With 11 levels of geography to choose from, Environics Analytics can zero in on the specific geography most appropriate for an analysis: whether it’s a province, a census metropolitan area (CMA), a federal riding (FED), or a postal forward sortation area (FSA), even a tiny dissemination area (DA). And we can also create customized areas for analysis ensuring that any information that is run is relevant to your business. We provide a very wide array of information on any type of area. These insightful, easy-to-read reports help marketers and location experts identify market opportunities, spot trends, and generally develop a deep understanding of the marketplace. Our reports run the gamut from census data, current-year demographics and projections for up to ten years in the future, to household expenditure patterns, PRIZM C2 lifestyles, Social Values and retail banner preferences. We can even detail the media habits and leisure activities of a trade area!

The starting point in many retail-type analyses is to define the trade area. This is an important step requiring the right amount of precision for the purpose at hand. A poorly defined trade area can result in the wrong conclusions, so involving the experts is always a good investment.

Certain simple approaches are appropriate where customer data are not available, or where an approximate trade area is good enough.

  • Circles (e.g. 5km radius) around a location
  • Drive time (e.g. 8 minute)



Where customer data are available, areas can be defined to more closely approximate the pattern of customer origins.

  • Customer defined polygons (e.g. 60, 80, or 90% of customers)

Some applications call for a more rigorous or sophisticated approach, known as Gravity Models. Our experts specialize in the development of Huff-type probabilistic trade area models that may assign proportions of neighbourhood households to more than one store's trade area.

These probabilistic trade area models help you:

  • Understand the extent of store patronage
  • Develop customer profiles
  • Perform competitive analysis
  • Evaluate market penetration and potential
  • Target marketing executions
  • Tailor merchandise mix
  • Select sites

It’s usually helpful to compare the characteristics of a trade area to a benchmark. Some examples are store trade area versus market, school catchment area versus city, political riding versus province and Census Tract versus Census Metropolitan Area.

Standard reports are available for a pre-selected set of variables, or users can customize their reports by selecting variables from a number of databases. Area Profiles typically provide numbers, percent distributions of characteristics and indexes to a benchmark.

Area Profiles are available using a number of Environics Analytics databases including:

  • Adjusted Census
  • Businesses
  • Demographic Estimates & Projections
  • Household Expenditure Potential
  • PRIZM C2
  • Shopping Centres
  • Social Values, BBM RTS Canada, NADbank, Print Measurement Bureau, Canadian Financial Monitor
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