Our Blog

Thoughts, stories and ideas.

Apprenticeship Reflection

After joining the team in August 2019, I have completed my Level 4 Analyst apprenticeship and was awarded a Distinction. I thought it would be time to reflect on my time at Geolytix so far.

Published 17th March 2021 • Tags our-team
International Women & GEOLYTIX

To celebrate International Women's Day, I thought it would be a brilliant time to celebrate all the fantastic women in the GEOLYTIX team

Published 8th March 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
The Geography of Pokémon GO

With the nation locked away, its not surprising we turned to the world of AR and VR. To celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Pokémon, we delve into the phenomenon of Pokémon GO, and the impact on mobility and tourism alongside the growing presence of AR in the retail world.

Published 26th February 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Global Retail Places

Retail Places identify areas where potential customers are attracted to interact with a retail environment. Retail Venues sit within these to specifically define a concentration of retail within a retail place.

Published 25th February 2021 • Tags geodata
MAPP Q+A: Location Intelligence for Location Planning

Jasmin, our MAPP product manager, answers some of our most common MAPP related questions

Published 24th February 2021 • Tags mapp
Weekly Retail Recovery feeds and activity hotspot maps in MAPP

Mobile ping data is now integrated into MAPP allowing you to use real-life mobile activity data to inform your location decisions. Combining this with our Retail Recovery Index you can track retail recovery trends comparing against both regional and national averages.

Published 24th February 2021 • Tags mapp
Playing to win: Board Game Cafés and the Communal Meeting Space

The UK’s new indoor lifestyle has prompted a boom in the board game industry over the past year, building on past successes. Waiting to eat up this new demand are the country’s surviving board game cafés, provided we haven’t been too scared away from meeting up in person.

Published 22nd February 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Geolytix Supermarket Retail Points V19

Our comprehensive data set of supermarket and convenience store locations across the UK, Retail Points, has now been updated and released the 19th version.

Published 18th February 2021 • Tags open-data
Australia: WFH to a COVID safe workplace.

We look at the effect 2020 has played on the workforce and employment patterns around Australia, a country on its journey out of lockdown.

Published 15th February 2021 • Tags international
Will the most walked path be the online high-street in 2021?

Covid-19 and lockdowns in particular have affected how the UK is shopping, predominately a surge in online shopping. Once lockdown is lifted, will we be itching to get back to the high-street or will online shopping continue to rise in popularity?

Published 8th February 2021 • Tags geodata, team-thoughts
How to reinvent retail spaces for a more sustainable future?

The pandemic has accelerated the so-called Retail Armageddon and we are facing a dramatic oversupply of retail space in the UK. The repurposing of vacant or declining department stores, shopping centres and high streets will require creativity and imagination, but it will also require data.

Published 1st February 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
MAPP shortlisted for best Business Intelligence & Analytics Solution at the Cloud Awards 2020

GEOLYTIX MAPP has been shortlisted for the Clouds Award 2020. Having grown considerably in the last 5 years, our bespoke predictive location intelligence and mapping tool is now used by many major retailers, leisure and F&B operators globally. We're eagerly anticipating the announcement next month

Published 27th January 2021 • Tags mapp, our-team, awards
Groundhog Day

2021 and the UK woke up in another lockdown. We're interested to see how the retail industry is handling a second lockdown; our data already indicates some similarities with last lockdown. Will a preparedness for lockdown have any impact this time round?

Published 27th January 2021 • Tags mobility
A 4-Month journey with Tesla: a change made on fuelling up

Tesla reached record sales last year, narrowly missing its half a million target. And with Tesla's entry-level Model 3 sedans now being manufactured at the Shanghai Gigafactory, Tesla is staying on top of the Chinese electric-car sales leader board.

Published 25th January 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
A bit more help than just the Milkman

2020 was a year we will never forget and it changed the way we socially interacted as a nation. The food industry was significantly impacted, which opened doors for an old British favourite...the milkman.

Published 18th January 2021 • Tags team-thoughts
Happy New Year

2020 was tough for all, but we hope 2021 offers some brighter news.

Published 13th January 2021 • Tags our-team
Life After Lockdown

Anecdotally, town and city centres have been busy since England Lockdown 2 ended last Wednesday. We’ve been busy processing up mobility data from Saturday to see what it tells us about the 18,000 Retail Places we monitor.

Published 9th December 2020 • Tags geodata, mobility
Did Somebody Say…It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas…

Wednesday marked the end of England’s four-week Lockdown II. Many retailers will now be looking to salvage what they can following a tumultuous year. The run-up to Christmas is always a condensed & critical period but in 2020 this is exacerbated. So, what can we expect during these next three weeks?

Published 4th December 2020 • Tags geodata, mobility
Harnessing Mobility Data in Thailand

While Thailand has been successful at managing the Coronavirus pandemic the economic toll has been high with a sharp decline in international tourist arrivals and falling private investment leading to a forecasted -7.3% contraction of GDP in 2020.

Published 27th November 2020 • Tags mobility, international
Barnsley – the future looks bright for a town with real heart and soul

Across the country, 2020 has been challenging in a way that none of us expected it to be. Every village, town and city across the country has its own story of how the year has unfolded, and the impacts of COVID-19 have been felt.

Published 19th November 2020 • Tags mobility
The Wales Firebreak

The Wales Firebreak that came into effect on 23rd October attracted a great deal of media attention last week, with photographs of cordoned off ‘non-essential’ aisles a regular feature. But has the Wales Firebreak worked in terms of reducing activity?

Published 4th November 2020 • Tags geodata, mobility
Consistency Across Borders

As retailers increasingly take a more regional or even global view of multi-channel strategy, the importance of defining and applying a consistent data and analytical approach across borders has also increased.

Published 3rd November 2020 • Tags team-thoughts, geodata
Tiers and Tears

Since areas of the UK began entering local lockdowns in September, we have assembled these boundaries as a useful resource to track what is going on.

Published 27th October 2020 • Tags team-thoughts
Historic England - High Street Heritage Action Zones

How can you use data to identify ‘similar’ locations? For retailers, looking for areas similar to those with high performing stores, this may be a simple enough task. Counts of surrounding population, competition and demographic data lend themselves well to similarity modelling.

Published 21st October 2020 • Tags our-team, team-thoughts, geodata
Geolytix Town & Suburb Boundaries

A common remark we get from clients is their surprise that there is no official published source of suburb/town/city boundary. 8 years ago, Geolytix’s created the Town and Suburb data pack.

Published 12th October 2020 • Tags geodata
Geolytix scoop the ‘Data for Environment’ top spot at the Data IQ Awards

“Because once Green Spaces are lost, they are lost forever” - Fields in Trust

Published 1st October 2020 • Tags our-team, awards
Geolytix Seamless Town & Suburb Boundaries

A common remark we get from clients is their surprise that there is no official published source of suburb/town/city boundary. 8 years ago, the first iteration of Geolytix’s Seamless Town and Suburb were created.

Published 29th September 2020 • Tags geodata
The road to recovery: monitoring UK Retail Recovery using MAPP

Town centres, high streets, retail parks & shopping centres across the UK are experiencing varying rates of retail recovery as lockdown eases.

Published 27th August 2020 • Tags mapp
Geolytix Retail Points - August 2020 - Including UK coverage of Spar

As a result of the COVID-19 outbreak, many supermarket store openings and closures for this quarter were delayed.

Published 25th August 2020 • Tags open-data
How can data help our tourist towns recover?

We’ve been pondering this question at Geolytix. Here in our local state of Victoria, Australia, our tourist towns have been hit by the double whammy of horrific bushfires followed by the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Published 10th August 2020 • Tags geodata, team-thoughts
The office, to be or not to be? Or is the real question... where?

Like many an office biscuit tin, ours is sadly on a career break.

Published 29th July 2020 • Tags team-thoughts
Retail Trend in Mainland China - 2019 Review & Outlook

Over the past three years, the top 10 consumer cities in mainland China witnessed the opening of 437 brand new shopping malls – an average increase of 43 malls in each city! And that hasn’t taken into account any reopening’s after upgrading or redevelopment.

Published 22nd July 2020 • Tags team-thoughts
PRESS RELEASE: Geolytix Retail Recovery Index

There seems to be a broad consensus on top-level recovery rates in the UK as lockdown eases. But every city, town, village, shopping centre, retail park and local parade has its own story.

Published 8th July 2020 • Tags mobility, geodata
Retail Recovery - Que Sera Sera?

We’re often asked what a good level of forecast accuracy looks like. The answer is always: it depends. Some things are hard to forecast. Really hard. Even harder than convenience store turnover. Like, will things ever return to normal?

Published 29th June 2020 • Tags geodata, mobility
COVID-19 and the rise of Click & Collect

I didn’t order anything in the first 10 weeks of lockdown, conscious that I didn’t want to pull a delivery worker out if it wasn’t an essential visit.

Published 19th June 2020 • Tags team-thoughts
Geolytix UK Postal

"For speed and certainty always use a postal district number on your letters and notepaper"

Published 9th June 2020 • Tags geodata