app as I've noticed for some reason, reinstalling

        • Triggering Zoho Flow on Workdrive File Label

          Right now Im trying to have a zoho flow trigger on the labeling/classification of a file in a folder. Looking at the trigger options they arent great for something like this. File event occurred is probably the most applicable, but the events it has arent

        • SendMail to multiple recipients

          Hi, I'm trying to send an email to a list of recipients.  Right now the "to" field is directed to a string variable. (List variables won't work here). In the string variable, how can I make it work? trying "user@app.com;user2@app.com" or "user@app.com; user2@app.com" just failed to send the emails. Ravid

        • Populate drop down field from another form's subform

          Hello, I found how to do that, but not in case of a subform. I have a Product form that has a subform for unit and prices. A product might have more than one unit. For example, the product "Brocoli" can be sold in unit at 3$ or in box of 10 at 25 $. Both

        • Usar o Inventory ou módulo customizado no CRM para Gestão de Estoque ?

          Minha maior dor hoje em usar o zoho é a gestão do meu estoque. Sou uma empresa de varejo e essa gestão é fundamental pra mim. Obviamente preciso que esse estoque seja visível no CRM, Inicialmente fiz através de módulos personalizados no próprio Zoho CRM,

        • Signup forms behaviour : Same email & multiple submissions

          My use case is that I have a signup form (FormA) that I use in several places on my website, with a hidden field so I can see where the contact has been made from. I also have a couple of other signup forms (FormB and FormC) that slight differences. All

        • getting error in project users api

          Hello, I'm getting a "Given URL is wrong" error when trying to use the Zoho Projects V3 API endpoint for adding users to a project. The URL I'm using is https://projectsapi.zoho.com/api/v3/portal/{portalid}/projects/{projectid}/projectusers/ and it's

        • Change total display format in weekly time logs

          Hi! Would it be possible to display the total of the value entered in the weekly time log in the same format that the user input? This could be an option in the general settings -> display daily timesheet total in XX.XX format or XX:XX.

        • Different Company Name for billing & shipping address

          We are using Zoho Books & Inventory for our Logistics and started to realize soon, that Zoho is not offering a dedicated field for a shipping address company name .. when we are creating carrier shipping labels, the Billing Address company name gets always

        • How to display historical ticket information of the total time spent in each status

          Hi All, Hoping someone can help me, as I am new to Zoho Analytics, and I am a little stuck. I am looking to create a bar chart that looks back over tickets raised in the previous month and displays how much time was spent in each status (With Customer,

        • Zoho Projects iOS app update: Global Web Tabs support

          Hello everyone! In the latest version(v3.10.10) of the Zoho Projects app update, we have brought in support for Global Web Tabs. You can now access the web tabs across all the projects from the Home module of the app. Please update the app to the latest

        • Zoho Community Weekend Maintenance: 13–15 Sep 2025

          Hi everyone, We wanted to give you a heads-up that Zoho Community will undergo scheduled maintenance this weekend. During this period, some community features will be temporarily unavailable, while others will be in read-only mode. Maintenance Window:

        • Agent Performance Report

          From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports An agent performance report in a ticketing system provides a comprehensive view of how support agents manage customer tickets. It measures efficiency and quality by tracking key performance

        • Show both Vendor and Customers in contact statement

          Dear Sir, some companies like us working with companies as Vendor and Customers too !!! it mean we send invoice and also receive bill from them , so we need our all amount in one place , but in contact statement , is separate it as Vendor and Customer, 

        • URL validation

          We use an internal intranet site which has a short DNS name which Zoho CRM will not accept.   When attempting to update the field it says "Please enter a valid URL". The URL I am trying to set is http://intranet/pm/ Our intranet is not currently setup with a full DNS name and given the amount of links using the shortname probably isn't a feasible change for us.

        • Pourquoi dans zohobooks version gratuite on ne peut ajouter notre stock d'ouverture??

          Pourquoi dans zohobooks version gratuite on ne peut ajouter notre stock d'ouverture ??

        • How can I adjust column width in Zoho Books?

          One issue I keep running into is as I show or hide columns in reports, the column widths get weird. Some columns have text cut off while others can take a fourth of the page for just a few characters. I checked report layout guides and my settings, but

        • Invalid value passed for file_name

          System generated file name does not send file anymore - what is the problem?

        • Custom Function for Estimates

          Hey everyone, I was wondering if there was a way to automate the Subject of an estimate whenever one is created or edited: * the green box using following infos: * Customer Name and Estimate Date. My Goal is to change the Subject to have this format "<MyFirm>-Estimate

        • This domain is not allowed to add. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

          I am trying to setup the free version of Zoho Mail. When I tried to add my domain, theselfreunion.com I got the error message that is the subject of this Topic. I've read your other community forum topics, and this is NOT a free domain. So what is the

        • Search in module lists has detiorated

          Every module has a problem with the search function :-/

        • YouTube Live #1: AI-powered agreement management with Zia and Zoho Sign

          Hi there! We're excited to announce Zoho Sign’s first YouTube live series, where you can catch the latest updates and interact with our Zoho Sign experts, pose questions, and discover lesser-known features. We're starting off by riding the AI wave in

        • Search in module lists has detiorated

          Every module has a problem with the search function :-/

        • Sales Receipts Duplicating when I run reports why and how do we rectify this and any other report if this happens

          find attached extract of my report

        • Add Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM Plus bundle

          Great Zoho apps like CRM and Desk have very limited form builders when it comes to form and field rules, design, integration and deployment options. Many of my clients who use Zoho CRM Plus often hit limitations with the built in forms in CRM or Desk and are then disappointed to hear that they have to additionally pay for Zoho Forms to get all these great forms functionalities. Please consider adding Zoho Forms in the Zoho CRM Plus bundle. Best regards, Mladen Svraka Zoho Certified Consultant and

        • Bigin: filter Contacts by Company fields

          Hello, I was wondering if there's a way to filter the contacts based on a field belonging to their company. I.e.: - filter contacts by Company Annual Revenue field - filter contacts by Company Employee No. field In case this is not possibile, what workaround

        • Has Zoho changed the way it searches Items?

          Right now all of our searches have broken and we can no longer search using the SKU or alias. It was fine last night and we came in this morning to broken.....this is impacting our operations now.

        • Refunds do not export from Shopify, Amazon and Esty to Zoho. And then do not go from Zoho inventory to Quickbooks.

          I have a huge hole in my accounts from refunds and the lack of synchronisation between shopify , Amazon and Etsy to Zoho ( i.e when I process a refund on shopify/ Amazon or Etsy it does not come through to Zoho) and then if I process a manual credit note/

        • CRM->INVENTORY, sync products as composite items

          We have a product team working in the CRM, as it’s more convenient than using Books or Inventory—especially with features like Blueprints being available. Once a product reaches a certain stage, it needs to become visible in Inventory. To achieve this,

        • Next Page