Location decisions play a crucial role in business success. Whether you're a retailer planning store expansion, a healthcare provider optimizing service areas, or a restaurant brand looking for the next high-traffic spot, selecting the right locations can significantly impact your profitability and long-term growth. But how can you ensure your choices are backed by data and not just intuition?
The answer lies in location intelligence software—a powerful tool that helps businesses analyze geospatial data, market conditions, and customer behaviors to make smarter, data-driven decisions about physical locations.
In this blog, we’ll explore what location intelligence software is, how it benefits various industries, and what key features to look for in a solution.
What Is Location Intelligence Software?
Location intelligence software analyzes location-based data to help businesses make strategic decisions about where to expand, optimize, or consolidate their operations. By integrating GIS mapping, foot traffic data, demographic insights, and predictive analytics, these solutions empower businesses to:
- Identify high-potential markets based on consumer demand and competitive landscape.
- Analyze trade area dynamics to assess the potential of a new location before committing to a lease.
- Optimize existing locations by understanding customer movement patterns and local market conditions.
- Refine marketing efforts by providing visitor insights to inform campaigns.
Unlike traditional business intelligence tools, which focus on internal sales and operational data, location intelligence solutions provide a spatial perspective on business opportunities, enabling smarter market planning and strategic decision-making.
Related: Keep up with Your Competitors: Is Location Intelligence the New Secret Weapon?
Real-World Applications of Location Intelligence
Location intelligence software is a powerful tool for businesses that rely on physical locations to attract customers and drive growth. By analyzing geospatial data, customer behavior, and market conditions, organizations can make smarter decisions about expansion, operations, and competitive positioning. Here’s how different industries benefit:
Retail & Restaurants: Brick-and-mortar businesses thrive when they choose the right locations. Location intelligence helps retailers and restaurant chains analyze trade areas, predict store performance, understand competitive saturation, and assess foot traffic patterns to optimize site selection. By identifying areas with a high concentration of target consumers, they can expand into high-potential markets while avoiding underperforming areas.
Healthcare: Medical providers use location intelligence to place facilities where patient demand is highest. By analyzing factors like population density, insurance coverage, and healthcare demand, healthcare organizations can strategically plan new clinics, urgent care centers, and specialty practices to improve patient access and financial performance.
Hospitality: Hotels, resorts, and entertainment venues leverage location intelligence to assess area draw, foot traffic patterns, competition, and local economic conditions. By identifying prime real estate near attractions, transportation hubs, and business districts, they can maximize occupancy rates and revenue potential.
From site selection to market optimization, location intelligence empowers businesses across industries to make data-driven decisions that reduce risk, improve efficiency, and drive sustainable growth.
What to Look for in the Best Location Intelligence Software
Not all location intelligence platforms are created equal. Here are the essential features businesses should prioritize when evaluating solutions:
GIS Mapping Capabilities
Geographic Information System (GIS) mapping is the foundation of any location intelligence software. It allows businesses to visualize:
- Customer distribution and density.
- Market opportunities and competitive landscapes.
- Geographic trade area insights.
Related: What is GIS Mapping? A Beginner’s Guide for Site Selectors and Strategists
Foot Traffic Reporting Capabilities
Understanding movement patterns around a location is critical for evaluating site potential. Foot traffic data helps businesses:
- Identify peak and off-peak hours for consumer activity.
- Assess seasonal trends and customer visit frequency.
- Optimize store hours and staffing based on real-time movement insights.
Geography-Based Reporting Features
Businesses need more than just maps; they need quantifiable insights derived from geographic data. Geography-based reporting provides a deep dive into:
- Population growth trends.
- Other trade area dynamics impacting business performance.
Out-of-the-Box Datasets
A top-tier location intelligence platform should come preloaded with out-of-the-box datasets, offering instant access to:
- Business locations.
- Population demographics and behavioral data.
- Healthcare demand and payor mix insights (for medical providers).
Analytics
Data alone isn’t enough; businesses need insights. Advanced analytics could include:
- Customer profiling to segment audiences based on behaviors and preferences.
- Predictive modeling to estimate revenue potential or visits at new locations.
- Competitive intelligence to analyze how similar businesses are performing in the same trade area.
Buxton Is Your Location Intelligence Solution
Buxton is a market leader in location intelligence solutions, trusted by retailers, restaurants, healthcare providers, and hospitality brands. Here’s a few of the use cases we support.
Site Selection Analysis
Buxton’s site selection analysis tools help businesses reduce risk by bringing science to the art of real estate decision-making. With powerful GIS-based tools, businesses can explore trade areas, analyze foot traffic patterns, visualize customer concentrations, and assess competitive presence before making a commitment. For a more tailored approach, Buxton also offers site scoring models, allowing companies to quantify potential and quickly vet sites based on key success drivers.
Buxton streamlines the site selection process with fast, data-driven analysis—helping brands confidently choose great locations and avoid costly mistakes.
Market Optimization Analysis
From mapping potential customer concentrations to providing healthcare industry hotspots, Buxton’s location intelligence software includes a variety of tools to help businesses identify which markets to enter and where to concentrate their real estate search. For an even more advanced solution, Buxton’s Optimizer, a market optimization analysis tool, helps businesses confidently plan expansion by identifying the right number of locations for each market and pinpointing the best areas for growth. Using Optimizer, businesses can evaluate whitespace opportunities andoptimize existing market presence. Flexible growth scenarios provide instant insights into how different strategies impact long-term potential, helping brands adapt to market conditions with data-backed decision-making.
Whether expanding aggressively or refining an infill strategy, Buxton streamlines growth planning with visual trade area recommendations and credible third-party analysis—ensuring businesses maximize their market potential and achieve higher ROI on new locations.
Mapping and Reporting
Buxton’s mapping and reporting tools provide a one-stop-shop for studying geographic markets and analyzing trade area dynamics with ease. Businesses can visualize key data—demographics, consumer psychographic segments, competitive presence, and market boundaries—through intuitive GIS-based maps. Built-in reports deliver valuable population and market statistics, empowering businesses to make informed strategic decisions.
With user-friendly query tools and collaborative sharing options, teams can streamline real estate packages, support franchise planning, and enhance internal market research—all within Buxton’s powerful SaaS platform.
Location Optimization Analysis
Buxton’s location optimization analysis helps businesses maximize the return on their existing locations by identifying which sites have the most potential for growth and improvement. With performance benchmarking, businesses can design customer-centric strategies, optimize resource allocation, and make data-driven investment decisions.
Businesses also use the out-of-the-box trade area and foot traffic insights in our location intelligence software to better under the dynamics around struggling locations. Based on these insights, they can guide turnaround conversations with key stakeholders.
Customer Story
Cooper University Health Care, a leading academic health system in New Jersey, sought to grow its ambulatory network while maintaining its commitment to Camden. To guide expansion efforts, Cooper partnered with Buxton in 2014, leveraging advanced consumer analytics, Buxton’s healthcare industry site score models, and market insights.
Buxton’s location intelligence software enabled Cooper to identify high-potential areas in the market, compare service line opportunities, and make data-backed expansion decisions. The insights were instrumental in selecting service lines for the Cooper Specialty Care Center at Cherry Hill, ensuring a strong market fit.
Since 2015, Buxton’s analytics has supported nearly every major ambulatory opening, closure, and relocation decision for Cooper, helping the health system expand strategically while reducing risk and optimizing facility performance.
The Bottom Line
Great locations don’t happen by chance—they’re chosen with precision, strategy, and the right data. As businesses navigate expansion, market optimization, and performance improvement, leveraging the best location intelligence software is the key to reducing risk and maximizing success.
Buxton equips businesses with the insights and analytics needed to make smarter, faster, and more profitable location decisions. Whether you're expanding, optimizing, or refining your market presence, Buxton ensures you’re always one step ahead.
Ready to make smarter location decisions? Book a demo today and see how Buxton transforms location intelligence into real business success.
