# Account Set Up and Login This guide covers how to access GrowthFactor, configure your account, and manage your login settings. *** ### Getting Access GrowthFactor accounts are provisioned by your organization administrator. Contact them to provision an account, then log in at [https://app.growthfactor.ai](https://app.growthfactor.ai/) If you need access and haven't received an invitation: * Contact your organization's GrowthFactor administrator * Reach out to your GrowthFactor account team * Email support at *** ### Login Options GrowthFactor supports multiple authentication methods. Choose the option that works best for your workflow. First, navigate to [app.growthfactor.ai](https://app.growthfactor.ai), then continue with your preferred sign-in method. If your organization has opted to use SSO, you **must** use SSO to sign in. #### Continue with Google 1. Click **Continue with Google** 2. Enter your Google credentials 3. You're logged in #### Continue with Microsoft 1. Click **Continue with Microsoft** 2. Enter your Microsoft credentials 3. You're logged in #### Continue with Email 1. Enter your email address 2. Click **Continue with email** 3. Open your inbox for a login email 1. If you don't see an email, press the "Try Again" button to resend the email 4. Click the "Log in" button within the email. Note links expire in 1 hour #### Use a Password 1. Navigate to [app.growthfactor.ai](https://app.growthfactor.ai) 2. Enter your email address 3. Click **Use a password instead** 4. Enter your password 1. If you have not set a password, select "Sign up or reset password" and enter your email to receive a link to set your password 5. Click to log in #### Use SSO 1. Click the Sign in with SSO button 2. Follow your organization's sign-in process *** ### Organizations Each organization has its own stores, deals, settings, and team members. You may belong to one or multiple organizations depending on your role. #### Single Organization If you belong to one organization, you'll go directly to the platform after login—no selection required. #### Multiple Organizations If you belong to multiple organizations: 1. After login, you'll see a "Select Organization" screen 2. Choose the organization you want to access 3. You'll enter the platform in that organization's default [workspace](/getting-started/workspaces) #### Switching Organizations Switch between organizations without logging out: 1. Click your profile in the bottom-left corner of the sidebar 2. Click on another organization to switch 3. The platform reloads in the selected organization's default [workspace](/getting-started/workspaces) Your current organization is indicated below your username *** ### Logging Out To log out: 1. Click your **user avatar** in the bottom-left corner 2. Click **Log out** 3. You'll return to the login screen *** ### Troubleshooting #### Can't Log In **Check your email address:** Ensure you're using the email associated with your GrowthFactor account. **Try a different method:** If Google login fails, try Microsoft or email. If email link doesn't arrive, try password. **Check spam/junk folders:** Login emails occasionally get filtered. Check spam if you don't see the email within a few minutes. **Clear browser cache:** Cached data can sometimes cause login issues. Try clearing your browser cache or using an incognito/private window. # Home Home is the first thing you see after logging in. It opens on a greeting and the question **Where are we growing today?** Click **Home** at the top of the sidebar, or the GrowthFactor logo, to come back to it from anywhere.
The Home page with the search bar, the quick action chips, and the Where you left off list
*** ## Search Type into **Search an address, or ask a question…** to start new work. A dropdown opens under the bar as you type, and every row it offers creates a new study.
The Home search bar with an address typed, showing place suggestions above an Ask the agent row
* **An address** — Matching places appear as suggestions. Click one, or press `Enter` to take the top match. The new study opens with a pin dropped there and a trade zone generated from your workspace's default. The pin comes up selected, so its panel is already open. Coordinates like `40.7128, -74.0060` get an **Analyze** row instead of suggestions. * **Ask the agent** — Opens a new study and sends what you typed as the first message to the [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent). Which row `Enter` takes depends on what you typed. Anything phrased as a question, or a request longer than a few words, goes to the agent. A short phrase that matches a place goes to the address. Use the arrow keys to override the highlighted row. Search (shortcut `/`) can be jumped into from anywhere on the Home page. {% hint style="info" %} Addresses are looked up before the study is created, so a lookup that comes back empty says **Couldn't find that address** and leaves no empty study behind. Picking a named business or landmark names the pin after it rather than its street address. {% endhint %} *** ## Quick Actions Below the search bar: * **New study** opens a blank study. * **All studies** opens the full studies list. * **Deal dashboard** opens your pipeline. *** ## Where You Left Off Below quick actions, **Where you left off** lists up to three studies you've edited most recently, newest first, with when you last touched each one. Click one to jump back in. Studies you've never edited yourself don't appear, and the section stays hidden until you have one. # Navigating the Platform The sidebar is how you move around GrowthFactor. It runs down the left of every page and is organized top to bottom: the workspace you're in, **Home**, then your work, then help and your account. *** ## The Workspace Switcher The workspace you're working in sits at the top of the sidebar. Everything below it is scoped to that workspace, so switching changes which studies, stores, layers, and deals you see. See [Workspaces](/getting-started/workspaces). *** ## Home Click **Home** to return to the [Home page](/getting-started/home) — your search bar, quick actions, and recently edited studies. The GrowthFactor logo at the top of the sidebar does the same. *** ## Legacy **Site Analysis** and **Deal Dashboard** sit under a **Legacy** heading. * **Site Analysis** takes one address and returns a full read on it. See [Site Analysis](/site-analysis-legacy/site-analysis). * **Deal Dashboard** is your pipeline. See [Deal Dashboard](/deals/deal-dashboard). The Deal Dashboard is still where deals are managed. Site Analysis is the older single-address workflow, and studies have replaced it for new analysis. *** ## Study and Manage Below Legacy, a two-tab switcher splits the rest of the sidebar. ### Study Where your analysis lives. * **New study** opens an empty study. * **All studies** and **Shared studies** open the full list. * **Starred** holds the studies you've starred. Stars are yours alone. * **Recents** lists what you opened last, with **View all** to see the whole list. See [Studies Overview](/study/overview). ### Manage Your workspace's data and saved work. * **My Stores** — your existing store portfolio. See [My Stores](/manage/my-stores). * **My Layers** — custom layers. See [Map Layers](/manage/map-layers). * **My Files** — files you've uploaded. See [My Files](/manage/my-files). * **Shared Maps** — saved analyses shared with your team. See [Shared Maps](/manage/shared-maps). Workspace admins also see **Admin Settings** here. {% hint style="info" %} The **Study** and **Manage** tabs appear for organizations with Market Planning access. Without it, the sidebar shows a single list of the items above instead of two tabs. {% endhint %} *** ## Collapsing the Sidebar Click **Collapse** at the top of the sidebar to shrink it to icons and give the map more room. Click again to bring the labels back. *** ## Book a Walkthrough The **Book a walkthrough** button sits next to the help menu at the bottom of the sidebar. Click it to schedule time with the GrowthFactor team for platform questions or a guided walkthrough. When the sidebar is collapsed, the button appears as a calendar icon. *** ## Help and Resources Click **Help & Docs** at the bottom of the sidebar to open the help menu. When the sidebar is collapsed, this appears as a **?** icon. The menu provides quick access to: * **Ask AI** — an assistant that answers questions about the platform without leaving the app * **Help & FAQs** — the help documentation and frequently asked questions * **Known Issues** — current platform issues, their status, and when they were last updated * **System status** — a live colored dot shows whether the platform is operational, degraded, or experiencing downtime; click for the full status page * **Changelog** — the latest product updates and improvements *** ## User Menu Click your **user avatar** at the bottom-left of the sidebar to access: * Organization switching, if you belong to more than one organization * Log out Your name and current organization display beneath the avatar. # Workspaces Workspaces let you organize your organization's data — stores, deals, layers, files, and more — into separate groups with independent access controls. Use workspaces to partition work by region, department, brand concept, or any structure that fits your team. {% embed url="" %} *** ## Understanding the Workspace Hierarchy Every organization starts with a single **root workspace** that shares the organization's name. All other workspaces are children (or grandchildren) of this root, forming a tree structure. For example, a national retailer might organize like this: * **Acme Corp** (root) * **East Region** * **Northeast Division** * **Southeast Division** * **West Region** * **California** * **Pacific Northwest** Key concepts: * The root workspace cannot be renamed or deleted * Child workspaces inherit lenses from their parent when created * Each workspace can have its own color for quick visual identification. The color also appears on site pins on the map, making locations from different workspaces visually distinct * Data in a workspace is scoped to that workspace, so switching workspaces will change what you see across the platform *** ## The Workspace Switcher Click the **workspace name** at the top of the left sidebar (below the GrowthFactor logo) to open the workspace switcher.
Workspace switcher dropdown with tree, Join buttons, and quick actions
The dropdown shows every workspace you have **access** to, displayed as a tree. Each row uses a depth-aware diamond icon — filled diamonds for the root, lighter diamonds for descendants — colored by the workspace's assigned color. A **search box** appears at the top once your tree has five or more workspaces. The active workspace is marked with a checkmark. ### Switching Workspaces Click a workspace row to switch to it. The platform reloads with data scoped to that workspace, and the sidebar updates to show the new active workspace. You can only switch into workspaces you are a **member** of — see [Access vs. Membership](#access-vs-membership) below. ### Joining a Workspace If a workspace appears in the dropdown with a **Join** button next to it, you have admin access through a parent workspace but no direct membership. Click **Join**, confirm in the dialog, and you'll be added as an Admin of that workspace and switched into it automatically. ### Quick Actions If you are an Admin of the workspace you're currently viewing, the bottom of the dropdown has three shortcuts that act on the active workspace: * **+ New workspace** — opens the Create Workspace dialog with the active workspace pre-selected as the parent * **Settings** — opens [Workspace Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings) for the active workspace * **Add member** — opens the Add Member dialog to invite an existing org user, or send an invite to a new email Members and Viewers see a short "Ask your workspace admin for access to other workspaces" note instead of these actions.
Add member dialog opened from the workspace switcher
{% hint style="info" %} If you are only a member of one workspace and have no access to others, the workspace switcher will not be clickable. {% endhint %} *** ## Workspace Roles & Permissions Each member can be assigned a role per workspace. Roles control what a member can do within that workspace and its children. | Role | Capabilities | | ---------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Viewer** | View data in the workspace and its descendants. Cannot edit or create resources. | | **Member** | Everything Viewers can do, plus create and edit resources (deals, stores, layers, etc.) in the workspace and its descendants. | | **Admin** | Everything Members can do, plus create/edit/delete child workspaces and manage workspace membership. | Permissions flow downward: an Admin on a parent workspace automatically has Admin access to all of its child workspaces. *** ## Access vs. Membership There is an important distinction between having **access** to a workspace's data and being a **member** of that workspace. **Access** means you can see and interact with a workspace's resources (sites, deals, layers, etc.). Access is inherited from parent workspaces — if you have a role on a parent workspace, you automatically have access to all of its children's data. When you're viewing a parent workspace, resources from child workspaces may appear in your lists and on the map. **Membership** means you are explicitly assigned to a workspace with a role (Viewer, Member, or Admin). Switching directly into a workspace requires membership, so only workspaces you are a member of can be selected in the switcher. The switcher still **lists** workspaces you have access to without membership — they appear with a **Join** button instead of being selectable. In practice, this means: * You might see a site that belongs to a child workspace while viewing the parent, but you can't switch into that child workspace until you join it * An Admin on a parent workspace has full access to child workspace data, but still needs to join a child workspace to switch into it directly. Click **Join** in the switcher to add yourself * Other admins can add members from a workspace's [Members tab](/getting-started/workspace-settings#members-tab) or via **Add member** in the workspace switcher {% hint style="info" %} If you see resources from a workspace you don't have access to, ask an Admin to add you as a member. {% endhint %} *** ## Managing Workspaces All workspace administration — creating, renaming, recoloring, deleting, moving resources, and managing members — happens inside [Workspace Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings). Open it from the **Settings** button at the bottom of the workspace switcher dropdown.
Workspace Settings dialog with the workspace tree on the left
The left tree picks which workspace to edit; the right pane shows that workspace's settings across five tabs: **Defaults**, **Members**, **Resources**, **Logo**, and **Site Score**. See [Workspace Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings) for the full tour. ### Creating a Workspace 1. Open the workspace switcher and click **+ New workspace** (or open Workspace Settings and click **+ Create sub-workspace** / the **+** next to "Workspaces" in the tree) 2. Confirm or change the **Parent Workspace** 3. Enter a **Name** (must be unique among siblings) 4. Optionally add a **Description** 5. Choose a **Color** from the presets or use a custom hex color 6. Click **Create Workspace**
Create Workspace dialog
### Editing a Workspace In Workspace Settings, click the workspace in the left tree, then edit its **name**, **description**, or **color** inline at the top of the right pane. ### Deleting a Workspace In Workspace Settings, select the workspace in the tree, then click **Delete** in the top right of the right pane. Confirm the deletion. {% hint style="info" %} Deleting a workspace also deletes all resources inside it, including sites, deals, layers, files, and any child workspaces. To keep those resources, move them to another workspace before deleting — see [Moving Resources Between Workspaces](#moving-resources-between-workspaces) below. You cannot delete the root workspace or the workspace you are currently viewing. Switch to a different workspace first if needed. {% endhint %} *** ## Moving Resources Between Workspaces Resources like deals, sites, shared maps, custom layers, and files belong to a specific workspace. There are two ways to move them. ### From a Resource's Card Menu For files, custom layers, deals, sites, and shared maps, click the **three-dot menu** on the resource and select **Move to Workspace** (or **Copy to Workspace** for custom layers). Pick a destination workspace and confirm. ### Bulk Move via the Resources Tab For larger transfers, use the [Resources tab](/getting-started/workspace-settings#resources-tab) in Workspace Settings: 1. Open Workspace Settings and select the **source workspace** in the tree 2. Click the **Resources** tab 3. Pick a resource type (Deals, Sites, Shared Maps, Custom Layers, or Files) 4. Use the search box to filter — for Deals and Sites this also matches address, city, and state — then check the items to move 5. Choose a destination workspace and confirm {% hint style="info" %} **Custom Layers are copied** when transferred — a copy is created in the destination and the original stays in the source. **Files, deals, sites, and shared maps are moved** — they're removed from the source workspace. You need member access in both the source and destination workspaces to move resources. {% endhint %} *** ## Managing Workspace Members All workspace membership is managed from the [Members tab](/getting-started/workspace-settings#members-tab) inside Workspace Settings. Pick a workspace in the tree on the left, then add, remove, or change roles on the right. The Members tab has its own search box and **+ Add member** button, and clicking a row opens that member's profile so you can edit their roles across every workspace they belong to. For a quick add to the active workspace without opening the full settings dialog, use **Add member** at the bottom of the workspace switcher. To grant yourself membership to a workspace you have access to but haven't joined yet, click **Join** in the workspace switcher. See [Members](/getting-started/members) for org-level roles and the role/permission model. *** ## Best Practices * **Use descriptive names.** "West Region" or "Franchise Group A" is clearer than "Workspace 1." * **Assign colors consistently.** Use colors to represent regions, business units, or workspace levels so the tree is easy to scan. * **Start broad, split later.** Begin with a few top-level workspaces and create child workspaces as your team's needs become clearer. You can always move resources between workspaces. * **Review permissions regularly.** When team members change roles or leave, update their workspace access to maintain data security. *** ## Related Features * [Workspace Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings) — Defaults, Members, Resources, and Site Score for each workspace * [Members](/getting-started/members) — Org-level roles and the all-members view # Members Membership in GrowthFactor is workspace-scoped: every user is added to one or more [workspaces](/getting-started/workspaces) with a role per workspace, plus an organization-level role that controls platform-wide capabilities. *** ## Where Members Are Managed All member management — inviting users, changing roles, removing access — happens in the [Members tab](/getting-started/workspace-settings#members-tab) inside Workspace Settings. Open the workspace switcher and click **Settings**, then switch the workspace tree on the left to whichever workspace you want to manage. For quick invites to the workspace you're currently viewing, you can also use **Add member** at the bottom of the workspace switcher dropdown without opening the full settings dialog. Both flows are admin-only. *** ## Inviting New Users 1. Click **+ Add member** (in the Members tab or via the workspace switcher's **Add member** shortcut) 2. Search for an existing organization member by name or email, or type a new email to invite someone outside the organization 3. Pick the **role** they should have on the active workspace (Viewer, Member, or Admin) 4. Click **Add to workspace** New invitees receive an email with instructions to set up their account and join your organization. Existing members are added directly to the workspace. *** ## Organization Roles Every member has an organization role that controls platform-wide capabilities, separate from their per-workspace role. | Role | Capabilities | | ---------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Member** | Full access to Site Analysis, Deal Dashboard, My Stores, and all analysis features | | **Admin** | Everything Members can do, plus access to Workspace Settings and Admin Settings | *** ## Workspace Roles Each member can be assigned a role per [workspace](/getting-started/workspaces). Workspace roles control what a member can do within a specific workspace and its descendants. | Workspace Role | Capabilities | | -------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Viewer** | View data in the workspace and its descendants | | **Member** | View and edit resources in the workspace and its descendants | | **Admin** | Full access including creating sub-workspaces and managing membership | Permissions flow downward — an Admin on a parent workspace automatically has Admin access on every child. See [Access vs. Membership](/getting-started/workspaces#access-vs-membership) for the distinction between having access to a workspace's data and being a direct member. {% hint style="info" %} Adding a workspace role makes the member a **direct member** of that workspace, which means it appears in their workspace switcher. A user can have access to a child workspace's data through a parent role without being a direct member — they'll see resources from that workspace, but to switch into it they need to **Join** from the switcher (admins only) or be added by another admin. {% endhint %} *** ## Editing Roles In the Members tab, click a row to open the member's profile, then update their role on any workspace they belong to. To change a member's role on the workspace you currently have selected in the tree, use the **Role** dropdown directly on the row. *** ## Removing a Member To remove a member from a single workspace, open their profile and remove that workspace from their list of permissions. To deactivate a member from your organization entirely, use the three-dot menu on the member's row in the Members tab and select **Delete**. Deactivated members lose access to all workspaces but their historical activity (comments, deal updates) is preserved. To bring a deactivated member back, re-invite them through the normal invite flow—their account is reactivated automatically, their prior workspace memberships and roles are restored, and a new invite email is sent. Note that the role selected in the invite form is not applied to reactivated members; their original roles are kept. {% hint style="warning" %} Workspaces require a minimum of two admins. If you try to remove someone who is the last admin of a workspace, the action is blocked — promote another member to Admin first. {% endhint %} # Workspace Settings Workspace Settings is where each workspace is configured — name and color, members, default search parameters (trade zone, tracked brands, tracked categories), the resources it owns, and the lenses that power its [GrowthFactor Score](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score). Settings are scoped per workspace, so different teams in your organization can tailor analysis independently. *** ## Opening Workspace Settings Workspace Settings is admin-only. Click the **workspace name** in the top of the left sidebar to open the workspace switcher, then click **Settings** at the bottom of the dropdown. (Members and Viewers don't see the Settings button — they see a short note pointing them to ask an admin.)
Workspace switcher dropdown with Settings and Add member buttons
The Workspace Settings dialog opens with the active workspace selected. Use the tree on the left to switch between workspaces — clicking a workspace loads its settings on the right. The tree only shows workspaces you have admin access to.
Workspace Settings dialog with the Defaults tab selected
Each workspace has five tabs: **Defaults**, **Members**, **Resources**, **Logo**, and **Site Score**. *** ## Workspace Header At the top of the right pane, the selected workspace's name, color, and description are editable inline: * **Color dot** — click to change the workspace color from the preset swatches or pick a custom hex * **Name** — click to rename. Name must be unique among siblings * **Add description** — click to add or edit an optional description * **Member count** and **sub-workspace count** — quick stats for the workspace * **Create sub-workspace** — opens the Create Workspace dialog with this workspace pre-selected as the parent * **Delete** — appears in the top right for any workspace other than the one you're currently viewing. The root workspace and your current workspace cannot be deleted {% hint style="info" %} You can also create a new sub-workspace from the **+** button next to "Workspaces" in the left tree, which uses the currently selected workspace as the parent. {% endhint %} *** ## Defaults Tab The Defaults tab controls how site analysis runs in this workspace. This includes the default trade zone used for searches, which brands and categories appear on the Tracked POIs map layer, and the demographic variables the workspace reports on.
Defaults tab showing trade zone, tracked brands, and demographic variables
### Trade Zone The trade zone defines the geographic area used to calculate demographics and analyze site potential. It's used as the default across your workspace. Each workspace has a single default trade zone. If none is set, click **+ Add trade zone**. Otherwise the current zone appears as a card. Click it (or the pencil icon) to edit, or the trash icon to remove. ### Tracked Brands Tracked brands are the specific brands that show up in the Tracked POIs map layer. Each row shows the brand name and its behavior. Click **+ Add brand** to add one, or click a row (or the pencil icon) to edit it; the trash icon removes it. For each brand, choose a behavior: * **Drawn** — complement brands whose customers are likely to also visit you * **Avoid** — competitor brands that draw from the same customer pool * **Neutral** — brands to track on the map without factoring into scoring ### Tracked Categories Tracked categories let you track entire business categories rather than a specific brand, useful when you want to monitor a type of business. The same Drawn / Avoid / Neutral behaviors apply. Click **+ Add category** to add a new entry. {% hint style="info" %} If a tracked brand or category name no longer matches GrowthFactor's data source, a banner appears above the list and the name is highlighted in red. Update or remove it to keep it tracked. {% endhint %} ### Demographic Variables The demographic variables list is the set of metrics this workspace reports on. Every variable here appears in demographic reports for the workspace. Turn on **Analog Matching** for a variable and it's also used to find analog stores. You add, edit, reorder, and remove variables directly in this section.
Demographic variables section of the Defaults tab, with the All / Analog Matching / Other filters above the variable table
Each row shows the variable's name with its ESRI code beneath it, plus three controls: * **Display as** — **Value** for a raw count, or **%** for a share of a denominator * **Denominator** — the variable the percentage is based on. Only percentage rows have one * **Analog Matching** — turn on to also use this variable when finding analog stores Drag a row by the handle on its left to reorder the list. To drop a variable, open its **three-dot menu** and select **Remove**. Changes save as you make them, so there's no separate save step. The **All**, **Analog Matching**, and **Other** filters above the table narrow the list. Each one carries a count. #### Adding a Variable Click **+ Add variable** to open the picker. Search by name or code, or browse the collapsed category groups. Variables already on your list show an **Already added** badge and can't be picked twice. #### Percentages and Denominators Switching a variable to **%** leaves its **Denominator** cell reading **Choose…**, highlighted in amber until you pick one. Click the cell to open the picker, which highlights a **Common denominators** section of the bases used most often. A variable renders as a percentage only once it has a denominator. Switching back to **Value** clears the denominator. {% hint style="warning" %} Keep at least one variable on **Analog Matching**. With none turned on, there's nothing to match against and analogs can't be found. {% endhint %} #### Where Your List Appears * The **Workspace Defaults** tab of the [demographics modal](/data-and-analytics/demographics#workspace-defaults-tab), in the order you set here * The **Demographics** section of a store's detail panel * Analog matching, and the **Matching variables** group in the analog comparison table * PDF and Excel exports, as a **Workspace Defaults** page and category * The [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent), which reads the active workspace's list {% hint style="info" %} Reference the [ESRI Data Browser](https://la.arcgis.com/databrowser-v2/index.html) for code documentation. If a variable you need isn't in the catalog, click **request a new variable** below the table to send a request to the GrowthFactor team. {% endhint %} *** ## Members Tab The Members tab lists everyone with a role on the selected workspace. Use it to invite new members, change roles, or remove access.
Members tab inside Workspace Settings
The list shows each member's email, name, role, workspace, and status. Use the search box to filter by name or email. * **+ Add member** — invite an existing org user or send an invite to a new email * **Three-dot action menu** — change a member's role (Viewer, Member, Admin) on this workspace, or remove them See [Members](/getting-started/members) for full details on org-level vs. workspace-level roles, and the [Access vs. Membership](/getting-started/workspaces#access-vs-membership) distinction. *** ## Resources Tab The Resources tab lists the resources owned by this workspace, grouped by type. Use it to bulk-move (or, for custom layers, copy) resources to another workspace. Deals and Sites show **Address**, **City**, and **State** columns; other resource types show a **Type** column instead.
Resources tab listing deals owned by the workspace
1. Use the **type dropdown** to switch between Deals, Sites, Shared Maps, Custom Layers, and Files 2. Use the **search box** to filter the list. For Deals and Sites, search also matches address, city, and state; for other resource types it matches only the name 3. Check the items you want to move (or check the header checkbox to select all) 4. Choose a destination workspace and confirm {% hint style="info" %} **Custom Layers are copied** when you transfer them — a copy is created in the destination and the original stays in the source. **Files, deals, sites, and shared maps are moved** — they're removed from the source. To duplicate a non-copyable resource, move a copy after the transfer. {% endhint %} *** ## Logo Tab The Logo tab manages a single workspace logo that appears in two places: on **site pins** across the map (replacing the workspace's initials) and in the **header of your public deal dropbox page**. Upload it once and it shows up in both. By default, site pins display the workspace color with the workspace's initials overlaid.
### Uploading a logo 1. Click **Upload logo** (or **Replace logo** if one already exists) 2. Select a **PNG, SVG, or JPEG** file under **512 KB** 3. To remove it and revert site pins to initials, click **Remove** {% hint style="info" %} Square images centered on a white background work best. Only one logo is kept per workspace; uploading a new image automatically replaces the previous one. {% endhint %} *** ## Site Score Tab The Site Score tab controls how the [GrowthFactor Score](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score) is generated for this workspace.
Site Score tab with workspace context and lenses
### Workspace Context A short description of your brand, target customer, and strategic priorities that the AI uses when evaluating sites. A clear context helps the AI generate more relevant, calibrated scores. Edit it directly in the textarea. ### Lenses Lenses are the scoring dimensions that make up the GrowthFactor Score. Each lens row shows its name, a **type** badge (e.g., "AI"), an optional **weight** badge when the weight isn't 1× (e.g., "2×"), a short description, and badges for any connected data sources. Each row has three controls: * **Toggle** — enable or disable the lens for this workspace * **Pencil icon** — edit the lens name, description, weight, and connected data sources * **Trash icon** — remove the lens Click **+ Create lens** to add a new lens. Each lens can be weighted to reflect what matters most to your concept — if one or two dimensions are more important, increase their weight so they contribute more to the overall score. Lenses can also be connected to specific data sources (demographics, nearby businesses, cannibalization analysis, analog stores) so the AI grounds its evaluation in real data. *** ## Creating a Sub-Workspace To add a child workspace from inside Workspace Settings: 1. Open Workspace Settings (workspace switcher → **Settings**) 2. Either click **+ Create sub-workspace** in the top right of the right pane, or click the **+** button next to "Workspaces" in the left tree 3. Confirm or change the **Parent Workspace** in the dropdown 4. Enter a **Name** (must be unique among siblings) 5. Optionally add a **Description** 6. Choose a **Color** from the presets or use a custom hex 7. Click **Create Workspace**
Create Workspace dialog
*** ## Requesting Model Changes Change the demographic variables that drive demographic reports and analog matching yourself, in the Defaults tab's [Demographic Variables](#demographic-variables) section. Add, remove, reorder, and toggle **Analog Matching** on any variable. If a variable you need isn't in the ESRI catalog, click **request a new variable** in that section. Describe the variable you want and submit. The GrowthFactor team reviews the request and follows up. For broader model work — building segmented models for different store formats, regions, or concepts — contact your GrowthFactor team at . *** ## Related Features * [Workspaces](/getting-started/workspaces) — the workspace tree, switcher, and access vs. membership * [Members](/getting-started/members) — org-level roles and the Members page * [GrowthFactor Score](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score) — how scores are generated # Key Terms A quick reference for terminology used throughout the GrowthFactor platform, organized alphabetically. *** #### Analog An existing store used as a comparison point for forecasting new site performance. Analogs are selected based on similarity to the proposed site across demographics, competition, traffic, and other key variables. The core principle: a new site will perform similarly to existing stores that share its characteristics. #### Annotation A note pinned to a place on a study map, visible to everyone with access to that study. Used to record why a site stayed in or dropped out. See [Annotations and Comments](/study/annotations-and-comments). #### Cannibalization The estimated overlap between a proposed site's trade area and your existing store trade areas. Expressed as a percentage—a 25% cannibalization rate means approximately 25% of an existing store's customers fall within the new site's trade area and may shift to the new location. #### Complement A business whose customers are likely to also shop with you. Unlike competitors, complements create beneficial co-tenancy—their traffic becomes potential traffic for your store. Configured in [Workspace Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings). #### GrowthFactor Score An AI-powered composite rating (1–100) evaluating a site across customizable scoring dimensions called "lenses." Default lenses include [Demographics Fit](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score#demographics-fit), [Foot Traffic](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score#foot-traffic), [Competition Analysis](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score#competition-analysis), and [Market Potential](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score#market-potential). Each lens receives its own sub-score, and organizations can add, remove, or reweight lenses to match their brand's priorities. #### Isochrone A boundary showing all points reachable within a specific travel time. Drive-time trade areas are isochrones—unlike circular radiuses, they follow actual road networks and account for real-world travel patterns. #### LOI Letter of Intent—a preliminary agreement expressing serious interest in leasing a property. Commonly used as a pipeline stage indicating active negotiation. #### Pin A point placed on a study map. A pin can represent a candidate site, a competitor, or anything else worth marking. Your existing stores appear on the map already, so they don't need pins. Any pin can become a deal. See [Pins](/study/pins). #### PSF Per Square Foot—sales expressed relative to store size (e.g., $150 PSF means $150 in annual sales per square foot). Normalizes performance across different store sizes for easier comparison. #### Shape An area on a study map, either drawn by hand or generated. Polygons, circles, and extracted real-world boundaries are all shapes. Shapes can be combined with union, intersect, and difference. See [Shapes](/study/shapes). #### Study The workspace for an analysis: one map holding the pins, shapes, trade zones, and annotations you're working with, plus the agent. Private to its creator until shared with the workspace. See [Studies Overview](/study/overview). #### Territory A single shape representing everything a market currently covers, built by drawing a trade zone around each store in that market and combining them with **Union**. See [Shapes](/study/shapes). #### Trade Area The geographic region from which a retail location draws its customers. Can be defined by radius, drive/walk time, or foot traffic patterns. All site analysis (demographics, competitors, projections) is calculated within the selected trade area. #### Trade Zone In a study, the area attached to a pin or an existing store. Generated three ways: a ring in miles, a walk or drive time in minutes, or a foot-traffic percentage. Demographics, cannibalization, and the businesses counted at a location are all measured inside it. See [Trade Zones](/data-and-analytics/trade-zones). #### VPD Vehicles Per Day—the average daily traffic count on a road segment. Higher VPD indicates greater drive-by exposure and visibility potential. #### Whitespace Market areas with customer demand but limited competitor presence—gaps in coverage representing potential expansion opportunities. In a study, whitespace is found by subtracting your combined coverage from the boundary you're planning against. See [Shapes](/study/shapes). #### Workspace An organizational unit within your GrowthFactor account that scopes data and access. Workspaces form a hierarchy—your organization's root workspace contains all data, while child workspaces partition it by region, department, or any structure your team needs. Each member can have a different role (Viewer, Member, Admin) per workspace. See [Workspaces](/getting-started/workspaces). # Contacting our Experts The GrowthFactor team includes dedicated retail real estate analysts. When you need a second opinion, deeper validation, or hands-on support, they're available to help. *** ### When to Contact an Expert **High-stakes decisions:** Major investments, competitive auction situations, or sites where the data sends mixed signals. **Validation:** You've done your analysis and want an unbiased second opinion before moving forward. **Complex situations:** Unusual site characteristics, emerging markets, or scenarios where standard analysis may not capture the full picture. **Custom analysis:** Needs that go beyond the platform's self-service capabilities. *** ### How to Reach Us Contact the GrowthFactor analyst team through any channel: | Channel | Contact | | --------- | ---------------------------------------------------- | | **Email** | | | **Slack** | Direct channel (if configured for your organization) | Response times vary by plan level and request complexity. Growth and Enterprise plans include dedicated analyst support with prioritized response. *** ### What Experts Provide Our analysts bring 50+ years of combined retail real estate experience to every engagement: * **Unbiased recommendations:** Pure data validation without agenda * **Go/no-go guidance:** Clear recommendations when you're stuck between options * **Custom modeling:** Analysis tailored to your specific concept and requirements * **Direct discussion:** Talk through findings and implications, not just receive a report # Market Planning *** Market planning is how you decide where to open next. You lay out the candidates you're weighing against the footprint you already have, measure the area each one serves, and compare them on the same map. All of it happens in a **study**. This guide walks the whole workflow, from an empty map to a shared plan. Each step links to the page with the full detail. *** ## 1. Start a study Open the **Study** tab in the sidebar and click **New study**. The map opens with your existing stores already on it, so you're never starting from a blank slate. The study is private until you share it. A title is generated a few seconds after you add your first pin or start chatting, so you don't have to name it up front. See [Studies Overview](/study/overview). *** ## 2. Place what you're evaluating Use the **Pins** menu on the map toolbar. **Drop pin** (shortcut `D`) places one where you click, and **Search to drop pin** (shortcut `S`) places one at an address. Drop a pin for anything worth marking: a candidate site, a competitor, a landlord's suggestion. Don't pin your own stores — they're already on the map from your portfolio. See [Pins](/study/pins). *** ## 3. Define the area each site serves A pin on its own is just a point. Analysis needs an area, so give each candidate a **trade zone**. Select the pin and click **Draw trade zone**. The **Generated** form prefills from your workspace default, so most zones are one click. You can also set it yourself as a ring in miles, a walk or drive time, or a foot-traffic percentage. Trade zones work on your existing stores too. That's what makes coverage comparable between candidates and current locations. See [Trade Zones](/data-and-analytics/trade-zones). *** ## 4. Read the data Select a pin to open its panel and its **Data** tab. Five cards cover the site: | Card | What it answers | | ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | | **Site Score** | How this location scores overall, and which lenses drove it | | **Forecast** | Projected sales, with a range and comparable stores | | **Cannibalization** | How much this site would take from stores you already run | | **Demographics** | Who lives in the trade zone | | **Foot Traffic** | Observed visitor patterns nearby | Full detail on each: [GrowthFactor Score](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score), [Sales Forecast](/data-and-analytics/sales-forecast), [Cannibalization](/data-and-analytics/cannibalization), [Demographics](/data-and-analytics/demographics), and [Foot Traffic and Brand Rankings](/data-and-analytics/foot-traffic-and-brand-rankings). To weigh candidates side by side, give them the same trade zone type. A 10-minute drive time and a 1-mile ring don't compare. *** ## 5. Add your own context Open the **Layers** tab and click **Add layer** for vehicle traffic, zoning, tracked competitors, and deal stages. Layers your workspace has imported appear here too. This is where a plan starts to look like your business rather than a generic map. See [Map Layers](/manage/map-layers). *** ## 6. Map your coverage, then find the gaps Draw a trade zone around each store in the market, shift-click them all, and click **Union**. You get one shape showing everything that market covers today. Name it for the market. Whitespace is that run backwards. Extract the boundary you're planning against with **Extract boundary** (shortcut `X`), select it along with your coverage shape, and click **Difference**. What's left is the part of the market nobody serves. Drop pins inside it and run demographics to see how much demand is sitting there. See [Shapes](/study/shapes) for combining shapes, building territories, and extracting boundaries. *** ## 7. Capture the reasoning A plan that only shows conclusions is hard to defend later. Use **Add annotation** (shortcut `A`) to pin a note to a place on the map, and comment on individual pins and shapes to record why a site stayed in or dropped out. Annotations and comments are visible to everyone with access to the study. See [Annotations and Comments](/study/annotations-and-comments). *** ## 8. Share it, or turn it into a deal Click **Private** in the study header and choose **Shared with workspace** to open the study to your team. Use **Export** for a PDF to walk through in a meeting, or an Excel file for the underlying numbers. See [Sharing and Exporting Studies](/study/sharing-and-exporting-studies). When a site is worth pursuing, click **Create deal** on its pin. It enters your pipeline with its address and site intelligence already attached, and the pin itself becomes that deal on the map. See [Creating and Managing Deals](/deals/creating-and-managing-deals). *** ## Let the agent do the work Anything above can be asked for instead of clicked. The **GrowthFactor Agent** sits beside the map and acts on the study directly, so your team sees what it does. * "Drop a pin at 4th and Main, Boston" * "Draw a 10 minute drive time around P1" * "What are the demographics of S1?" * "Where's my whitespace in Phoenix?" See [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent). To use the same tools outside the app, see [MCP](/mcp). # Studies Overview ## What a Study Is A study is where your market exploration and analysis live. You drop pins, draw shapes, add annotations, and run analysis on the map — all of it saved as you go. This work can also be seen and continued by team members with access. Studies are listed on the **Studies** tab in the sidebar, along with the **Starred** and **Recents** sections. *** ## Creating a Study Click **New study** on the **Studies** page, from the sidebar, or on [Home](/getting-started/home). The new study opens with the name **Untitled study**. You need edit access to the workspace to create a study; viewers will see the list but not the button. Searching an address or asking a question in Home's search bar also starts a study — see [Home](/getting-started/home#search). *** ## Naming a Study ### Automatic Naming As you begin working in a new study, a title is generated for it automatically. This happens a few seconds after you add your first pins or trade zones, or as you begin chatting with the agent. Auto-naming only happens when the study is untitled, so it never overwrites a name you chose. ### Renaming a Study Click the study name at the top of the Study panel and type a new one. You can also click **Rename** in the **⋯** menu next to any study on the **Studies** page. *** ## The Study Workspace A study opens as one screen: the agent on the left, the map in the middle with its toolbar, and the right panel for everything the study contains. ### The Agent The **GrowthFactor Agent** sits in a panel beside the map and acts on the study as you talk to it. It isn't available in a read-only or archived study. See [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent). ### The Toolbar Drawing tools are grouped behind two menus, **Pins** and **Shapes**, with annotation and history controls alongside them. A hint below the toolbar tells you what to click next once a tool is active. See [Controls & Shortcuts](/study/controls-and-shortcuts) for the shortcut list, and [Pins](/study/pins) and [Shapes](/study/shapes) for what each tool produces. ### The Study Panel The **Study** tab shows the study name, counts of pins, trade zones, and shapes, then up to three sections: **Pins** (add button **Add pin**, empty hint **No pins yet — click + to drop one.**), **Deals & Stores** (the deals and portfolio stores this scenario's trade zones are anchored to, including any pins promoted to a deal — hidden when there are none), and **Shapes & Boundaries** (add button **Extract boundary**). Hover any row for a trash icon to delete it without opening it. Select a pin, shape, site, or deal and the tab becomes **Pin**, **Shape**, **Site**, or **Deal** and shows that entity's details and analysis. Click **Study** again to return to the study overview — its tooltip reads **Back to study overview** while a detail view is open. Drag the panel's left edge to resize it, or use **Collapse panel** to get the full map back. Next to **Collapse panel** is a badge with the study's workspace, colored to match the workspace's assigned color, with a **View only** tag if you only have viewer access there. ### The Layers Panel The **Layers** tab controls what's drawn on the map — built-in data layers, your own custom layers, annotations, and the basemap. See [Data & Layers in a Study](#data-and-layers-in-a-study) below. *** ## Data & Layers in a Study ### Adding a Data Layer Open the **Layers** tab and click **Add layer** to open the **Add a data layer** picker. The built-in layers are **Vehicle Traffic**, **Foot Traffic POIs**, **Tracked POIs**, **Zoning**, **My Stores**, **Deal Stages**, and — for accounts in the closed beta — [**Available Listings**](/data-and-analytics/available-listings). Once everything is added the picker reads **All layers added.** Added layers group under **Data**. Click a row to toggle its visibility, click **Show all** or **Hide all** in the section header to toggle every added data layer at once, or use the X to remove it. New studies start with **My Stores**, **Deal Stages**, and **Tracked POIs** already added, with **Tracked POIs** hidden until you turn it on. ### Custom Layers Workspace layers you haven't added yet sit in a **Custom Layers** group inside the picker. Once added they group under **Custom**, where **Show all** / **Hide all** toggles them all together. Removing a custom layer from a study only removes it from your view — the underlying layer stays in the workspace. See [Map Layers](/manage/map-layers). ### Tracked Businesses Expand **Tracked POIs** and click **Edit** to see which brands and categories the study is tracking. The header tells you whether you're **Using workspace defaults** or **Custom for you**. Defaults come from workspace settings. Any brands or categories you add yourself are visible only to you, and they stay in place until you reset. Use **Reset to defaults** to go back to the workspace set. While you're on workspace defaults, **Refresh defaults** pulls in the latest workspace settings. Admins can push a custom set to the whole workspace with **Save as defaults**, or jump to [workspace settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings) with **Edit Defaults**. For more on tracked brands and categories, see [Points of Interest](/data-and-analytics/points-of-interest). {% hint style="warning" %} The layers you add to a study are remembered in your browser, not saved to the study. A teammate opening the same study sees the default layers, not the ones you added — and you'll see the defaults again if you open the study in a different browser. {% endhint %} *** ## Finding and Organizing Your Studies The **Studies** page lists every study you can see, with when it was last edited and by whom, and whether it's **Shared** or **Private**. Use **Search studies** to filter by name. ### Starring Use **Star** in a study's **⋯** menu, or the star icon in the study header. Starred studies appear in the **Starred** section of the sidebar, above **Recents**. Stars are yours alone — teammates don't see them — and they don't change the order of the studies list. **Unstar** removes it again. ### Sorting Click **Filter** and pick a **Sort by** option: **Recently edited** (the default), **Least recently edited**, or **Alphabetical**. Your choice is remembered the next time you open the page. ### Filtering by View The toggle above the list switches between **All**, **Private**, **Shared**, and **Archived**. If you have access to more than one workspace, **Filter** also lets you narrow the list to specific workspaces. *** ## Archiving a Study Choose **Archive** from a study's **⋯** menu and confirm. Archived studies are hidden from **Recents** and the main list, and move to the **Archived** tab — open one and it's read-only, with the agent hidden. **Unarchive** brings it back. Archiving is how studies are removed; there is no permanent delete. *** ## Asking the Agent Anything you can do by hand in a study, you can usually ask for instead. For example: * "Drop a pin at 4th and Main, Boston" * "What are the demographics of S1?" * "Merge S1 and S2 into one shape" * "What brands are inside S1?" See [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent) for how the agent works and what else it can do. The agent isn't available in archived studies. # GrowthFactor Agent The **GrowthFactor Agent** is a conversational AI analyst built into the GrowthFactor app. Ask it a question in plain English and it carries out the work using the same tools you'd use yourself — finding sites, scoring locations, pulling demographics, running cannibalization, fetching foot traffic, and assembling trade zones — then surfaces the results as text, tables, and work on your study map. *** ## Opening the Agent The agent lives inside a study. Open a study and the agent panel is already there on the left, beside the map. Get to one from the **Study** tab of the sidebar: **New study**, **All studies**, **Shared studies**, or anything under **Recents**. See [Studies Overview](/study/overview).
A study with the agent panel on the left, the map in the middle, and the study panel on the right
Three controls sit in the panel header: * **History** — your saved conversations. See [Conversation history](#conversation-history) below. * **New Chat** — starts a fresh thread. * **Collapse Agent** — tucks the panel away and gives the map the full width. An **Agent** pill appears in the top-left corner to bring it back. Drag the panel's right edge to widen it. Drag it narrower than its starting width and it collapses. When the map has drifted from the study's pins and shapes, a **Fit map to study** button appears at the bottom of the panel. Click it to re-center the map on everything in the study. A study with no conversation yet opens on a few starting points: prompts about your portfolio, and cards for the deals you touched most recently. {% hint style="info" %} This is the Market Planning experience. Without Market Planning access, the agent is a standalone **Agent** item in the sidebar and works against a map of your sites rather than a study. {% endhint %} ## What you can ask The agent is best at the kinds of questions you'd otherwise click through several screens to answer. A few starting points: * **Find sites** — "Find me three candidate sites in Charlotte with strong daytime population and low cannibalization." * **Score a location** — "Score 1234 Main St, Austin, TX." * **Pull demographics** — "What's the median household income in a 3-mile ring around 500 5th Ave, NYC?" * **Pull foot traffic** — "What's the weekly foot-traffic trend for the Starbucks at 200 Park Ave?" * **Pull vehicle traffic** — "What's the vehicle traffic near this pin between 8 and 9 AM?" Ask for a single hour, the full 24-hour profile, or the daily total. * **Profile an area you've drawn** — "What are the demographics inside S1?" Demographics, foot traffic, and the brands present all work on a drawn shape, not just a point. * **Compare options** — "Compare the trade-area demographics for these three addresses." * **Run a forecast** — "Forecast sales for this pin." The agent asks which of your workspace's models to run and collects the inputs that model needs. See [Sales Forecast](/data-and-analytics/sales-forecast). * **Work your pipeline** — "How many deals are in my pipeline right now?" or "Create a deal at 1234 Main St." It only writes to a deal or store when you ask it to, using values you gave it, and creating or updating a deal or site pauses for your approval first — see [Approving sensitive actions](#approving-sensitive-actions). * **Ask how GrowthFactor works** — "How do I draw a trade zone?" or "What does the GrowthFactor Score measure?" The agent answers from GrowthFactor's product documentation and includes links to the pages it drew from. Ask a broad question and it will plan rather than stall. "Where should I open next in Boston?" comes back with a shortlist of corridors to evaluate and a plan for how to compare them, so you can swap candidates before any analysis runs. *** ## How results show up * **Text and tables** — answers appear inline in the chat, with tables for side-by-side comparisons * **Tool cards** — each step the agent takes appears as its own card, marked **Running** then **Done**. Expand one to see exactly what it sent and what came back * **Work on the study** — pins, trade zones, and shapes the agent creates are part of the study, listed in the **Study** panel under **Pins & Trade Zones** and **Shapes & Boundaries** and toggleable from the **Layers** tab. They behave like anything you drew yourself * **Streaming responses** — a thinking indicator shows between submit and the first response, and answers stream in as the agent works *** ## Approving sensitive actions Creating or updating a deal, creating or updating a site, and deleting a pin, shape, or annotation all need your OK first. A card appears above the message box naming the action — **Create deal?**, **Update deal?**, **Create site?**, **Update site?**, **Delete map item?**, or **Delete annotation?** — along with the details it's about to use. Choose **Approve** to run it or **Cancel** to stop it. If you ask it to create a site very close to one already in your portfolio, the card asks **Add another here?** instead, so you can confirm you want a second site there rather than ending up with an accidental duplicate. When the agent proposes several of these at once, they show as a scrollable list above the message box. A bar at the top shows how many still need a decision, with **Approve all** and **Cancel all** buttons to decide the whole batch at once. Sending a new message instead cancels whatever's still pending. *** ## Building trade zones on the map The agent builds on your map. Everything it draws behaves like anything you drew yourself, so you can keep refining it or hand it off. For the mechanics by hand, see [Pins](/study/pins) and [Shapes](/study/shapes). What follows is how to ask for them. * **Drop or move a pin** — "Drop a pin at 222 Third St, Cambridge," or "Move P1 to Back Bay." The agent geocodes the address itself, so you don't need to add the pin first, and anything linked to a moved pin refreshes to match. * **Draw a trade zone** — "Draw a 10-minute drive-time zone around it." Works with drive-time, walk-time, ring, or foot-traffic definitions. Pointed at an address with nothing pinned there yet, it anchors the zone to a new pin and tells you it did. * **Draw a trade zone on an existing store** — "Draw a 10-minute drive-time zone around my Springfield store." The agent anchors the zone to the store in your portfolio rather than dropping a duplicate pin. * **Link a shape you already drew** — "Make S1 a trade zone for P2," or link it to one of your stores. Only shapes you drew by hand qualify; a shape an analysis produced can't be re-anchored. * **Combine shapes into a territory** — "Merge the trade zones for my three downtown stores," "show me where S1 and S2 overlap," or "trim S1 by cutting out S2." Refer to shapes by their on-map label; each combine replaces its inputs with a single result. ### Finding your whitespace Subtracting your coverage from the market you're planning against is the fastest way to see **uncovered demand**. Extract the boundary yourself first (see [Shapes](/study/shapes)), then ask the agent to merge your store trade zones and cut the result out of it — what's left is the part nobody serves yet. *** ## Cannibalization Point the agent at a candidate pin and it compares that pin's trade zone against **every other pin, drawn area, and existing store** in the study — not just a single pair. * "How much would this new pin cannibalize my other candidates and existing stores?" * "Would this pin overlap any of my portfolio stores?" The result is a table: the overlap for each contributor plus a combined total. The agent adds no layer for cannibalization — the overlapping trade zones are already on the map as shapes, so you read the geography and the numbers side by side. Asked this way, the target always has to be a pin; to run it from a store, use the side panel described in [Shapes](/study/shapes). {% hint style="info" %} Both sides need a trade zone drawn in the study — pins and stores alike, with no fall back to the workspace default. Anything without one is skipped, and the agent will offer to draw the missing zones first. {% endhint %} *** ## Annotating your work The agent can mark up a study so your analysis is easy to follow later or hand to a teammate. See [Annotations and Comments](/study/annotations-and-comments) for how notes and comment threads behave. * **Leave a note** — "Add a note explaining why we ruled this corner out," or ask it to reply in a thread that's already going. Notes it writes are attributed to the agent, not to you. * **Rename** — "Rename S1 to 'North Austin.'" Names are capped at 16 characters and have to be unique within the study. * **Restyle** — "Turn P1 green" or "Give S1 a dashed orange border." Pins take a color; shapes take a fill color and a solid, dashed, or dotted border. * **Clean up** — "Delete P3," or ask it to remove a note you no longer need. Deleting always pauses for your approval first — see [Approving sensitive actions](#approving-sensitive-actions) — and if the thing was created by an analysis, the agent also warns you beforehand, since deleting it removes everything else that analysis produced. *** ## Conversation history Each study keeps its own conversation. Reopen the study and your thread loads back exactly as you left it, so you can build on earlier turns instead of restating context. **History** lists every conversation you've saved in the current workspace, newest first. Pick one to load it into the panel — do that inside a study and the study starts following that conversation instead. Hover a row to delete a conversation you no longer want; deleting is permanent. As a conversation grows very long, the agent lets you know and suggests you ask it to summarize where you've gotten to, then start a **New Chat** with that summary. *** ## Memory Separate from a single conversation's history, the agent **remembers useful context about you and your team across conversations**. Tell it once that you're focused on drive-thru sites, that daytime population matters most to your model, or that you're expanding in the Southeast, and it carries that forward the next time you talk — you don't have to repeat yourself. * **What it remembers** — durable facts and preferences you share (your criteria, focus markets, how you like results framed), not the raw numbers from any one analysis. * **Part yours, part your team's** — every memory is stored against both you and the workspace you were working in. Yours follow you into any workspace you open, and a teammate working in that same workspace can surface what you told the agent there. * **Always improving your results** — the more it learns about how your team evaluates sites, the more tailored its analysis gets. *** ## Submitting feature requests You can ask the agent to pass along a feature request or piece of feedback to the GrowthFactor team. Before anything is sent, the agent **confirms the request with you**—showing you what it's about to submit so you can approve or refine it first. Nothing is filed automatically. *** ## Workspace context The agent reads context from the **active workspace** you're in: * Site Score lenses and weights * Default trade-zone definition * Demographic variables * Brand-specific model defaults If you're in a sub-workspace, the agent uses **that** sub-workspace's context, not the root workspace's. To run a question against a different workspace's context, switch workspaces first. You can also ask the agent to use a **specific trade zone** in your question (e.g., "use a 5-minute drive time"), and it will use that instead of the workspace default for that turn. *** ## What the agent can see The agent works with your own account and permissions — if you can't see a site, store, or study in the app, neither can the agent. A few specifics worth knowing: * **Your portfolio** — the agent can read stores and deals from every workspace you have access to, not only the one you're currently in. Configuration like Site Score lenses and the default trade zone still comes from the active workspace. * **Your conversation is yours** — a teammate opening the same study starts their own thread. They can't see your chat, and you can't see theirs. * **What it remembers is shared with your workspace** — see [Memory](#memory) above. Anything you tell the agent can surface for a teammate working in the same workspace. * **Read-only studies** — the agent panel doesn't appear in a study you only have view access to, or in an archived study. Unarchive the study to get it back. *** ## Tips for good results * **Be specific about location** — full addresses or named places work better than vague descriptions * **Specify the trade zone** if the default isn't what you want * **Refer to what's on the map by its label** — "P1," "S1," or a name you gave it — rather than re-describing the location * **Share feedback** — the agent is new and improving quickly; let us know what worked and what didn't at *** ## Agent vs. the MCP The Agent is the best place to build a market strategy — it draws and combines trade zones on your study map, runs cannibalization against every pin and store in a study, and remembers your work across sessions. When you'd rather work inside the AI tool you already use, or turn a finished strategy into a committee-ready deck, reach for the [GrowthFactor MCP](/mcp) instead. See [MCP vs. the GrowthFactor Agent](https://docs.growthfactor.ai/study/pages/G8cg8CZGrLdFY2w6glZy#mcp-vs.-the-growthfactor-agent) for a full comparison. # Pins ## What a Pin Can Represent A pin marks a point on the study map. Use one for: * A candidate site you're evaluating. * A location you want data on — a pin can run **Site Score**, **Forecast**, **Cannibalization**, **Foot Traffic**, and **Vehicle Traffic**. * An anchor for a trade zone. See [Shapes](/study/shapes). *** ## Dropping a Pin Open the **Pins** group in the map toolbar, choose **Drop pin** (shortcut `D`), then click the map. You can also right-click any empty point on the map and choose **Drop pin here**. Drop a pin mode will stay on until you select a location to drop the pin or press `ESC`.
The Pins group open in the study map toolbar, showing Drop pin and Search to drop pin
The pin that is created will be labelled with the street name from the address. The description will be the pin's full address. ### Searching for an Address Choose **Search to drop pin** (shortcut `S`) to open a search box — **Search an address to drop a pin…**. Enter an address to drop a pin. ### Duplicate Pin Detection If the point you click resolves to a place already pinned in the study, that existing pin is reused rather than a second one stacking on top of it. When you ask the agent for an address instead, it checks for pins within 50 meters of that point first and asks whether you want to use the existing pin or drop a new one. The same check applies when it draws a trade zone at a raw coordinate. *** ## Naming a Pin A pin's on-map label is its handle, and it's editable everywhere the pin appears: click the handle in the map toolbar or in the side panel header, or right-click the pin and choose **Rename**. Handles have to be unique within a study across pins and shapes alike, so a name already in use is rejected. When you ask the agent to drop a pin you can give it a name up front, and that name becomes the label instead of the address. *** ## Moving a Pin Select a pin, then drag it. Pins are only draggable while selected. Anything anchored to the pin, including its trade zones and any analysis run on it, refreshes at the new location. If a linked refresh doesn't finish, an error message appears notifying you to move the pin again to retry. A pin linked to a deal can't be dragged — move the deal from its own detail page instead. *** ## The Pin Side Panel Selecting a pin opens its detail panel on the right: * **Name** — the pin's handle, editable in place, with its address beneath (coordinates when no address resolved). * **Trade zones** — every zone anchored to this pin, plus a button to add another. * **Data** — what's available for the location. See below. * **Comments** — the pin's thread, with a count badge on the tab. *** ## Data at a Pin The **Data** tab is where you see what's available for that location. Open one and it stays in the panel, so you can keep several in view at once.
The pin panel on the Data tab, listing Site Score, Forecast, Cannibalization, Demographics, and Foot Traffic
* **Site Score** — a lens-weighted score for the location, broken out by lens. Admins get an **Edit** shortcut into the lens configuration. See [GrowthFactor Score](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score). * **Forecast** — a sales projection from one of your workspace's predictive models. Pick the model and fill in its inputs, and you can inspect the analogs behind the result. See [Sales Forecast](/data-and-analytics/sales-forecast). * **Cannibalization** — how much this pin's trade zone overlaps the other pins, stores, and deals in the study. See [Shapes](/study/shapes). * **Foot Traffic** — visitation for the location. * **Vehicle Traffic** — the nearest road's daily volume and hourly pattern. See [Vehicle Traffic](/data-and-analytics/vehicle-traffic). Demographics is measured across an area, so it comes from a shape rather than a pin. *** ## Styling a Pin Selecting a pin swaps the draw toolbar for a style toolbar with a **Pin color** swatch, **Draw trade zone**, and **Delete**. Color is the only visual property a pin has — fill and border styling apply to shapes. *** ## Commenting on a Pin Open the **Comments** tab and type into **Add a comment to this pin…**, or right-click the pin and choose **Add comment**, which jumps straight to the tab with the box focused. Threads are flat — later entries post as replies into the same list under **Reply…**. See [Annotations and Comments](/study/annotations-and-comments). *** ## The Pin Context Menu
The context menu on a study pin
Right-click a pin for: * **Draw trade zone** * **Create deal** — hidden once the pin already has a linked deal * **Add comment** * **Rename** * **Delete "P1"** — the item names the pin it will remove *** ## Existing Stores on the Map ### How Your Stores Appear Your portfolio from [My Stores](/manage/my-stores) draws on the study map as the **All Stores** layer, clustered and toggleable like any other layer. Stores aren't part of the study document — every teammate with workspace access sees the same stores, and selecting one is a local action that changes nothing for anyone else. ### The Site Panel Click a store to select it. The side panel opens on that store, headed by its site ID and address, and the map toolbar offers **Draw trade zone** — you can anchor a zone straight to the store without dropping a pin on top of it. The panel also lists **Trade zones** already anchored to the store and lets you run **Cannibalization** and **Vehicle Traffic** on it. Right-clicking a store gives you just two items: **Draw trade zone** and **Update ID**. Stores have no comment threads. ### Editing Store Details Edits in the panel write back to the store itself, so they show up everywhere that store appears: * **Site ID** — the panel title; also reachable via **Update ID** on the context menu * **Sales** * **Sq ft** * **Opened** ### Pins vs. Existing Stores | Pin | Existing store | | ---------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | A candidate location you place in a study | A location you already operate | | Lives in the study | Lives in your workspace portfolio | | Renameable, recolorable, deletable | Edit its ID, sales, sq ft, and open date | | Has a comment thread | No comment thread | | Its trade zones are deleted along with the pin | Its trade zones outlive any one study pin | *** ## Creating a Deal from a Pin Click **Create deal** in the pin's side panel, or pick it from the pin's context menu. The deal is seeded from the pin — the handle becomes the title, the pin's address becomes the location, and any comments on the pin carry over as notes. Creating the deal turns the pin itself into that deal on the map: it takes on its stage's color (it starts in the **Searched** stage) and shows a deal icon instead of its old styling, and it can no longer be dragged. Any trade zones anchored to the pin move over to the deal, so they stay linked. The pin also moves out of the **Pins** section and into **Deals & Stores** in the Study panel. See [Studies Overview](/study/overview). Selecting it now opens the deal's detail view — showing both its site data and its deal fields — instead of the pin panel. A pin can only be linked to one deal, so once it's created, **Create deal** no longer appears on its context menu. See [Creating and Managing Deals](/deals/creating-and-managing-deals). If the linked deal is later deleted, selecting the pin shows a notice that the deal is gone, with a **Delete pin** button to remove the orphaned pin and any of its trade zones. {% hint style="info" %} The deal is created in the study's workspace, which isn't always the workspace you have selected — a study shared with you from another workspace creates its deals there. {% endhint %} *** ## Removing a Pin Delete a pin from its context menu or the **Delete** button on the style toolbar. Deleting it also deletes any trade zone anchored to it. If the pin was created by an analysis, deleting it removes that whole analysis and everything else it produced. Its comments go with it. Pinning the same spot again gives you a new pin, not the old one back. *** ## Asking the Agent The agent can do all of the above. Try: * "Drop a pin at 123 Main St and call it Site A" * "Move P1 to 400 Oak Ave" * "Make P1 orange" * "What's the address of P2?" * "Delete P3" See [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent). # Shapes ## What a Shape Is A shape is any area drawn on a study's map — a polygon you trace, a circle, a real-world boundary you extract, or a generated trade zone. Shapes are named automatically (`S1`, `S2`, and so on) and you can rename any of them. Every shape is something you work with directly. Select it, restyle it, comment on it, combine it with other shapes, or run analysis against it. {% embed url="" %} *** ## Shapes vs. Trade Zones A trade zone is just a shape that's linked to a pin or to one of your existing stores. That link is what marks the area as that location's catchment, and it's what cannibalization reads from. An unlinked shape is a plain area — useful for territories, regions, and whitespace, but it won't be treated as anyone's trade zone. Select a shape and check the **Trade zone for** row in the right panel to see whether it's linked. *** ## Drawing a Shape All three drawing tools live under **Shapes** in the map toolbar.
The Shapes group open in the study map toolbar, showing Draw polygon, Draw circle, and Extract boundary
### Polygons Click **Draw polygon** (shortcut `P`) and click once per vertex. The hint under the toolbar reads **"Click on the map to draw a polygon · press \[Enter]/\[Return] to complete it"** — this is vertex-by-vertex tracing, not freehand. ### Circles Click **Draw circle** (shortcut `C`), then follow the hint: **"Click for center, then click again to set the radius"**. ### Extracting a Real-World Boundary Click **Extract boundary** (shortcut `X`) to pull an administrative boundary in as a shape. **Extract mode** opens with the instruction **"Click a boundary to save it as a shape in your study. Click again to unsave."** and buttons for each level: **States**, **Counties**, **Places**, **ZIP Codes**, **Census Tracts**, and **Block Groups**. Everything you save in the session is listed under **Extracted**, where you can rename or remove it. *** ## Trade Zones ### Trade Zone Types Generated trade zones come in three flavors: | Type | Value units | Accepted range | | ---------------------- | ----------- | ------------------------------------------ | | **Ring Buffer** | Miles | 1–30 | | **Walk or Drive Time** | Minutes | 1–60 driving, 1–30 walking | | **Foot Traffic** | % | 50–90, with **Origin** set to Home or Work | Foot traffic zones describe where that share of visitors actually live or work, so the form spells it out as you type — for example **"Where 70% of visitors live"**. ### Drawing a Trade Zone Around a Pin Select the pin and click **Draw trade zone** (or right-click the pin and choose **Draw trade zone**). The **Add trade zone** popover offers two paths: * **Generated** — "Ring buffer, drive-time, or foot-traffic %". Set **Type**, **Value**, and any mode or origin, then click **Draw**. * **Draw a polygon** — "Click vertices to trace a shape", for a catchment you want to trace by hand.
The Add trade zone popover offering the Generated and Draw a polygon paths
The new zone is named after its anchor and method, like `P1·10 min drive`. ### Drawing a Trade Zone Around an Existing Store Select the store on the map and use the same **Draw trade zone** popover. You can also just ask the agent — it draws zones directly on portfolio stores, no pin required. Because stores are workspace-wide, a zone anchored to one keeps working even as the study changes around it. ### Starting from the Workspace Default The **Generated** form prefills from your workspace's default trade zone, so most zones are one click. If no default is saved, it falls back to a 1-mile ring. Workspace admins see an **Edit default** link that jumps straight to the Trade Zone setting in [Workspace Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings). ### Linking an Existing Shape as a Trade Zone Any shape you already drew can become a trade zone. Select it and click **Link to pin or store** in the **Trade zone for** row, or right-click the shape and use the same option. Search **"Search pins and stores"** to find the anchor; nearby stores are listed first. The **×** next to a linked anchor unlinks it. {% hint style="info" %} Shapes an analysis created can't be re-anchored. Duplicate the shape and link the copy instead. {% endhint %} *** ## Combining Shapes ### Selecting Multiple Shapes Shift-click shapes on the map to add or remove them from a multi-select. Once two or more are selected, a floating toolbar replaces the drawing toolbar and shows **"{n} shapes"** with the combine actions. Shift-clicking empty map keeps the selection intact; a plain click clears it.
Two trade zones selected, with the combine toolbar above them reading 2 shapes
The combine actions are icon buttons. Hover one to see its name. The right panel lists the same actions with their names and descriptions, plus which shape is the primary one. ### Union **Union** merges everything selected into one shape — works with two or more. The inputs are replaced by the result, named `Union: S1` after the first shape in the selection. ### Intersect **Intersect** keeps only the region every selected shape shares. If they don't actually overlap you'll see **"The selected shapes don't overlap."** and nothing changes. ### Difference **Difference** subtracts the second selected shape from the first. It needs exactly two shapes — with any other count its tooltip reads **"Difference (needs 2)"** and the button is disabled. ### Deleting a Selection The red trash button removes every selected shape at once — its tooltip names the count, so with three selected it reads **"Delete 3"**. The right panel spells it out as **Delete all (3) shapes**. Like each combine, it's a single undo step — one `⌘Z` puts the originals back. *** ## Building Territories Territories are built by union. Draw or generate a trade zone for each store in a market, shift-click them all, and hit **Union** — you get one shape representing everything that market currently covers. Rename it something like `Phoenix Metro` and use it as the baseline for planning. *** ## Finding Your Whitespace Whitespace is the same idea run backwards. Extract the boundary you're planning against (a metro, a county, a set of ZIP codes), select it plus your combined coverage territory, and hit **Difference** — the shape you're left with is the part of the market nobody serves yet. Drop pins inside it and run demographics to see how much demand is sitting there. *** ## Data for an Area Select a shape and open **Demographics** for an Esri profile of the area it covers: a KPI grid (**Population**, **Median age**, **Median HHI**, and more) plus race and education charts compared against national averages. **Hispanic / Latino** is reported on its own line below the race breakdown. Click **View full demographics** for the full variable table. Demographics is measured across an area, so it needs a shape. Shapes made up of many disconnected pieces, like a **Places** boundary for a city with scattered limits, can be too fragmented to calculate demographics for — see [Demographics](/data-and-analytics/demographics). Shapes you drew or extracted yourself can also run **Foot Traffic**, for an Pine59 estimate of visits inside the area. Generated trade zones can't, and neither can a shape that a combine or another analysis produced. The card starts on **Estimate visits for this area**. Click **Estimate** to request it. Building the request takes several minutes, and the card reads **Estimating visits…** while it waits. You can keep working and come back. A finished estimate shows **Annual visits** and the year-over-year change, over a monthly chart of the trailing two years. The most recent year is highlighted against the one before it. The chart opens pinned to the busiest month, labelled **Peak**. Click another bar to pin that month instead, or hover to preview it. Reshaping the area starts a new estimate, since the report is tied to the exact shape you sent. Reopening the study or reselecting the shape just shows what's already there. Areas under 10,000 m² carry too little signal for a steady number, and a note under the chart says so. Draw the building plus its parking for a steadier estimate. Some shapes can't be measured at all: one with a hole in it, one that crosses over itself, or one that includes lines or points rather than a solid area. Each says which, and what to redraw. Where the provider has no coverage, **No foot traffic data for this area** appears in place of the chart. *** ## Overlap and Cannibalization Cannibalization is how much a pin's, store's, or deal's trade zone overlaps the trade zones of other pins, stores, and deals in the same study. For the Site Analysis version of this analysis, see [Cannibalization](/data-and-analytics/cannibalization). ### What You Need First Both sides need a trade zone drawn in the study. There's no fall back to the workspace default here — pins, stores, and deals without a zone are skipped silently. * No zone on the target: **"Add a trade zone to calculate cannibalization."** with an add button. * Nothing else to compare: **"Nothing to compare against"** — **"Draw a trade zone on another pin or one of your existing stores to calculate cannibalization."** Select a pin, store, or deal and the analysis runs on its own; uncheck a row to drop it and recompute. When you ask the agent, the target has to be a pin. ### Reading the Results Results appear in the right panel. If the target has more than one trade zone you pick which to measure under **"Select one of the drawn trade zones"**; with a single zone the panel just says **Based on** that zone. Below that, **Overall** gives the combined overlap percentage with a level badge, then one row per contributing pin, store, or deal. Uncheck a row to drop it and recompute. **Full breakdown** opens the full matrix of every trade zone against every source. The panel is the answer — cannibalization doesn't add a new layer to the map. The overlapping trade zones are already drawn there as shapes, so you can read the geography and the numbers side by side. ### Exporting Results Cannibalization travels with both study export formats. **Generate PDF** gives each pin with overlap its own cannibalization page, and **Download Excel** adds a **Cannibalization** sheet with one matrix per target pin. Pins with no overlap are skipped in both. See [Sharing and Exporting Studies](/study/sharing-and-exporting-studies). *** ## Commenting on a Shape Every shape has a **Comments** tab in the right panel with a count badge. The first comment box reads **"Add a comment to this shape…"**; after that it's **"Reply…"**. Right-click a shape and choose **Add comment** to jump straight there. See [Annotations and Comments](/study/annotations-and-comments) for how threads, mentions, and notifications work. *** ## Editing and Removing Shapes Select a shape to get its style toolbar: rename it inline, change the fill color, switch the stroke style, or click **Edit shape** to reshape it — drag the shape to move it, drag a vertex handle to pull the outline around, then click **Done editing**. Reshaping is only offered for polygons you drew by hand. Generated trade zones, extracted boundaries, and combine results aren't reshapeable; edit the source shape or redraw instead. **Delete** removes the selected shape. {% hint style="warning" %} A trade zone drawn on a pin is removed when that pin is deleted. Shapes an analysis produced are owned by that analysis — deleting one removes everything else that analysis created. {% endhint %} A trade zone anchored to an existing store behaves differently: stores are workspace-wide, so deleting the shape leaves the store untouched and the shape never dangles. *** ## Labels and Map Readability Each shape's name is drawn inside it. When shapes get small or crowded, labels are hidden rather than stacked on top of each other — zoom in to bring them back. *** ## Asking the Agent The [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent) can do most of this for you. Try: * "Draw a 10 minute drive time around the Springfield store" — anchors a zone to that store. * "Merge S1 and S2" — unions them into one shape. * "Trim S1 by S2" — subtracts the second from the first. * "Show me where S1 and S2 overlap" — keeps just the shared area. * "Make S1 a trade zone for @pin1" — links an existing shape to a pin or store. # Annotations and Comments ## Working in a Shared Study Your work lives in the study itself, so every change you make lands for everyone who can open it. Edits are saved automatically. Each study keeps a live connection open and applies changes as they're saved, so a teammate's new pin, shape, or comment shows up on your map while you're both looking at it. Commenting is an edit. With view-only access you can open and read every thread but can't post, edit, or delete — the toolbar, the right-click options, and the input boxes are all hidden. See [Sharing and Exporting Studies](/study/sharing-and-exporting-studies). *** ## What's Shared and What's Personal | Shared with everyone who can see the study | Yours alone | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Pins, shapes, and trade zones | Your agent conversation — a teammate opening the same study gets their own chat | | Annotations and their comment threads | Whether you've starred the study | | Comments on pins and shapes | The layers you've added to the study and which ones are toggled on (kept in your browser) | | Your existing stores, and any custom layers | Personal edits to tracked businesses, which revert to the workspace defaults after 2 hours | | What the agent remembers — memory is shared across your workspace | | *** ## Annotations An annotation is a comment thread pinned to a point on the map. It isn't attached to a pin or a shape — it marks a location and holds a conversation. Annotations are their own map layer. The **Annotations** row in the Layers panel counts them (**3 notes · 7 comments**, or **No annotations yet**) and toggles every marker off and on at once. ### Adding an Annotation Click **Add annotation** (shortcut `A`) in the map toolbar, then click the point you want. The hint below the toolbar reads **Click on the map to add an annotation**. You can also right-click any empty spot on the map and choose **Add annotation here**. A composer opens at that point with the placeholder **Add a comment…**. Type the first comment and press Enter, or click **Add (Enter)**; Shift+Enter starts a new line. An annotation is always created with its first comment, so there's no such thing as an empty one. A confirmation message reads **Annotation added**. You can't move an annotation once it's placed. To relocate a note, remove it and add a new one. ### Replying to a Thread Click an annotation's marker to open its card, headed **Annotation** with a count line (**3 comments**). Type in the box at the bottom — **Reply…** — and press Enter or click **Post (Enter)**. Once a thread has more than one comment, the marker carries a badge with the count. The card stays anchored to its map point as you pan and zoom. Close it with the X or press `ESC`. Threads are flat: every reply lands at the bottom of the same list, and there's no replying to a reply. ### Editing and Deleting Your Comments Comments you wrote have **Edit** and **Delete** controls; comments from other people don't. Editing opens the text inline with **Save** and **Cancel**, and a changed comment is marked **(edited)** afterwards. Deleting the last comment in a thread removes the annotation along with it. A single undo brings both back. ### Removing an Annotation **Delete all** in the thread header clears the whole thread and takes the annotation with it. Its tooltip spells this out: **Delete all comments and remove this annotation**. Anyone who can edit the study can do this to any thread, not only their own. *** ## Comments on Pins and Shapes Pins and shapes carry threads of their own. Select one and open the **Comments** tab in its detail panel, where the tab shows a count, or right-click the pin or shape and choose **Add comment** — that jumps to the tab with the box already focused. The first comment's placeholder is **Add a comment to this pin…** or **Add a comment to this shape…**; after that it's **Reply…** with **Post (Enter)**. An empty thread reads **No comments yet.** These threads behave like annotation threads, except that deleting the last comment leaves the pin or shape in place. Existing stores don't take comments, and a study has no overall thread — use an annotation for a note that isn't about one pin or shape. *** ## Notes Written by the Agent You can ask the agent to write notes and comments for you. Anything it writes is stored against you and shows your name with a **via Agent** badge (**Written by the assistant**). In the PDF appendix, the author prints as **Agent**. Where the note lands depends on what you point the agent at: * **A pin** (`P1`) — a floating annotation at the pin's coordinates. It does not go into the pin's **Comments** tab; the agent can't write there. * **A shape** (`S1`) — a comment on that shape's own thread. * **An address or coordinates** — a floating annotation at that point. The agent can read the annotations and comments in the study you have open, so you can ask it to summarize a thread or pick up where one left off. # Sharing and Exporting Studies ## Private and Shared Studies Every new study is **Private** — only the person who created it can open it. Sharing is a switch the creator flips when the work is ready for the rest of the team. Each row on the **Studies** page shows its visibility as **Private** or **Shared**, and the toggle above the list filters by **All**, **Private**, **Shared**, or **Archived**. *** ## Sharing with Your Workspace Open the study and click the **Private** / **Shared** control at the top of the right panel, then choose **Private** or **Shared with workspace**. You can do the same from the **⋯** menu next to any study on the **Studies** page, where the action reads **Share with workspace** or **Make private**.
The sharing control open on a study, offering Private and Shared with workspace
Either way you'll see a confirmation — `"…" shared with workspace` or `"…" made private`. If it fails, **Couldn't update sharing**. Only the study's creator can change this. Everyone else sees the visibility as a plain label with the tooltip **"Only the study's creator can change share settings."** *** ## Who Can See and Edit a Study Sharing a study doesn't invite specific people — it hands the study to its workspace. From there, workspace permissions decide who can do what. | Role | Open | Edit | Change sharing | Archive | | -------------------- | ---- | ---- | -------------- | ------- | | **Creator** | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | | **Workspace editor** | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | | **Workspace viewer** | Yes | No | No | No | See [Members](/getting-started/members) for how workspace roles are assigned. ### Editors Anyone with edit access to the study's workspace works in a shared study exactly as the creator does — pins, shapes, annotations, analysis, renaming, and archiving. The one thing reserved for the creator is the sharing switch. ### Viewers Read-only members can open a shared study and read all of it, including annotation threads, but can't change anything. They also don't get the **New study** button, since creating a study takes edit access. {% hint style="info" %} Workspace access carries down the workspace tree. Someone with edit access to a parent workspace can edit studies shared in the workspaces beneath it. {% endhint %} *** ## Working in a View-Only Study If you don't have edit access to a study's workspace, the study opens with a **View only** badge and the note **"This is a view-only study."** Everything stays readable. Pins, shapes, analysis, and annotation threads all open normally, but the editing surface is gone. The map toolbar is hidden, tool shortcuts and undo/redo are off, right-click menus are disabled, and comment boxes don't appear. Auto-naming is skipped and the agent panel is hidden. Because **Export** sits in the map toolbar, it isn't reachable while a study is read-only. *** ## Archived Studies Archiving is how you get a study out of the way. Pick **Archive** from the study's **⋯** menu and confirm; the study is hidden from **Recents** and the studies list, but nothing is destroyed. There is no separate permanent-delete action. Archived studies live behind the **Archived** filter on the **Studies** page. Open one and it's read-only with an **"Archived — read-only."** banner; click **Unarchive** there, or in the row's **⋯** menu, to bring it back (**Study restored**). Any editor can archive or restore a study, not just its creator. *** ## Exporting a Study Click **Export** in the map toolbar to open **Export options** — one menu for both formats. Pick the format, choose what goes in, then use the button at the bottom, which reads **Generate PDF** or **Download Excel** (**Exporting…** while it runs).
The Export options menu with the format choice, the include list, layout options, and the Generate PDF button
### PDF A finished document: table of contents, a cover page with the overview map, then a page or more for each included pin and shape, carrying its data — demographics (including any variables configured for your workspace), foot traffic, vehicle traffic, comparable stores, cannibalization, sales forecast, and site score. Which of those appear depends on what's enabled for your organization. Generating a PDF re-runs the analysis and captures fresh map images, so it takes a moment; the progress pill moves through **Preparing export**, **Running operations**, **Capturing maps**, and **Rendering PDF** before **Study exported**. The file downloads as the study name plus the date, ending in `.pdf`. {% hint style="info" %} A study with a lot of pins and shapes included can be too large to export in one request. If that happens, an error message tells you the study may be too large to send at once. Uncheck some locations in **Export options** and try again. {% endhint %} ### Excel A workbook for pulling numbers into your own model, with up to five sheets: **Study**, **Comparables**, **Cannibalization**, **Vehicle traffic**, and **Agent transcript**. The demographic figures in the **Study** sheet include any variables configured for your workspace. It downloads as the study name with an `.xlsx` extension. Excel carries no map images. ### Choosing What to Include * **Format** — **PDF** or **Excel**. * The list below it — one row per pin and shape; switch off anything you don't want. Trade zones sit nested under the pin they belong to. * **Appendix** — **Agent transcript**, and **Annotations** (PDF only). * **Layout** — **Site score on one page**, with **"Uncheck to give each lens its own page."** (PDF only.) The menu only offers what applies to the study in front of you: the score layout option is hidden when no pins are included, and the appendix rows appear only when there's a transcript or an annotation to include. With an empty map it reads **Nothing to export yet** and the button is disabled. {% hint style="info" %} Annotation threads are included in the PDF appendix only. Comments left on pins and shapes aren't exported in either format. {% endhint %} *** ## Asking the Agent The agent has no sharing or export tools. Flipping a study to **Shared with workspace**, archiving it, and generating a PDF or workbook are all things you do yourself. What the agent contributes is content that ends up in the export: its thread can ride along as the **Agent transcript** appendix, and comments it writes on annotations print in the PDF appendix under the author **Agent**. See [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent) for what it can do inside a study. # Controls and Shortcuts ## Moving Around the Map Drag to pan and scroll to zoom. Switch the basemap between **Streets**, **Satellite**, and **Basic** in the **Layers** tab. *** ## Selecting Things Click a pin, shape, or store to select it. The right panel switches to it, and a style toolbar replaces the drawing toolbar. Shift-click shapes to build a selection of two or more. A combine toolbar appears with **Union**, **Intersect**, **Difference**, and **Delete**. Shift-clicking empty map keeps the selection; a plain click clears it. See [Shapes](/study/shapes). *** ## Keyboard Shortcuts | Shortcut | Does | | -------- | --------------------------------- | | `D` | Drop pin | | `S` | Search to drop pin | | `P` | Draw polygon | | `C` | Draw circle | | `X` | Extract boundary | | `A` | Add annotation | | `Enter` | Finish the polygon you're drawing | | `ESC` | Cancel the active tool | | `⌘Z` | Undo | | `⌘⇧Z` | Redo | Shortcuts are ignored while your cursor is in a text field, so you can type freely in the chat or a rename box. *** ## Right-Click Menus Right-click (or long-press on a touch screen) to act on whatever is under the cursor. ### Empty Map * **Drop pin here** * **Add annotation here** ### A Pin * **Draw trade zone** * **Create deal** — hidden once the pin already has a deal * **Add comment** * **Rename** * **Delete** — the item names the pin it will remove ### A Shape * **Edit shape** — reshape it by dragging its points. Missing on shapes an analysis produced, since those can't be reshaped * **Add comment** * **Rename** * **Drop pin here** and **Add annotation here** — these act on the point you clicked, not the shape * **Delete** — the item names the shape it will remove ### An Existing Store * **Draw trade zone** * **Update ID** *** ## Undo and Redo **Undo** (shortcut `⌘Z`) and **Redo** (shortcut `⌘⇧Z`) step back and forth through your edits. The toolbar buttons grey out when there's nothing left either way. Combining shapes and deleting a selection each count as one step, so a single undo puts the originals back. *** ## In a Read-Only Study Viewing a study you can't edit, or one that's archived, hides the toolbar and disables the shortcuts and right-click menus. Panning, zooming, selecting, and reading stay available. See [Sharing and Exporting Studies](/study/sharing-and-exporting-studies). # Trade Zones A trade zone is the area a location draws its customers from. It's the boundary every other measurement is taken inside, so the zone you choose determines which demographics, competitors, and market conditions count as relevant. Three methods are available, each suited to a different question. *** ## Where Trade Zones Live In a **study**, a trade zone is anchored to a pin or to one of your existing stores. Select the anchor, click **Draw trade zone**, and set the method. The form prefills from your workspace default, and falls back to a 1-mile ring if no default is saved. See [Shapes](/study/shapes) for drawing, linking, and combining them. On the legacy **Site Analysis** screen, one trade area applies to the whole search, set through the selector in the top bar. See [Site Analysis](/site-analysis-legacy/site-analysis). *** ## Ring A fixed distance in miles from the anchor. Decimal values work, so 0.75 or 1.5 miles are both valid. Rings are the fastest way to hold methodology constant across a lot of sites. They ignore road networks and barriers, so a 1-mile ring around a site split by a river covers ground no customer can reach. **When to use a ring:** * Screening many sites against one consistent criterion * Standardized reporting for committee presentations * Markets where your organization already has an established standard *** ## Walk and Drive Times Travel-time boundaries follow the road network, accounting for speed limits and geographic barriers. Set a mode of walking or driving and a value from 1 to 60 minutes. ### Understanding Isochrones A travel-time boundary is an isochrone. Unlike a circle, its shape reflects how people actually reach the site. A 15-minute drive from a suburban site with highway access covers far more ground than 15 minutes from a dense urban corner in traffic. Two sites with identical ring populations can have very different drive-time populations. That gap is usually the most useful thing an isochrone tells you. **When to use walk or drive times:** * Evaluating accessibility from surrounding neighborhoods * Comparing sites with different road network characteristics * Urban retail where walking traffic is significant *** ## Foot Traffic Zones A foot traffic zone is built from observed visitor data rather than an assumption about distance. It shows where a location's visitors actually come from. Anonymized mobile location data identifies the home and work locations of people who visited the area, aggregated into geographic zones so no individual is identifiable. ### Coverage Percentage A slider from 50% to 100% controls how much of the visitor base the zone includes. | Setting | What you get | | -------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **50%** | The core area where the most frequent visitors originate — tight and high-concentration | | **80%** | A broader area covering most of the customer base | | **100%** | The full geographic spread of all visitors | ### Visitor Origin * **Live** — where visitors reside * **Work** — where visitors are employed Switching between the two reveals different patterns. A downtown lunch spot may draw heavily from nearby offices, while an evening restaurant pulls from residential neighborhoods. ### Reading the Result Foot traffic zones display as shaded regions, often with color gradients for visitor density. The boundaries are irregular rather than clean, because they follow real patterns: highway corridors, neighborhood edges, geographic barriers. Demographics inside a foot traffic zone reflect only the population within that shape. Absolute numbers often come out lower than a comparable ring. The trade-off is precision — you're measuring people who visit, not everyone who lives nearby. **When to use a foot traffic zone:** * Validating an assumption about where customers come from * Learning an unfamiliar market * Sites where drive-time assumptions don't hold, like urban cores and destination retail {% hint style="info" %} Not every location has foot traffic data. If a site has no visitor tracking coverage — common for new developments or areas outside typical retail patterns — a **No foot traffic data for this location** message appears. Try a ring or drive-time trade zone instead. {% endhint %} *** ## What the Trade Zone Affects | Analysis | How the trade zone changes it | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Demographics** | Population statistics are calculated for residents inside the boundary | | **Competitors and Complements** | Only businesses inside the zone are displayed and counted | | **Sales Forecast** | Analog models factor zone characteristics into the comparison against existing stores | | **Cannibalization** | Overlap is measured between zone boundaries | Changing the zone mid-analysis is worth doing deliberately. Comparing a 10-minute and a 20-minute drive time shows how much of a site's potential depends on reach. *** ## Best Practices **Start from your standard.** Use your workspace default to set a baseline, then adjust when a site warrants a closer look. **Match the method to the context.** Drive times for suburban and highway-adjacent sites, walk times for urban retail, foot traffic zones when you need ground truth. **Compare candidates on the same method.** A 10-minute drive time and a 1-mile ring aren't comparable. Hold the method constant and only then compare the numbers. **Write down which method you used.** When you share analysis or present to a committee, the zone definition is part of the finding. For the metrics measured inside a zone, see [Demographics](/data-and-analytics/demographics), [Vehicle Traffic](/data-and-analytics/vehicle-traffic), [Cannibalization](/data-and-analytics/cannibalization), and [Competitors and Complements](/data-and-analytics/competitors-and-complements). # GrowthFactor Score The GrowthFactor Score provides an instant, objective assessment of any site—cutting through subjective debate with data-driven analysis calibrated to your brand. Instead of spending hours assembling data to form an opinion, you get a clear 1–100 score within seconds of searching an address. *** ## Understanding the GrowthFactor Score The GrowthFactor Score is an AI-powered composite rating that evaluates a site across the dimensions that historically drive retail performance. It's designed to give you a quick, defensible benchmark for comparing opportunities and prioritizing your pipeline. ### Score Range | Score | Rating | Interpretation | | ------------ | --------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **90–100** | Excellent | Strong performer across most dimensions; high-confidence opportunity | | **80–89** | Great | Very good fundamentals with minor areas to investigate | | **70–79** | Good | Solid fundamentals with some areas to investigate further | | **60–69** | OK | Mixed signals; requires careful evaluation of specific weaknesses | | **Below 60** | Bad | Significant concerns across multiple dimensions; proceed with caution | The score is not a simple pass/fail. A site scoring 65 might be perfect for your brand if its strengths align with your key success drivers, while a site scoring 80 might have a critical flaw in one dimension that disqualifies it for your concept. *** ## Scoring Dimensions (Lenses) The GrowthFactor Score breaks down into individual lenses, each evaluating a specific aspect of site performance. You can view individual lens scores to understand what's driving the overall rating. Every brand has unique priorities—GrowthFactor allows you to customize which lenses factor into your score, how they're weighted, and what data sources each lens uses when evaluating a site. Reach out to the GrowthFactor team to configure your lenses, or see [GF Score Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings#gf-score-settings) for an overview of what can be configured. ### Default Lenses Organizations are set up with a default set of lenses covering the core dimensions of site performance. Common defaults include: ### Demographics Fit Evaluates how well the surrounding population matches your target customer profile. Even a high-traffic site will underperform if the local population doesn't match your customer base. Factors considered: * Income alignment with your price point * Age distribution matching your core demographic * Population density within the trade area * Household composition and lifestyle indicators ### Foot Traffic Measures the volume and quality of visitor activity in the immediate area. Foot traffic is the most direct indicator of potential customer flow. Factors considered: * Pedestrian traffic density * Visitor frequency and patterns * Daytime vs. evening activity levels * Traffic trends over time ### Competition Analysis Assesses the competitive landscape and market saturation. A site surrounded by struggling competitors may signal location challenges; a site near thriving complements suggests strong co-tenancy benefits. Factors considered: * Density of direct competitors * Performance rankings of nearby competitors * Presence of complementary businesses * Market saturation indicators ### Market Potential Evaluates the broader market dynamics and growth trajectory. A site's future performance depends not just on current conditions but on where the market is heading. Factors considered: * Population growth trends * Economic indicators * Development pipeline and area momentum * Retailer demand signals ### Data-Grounded Scoring When a lens is configured with data sources, the AI receives structured data about the site—such as actual trade area demographics, nearby competitor foot traffic rankings, or cannibalization percentages—and uses that data to produce more precise, fact-based scores. For example, a Demographics Fit lens with the **Demographics** data source enabled will receive real trade area income, age, and household data when evaluating a site. The AI references specific numbers rather than estimating from address information alone. To configure lenses and data sources for your organization, reach out to the GrowthFactor team and we'll set it up for you. See [GF Score Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings#gf-score-settings) for an overview of what can be configured. *** ## Interpreting Lens Scores Each lens receives its own score and rating: | Rating | Score Range | | --------- | ----------- | | Excellent | 90–100 | | Great | 80–89 | | Good | 70–79 | | OK | 60–69 | | Bad | Below 60 | ### Reading the Breakdown When reviewing a site, look for: **Consistent strength:** A site scoring Good or Excellent across all lenses is a high-confidence opportunity with balanced fundamentals. **One weak lens:** A single low score among otherwise strong ratings warrants investigation. Can the weakness be mitigated? Is it a dealbreaker for your concept? **Conflicting signals:** High foot traffic but poor demographics fit might indicate the wrong *type* of traffic for your brand. Strong market potential but weak current foot traffic might signal an emerging area worth watching. ### Example Analysis > Site A scores: Demographics (90), Foot Traffic (35), Competition (50), Market Potential (78) This site has excellent demographics, but foot traffic is currently weak. The strong market potential score suggests the area may be growing. This could be an emerging location worth deeper investigation—or the low foot traffic might indicate a fundamental access problem the demographics alone can't overcome. *** ## Editing the Score The GrowthFactor Score is a starting point, not the final word. After visiting a site or gathering additional context, you can adjust the score to reflect your own assessment. ### When to Edit * **After a site visit:** Your on-the-ground observation reveals factors the data doesn't capture (construction, access issues, anchor tenant changes) * **Local knowledge:** You have insight into planned developments, zoning changes, or market dynamics not yet reflected in the data * **Concept-specific factors:** Your brand has unique requirements that weight certain dimensions differently than the default model ### How Edits Work Edited scores are saved to the site record and carry through to your Deal Dashboard. When comparing sites, you can see both the original AI-generated score and any manual adjustments, maintaining transparency in your evaluation process. Your edits don't affect the underlying lens scores—they override the composite rating while preserving the original analysis for reference. *** ## AI Insights AI Insights automatically gathers contextual information about a location, surfacing relevant news, developments, and local intelligence that might affect your site decision. ### What Insights Include When you search a site, the platform scans for: * **Local news:** Recent articles mentioning the area, nearby businesses, or relevant developments * **Development activity:** Planned construction, new retail openings, or infrastructure projects * **Market context:** Economic indicators, demographic shifts, or retailer expansion/contraction in the area * **Points of interest:** Nearby anchors, institutions, or traffic generators that might not appear in standard business data ### Viewing Insights The **Sources** section in the results panel shows how many insight sources were found. Expand it to see: * Source headlines and summaries * Links to original articles or documents * Relevance to your site evaluation ### Using Insights Effectively AI Insights serve as a research accelerator, not a replacement for due diligence. Use them to: * **Surface unknowns:** Discover developments or news you weren't aware of * **Validate assumptions:** Confirm (or challenge) your read on an area * **Prepare for questions:** Anticipate what your committee might ask about a site * **Identify risks:** Catch red flags like nearby store closures, crime reports, or negative press ### Current Limitations AI Insights is a beta feature. Keep in mind: * Coverage varies by market; some areas have richer news sources than others * Insights are point-in-time snapshots and may not reflect the very latest developments * Not all surfaced information will be relevant; use judgment to filter signal from noise *** ## Score in Your Workflow The GrowthFactor Score integrates throughout the platform: **Site Analysis:** See the score immediately upon searching any address, enabling rapid screening of multiple sites. **Deal Dashboard:** Scores display on deal cards, allowing you to sort and prioritize your pipeline by site quality. **Comparisons:** When evaluating multiple opportunities, scores provide a consistent benchmark—even for sites in different markets with different characteristics. **Reporting:** Scores and lens breakdowns can be included in reports generated via Waldo, giving stakeholders a clear summary of site quality. *** ## Best Practices **Pay attention to lens breakdowns.** Two sites with the same composite score can have very different profiles. A 70 driven by excellent demographics but weak traffic is a different opportunity than a 70 with the opposite profile. **Document your edits.** When you adjust a score, note why. This creates an audit trail for your decision-making process and helps calibrate future evaluations. **Tailor your configuration.** If you find yourself consistently discounting a lens or wishing a dimension were weighted differently, reach out to the GrowthFactor team to adjust your lens configuration. # Sales Forecast Sales Projections forecast the revenue potential of a site based on analog modeling—comparing the location you're evaluating against the performance of your existing stores. Rather than relying on generic market data, projections are calibrated to *your* brand's actual results in similar trade areas. *** ### How Analog Modeling Works Analog-based forecasting is a foundational methodology in retail site selection. The core principle: a new site will perform similarly to existing stores that share its key characteristics. #### The Process 1. **Profile the proposed site:** The platform analyzes the searched location's trade area demographics, competitive landscape, traffic patterns, and site attributes. 2. **Identify comparable stores:** Your existing locations are evaluated for similarity across the variables that most strongly correlate with your brand's revenue performance. 3. **Weight by similarity:** Stores that more closely match the proposed site receive higher weight in the projection; less similar stores contribute less. 4. **Generate the forecast:** The weighted performance of analog stores produces a projected revenue range for the new location. #### Why Analogs Matter Generic market data tells you what *average* retailers do in an area. Analog modeling tells you what *your brand* is likely to do, based on how you've actually performed in comparable situations. This brand-specific calibration is what makes the projection actionable. *** ### Reading the Sales Projection Card When you search a site, the Sales Projection card displays in the results panel with several key components. #### Model Indicator The top of the card shows which model is generating the projection: > **GrowthFactor Model: \[Model Name]** Your organization may have multiple models configured (e.g., separate models for different store formats, regions, or concepts). The model name confirms which is being applied, ensuring you're using the right comparison set. #### Projection Views The card displays two views depending on whether square footage is entered: **Sales PSF Estimate (Per Square Foot)** Revenue projected per square foot of store space. This normalizes performance across different store sizes, making it easier to compare sites regardless of available square footage. **Total Sales Estimate** Absolute revenue projection for the location. Shown when you enter the square footage of the site you're evaluating. #### Projection Values The card displays: | Value | Description | | ----------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Midpoint** | The central projection—your expected case based on weighted analog performance | | **Lower** | Conservative end of the confidence range | | **Upper** | Optimistic end of the confidence range | | **Lowest Sales Among Comparable Stores** | The actual sales of your weakest-performing analog | | **Highest Sales Among Comparable Stores** | The actual sales of your strongest-performing analog | #### Interpreting the Range The Lower-to-Upper range represents the realistic performance envelope based on analog variability. A narrow range indicates high consistency among comparable stores; a wide range suggests more variability in how your brand performs in similar conditions. The Lowest/Highest comparable values provide absolute anchors—showing the full spread of actual results, including outliers that may fall outside the projected range. *** ### Entering Square Footage To see Total Sales projections, enter the square footage of the site you're evaluating: 1. Locate the **Square Footage** field below the projection values 2. Enter the expected or available square footage (e.g., "10,000 sq ft") 3. The Total Sales projection updates automatically Square footage flows through to deal records if you add the site to your pipeline, and appears in generated reports. #### Why Square Footage Matters Two sites with identical Sales PSF projections can have very different total revenue potential: * Site A: $150 PSF × 8,000 sq ft = $1.2M * Site B: $150 PSF × 15,000 sq ft = $2.25M Total Sales projections help you evaluate whether a site can generate the absolute revenue needed to meet your investment thresholds. *** ### Model Feature Inputs Depending on how your model is configured, the projection card may include additional site properties beyond square footage—store format, drive-through availability, seating, and similar attributes. Fill these in to describe the site you're evaluating; the forecast updates as you change them. If a required property is missing, the card prompts you to fill it in before a projection displays. #### Pre-Filled Defaults Models can be configured with default values for their input fields. When defaults are set, the projection card opens with those inputs already filled in—reflecting the assumptions your team most commonly models—instead of a blank panel. You can change any pre-filled value for the specific site you're evaluating; the forecast updates as you do. Defaults are configured per model; if you'd like to set or adjust them for your brand, reach out to your GrowthFactor team at . #### Collapsing the Inputs Once your inputs are set, you can collapse the model inputs to tuck them out of the way and keep the focus on the projection results—useful during reviews and committee discussions. Expand them again at any time to adjust a value. #### Multi-Select Features Features that accept more than one value are marked **(multiple)** and display their options as clickable pills. Click to toggle each option that applies to the site—selected options are highlighted, and you can choose as many as apply. The forecast recalculates with the combined selection. *** ### Cannibalization and Projections Projections are based on **cannibalized sales**—the model is calibrated on the actual revenue of your existing stores, which already reflects the impact of overlap between locations. The Sales Forecast card notes this directly: *"Forecast is based on cannibalized sales."* #### What This Means Because the forecast already reflects cannibalization, you don't need to discount the projection by the overlap percentage—doing so would double-count the impact. #### Using the Cannibalization Analysis The **Cannibalization** section in the results panel remains essential for understanding *where* the overlap comes from: which existing stores share trade area with the proposed site, and how much of their customer base falls within it. Use it to assess the impact a new opening would have on specific existing locations. See Cannibalization for details on interpreting overlap percentages. *** ### Analog Details Understanding *which* stores are driving your projection adds context to the numbers. #### Viewing Analogs The projection card may display or link to the list of comparable stores used in the model. For each analog, you can see: * Store number and address — analogs display using your company's actual store numbers (e.g., Store #142) rather than generic numbering, making it easier to identify specific locations in your portfolio * Similarity score (how closely it matches the searched site) * Actual sales performance * A variable-by-variable comparison against the searched site The comparison table groups variables into **Matching variables** and **Other variables**. Match % is based on the matching group. The other group is there for demographic context and doesn't affect the match. #### What Drives Similarity Similarity is calculated from the variables turned on for **Analog Matching** in your workspace. That's the demographic variables you choose, plus any store attributes configured for your model, such as square footage. Admins control that set. Open **Workspace Settings → Defaults → Demographic Variables** and turn on **Analog Matching** for each variable that should factor into the match. Leave it off and the variable still appears in demographic reports without affecting similarity. See [Demographic Variables](/getting-started/workspace-settings#demographic-variables). Admins also see an **Edit matching variables** button in the analog view, which opens the list directly. #### Interpreting Analog Matches **High similarity scores:** The proposed site closely resembles stores with known performance—higher confidence in the projection. **Mixed similarity:** The site combines characteristics from different store profiles—projection may draw from diverse analogs with varying performance. **Few close matches:** If no existing stores closely resemble the proposed site, the projection has higher uncertainty. This might indicate an expansion into a new market type for your brand. *** ### Using Projections in Decisions #### Screening Sales projections enable rapid go/no-go decisions during initial screening. If a site's projected revenue falls below your minimum threshold, you can quickly move on without deeper analysis. #### Prioritization When evaluating multiple opportunities, projections help rank sites by potential. Sort your pipeline by projected sales to focus energy on the highest-upside opportunities. #### Financial Modeling Projections feed into pro forma development: * Midpoint for base case scenarios * Lower range for downside/stress testing * Upper range for upside scenarios Always validate projections with your finance team's assumptions about rent, build-out costs, and operating expenses. #### Committee Presentations GrowthFactor projections provide defensible, data-backed revenue estimates for real estate committee review. The methodology (analog-based, brand-calibrated) and the specific analog stores can be presented alongside the numbers. *** ### Projection Accuracy GrowthFactor projections are designed to be realistic, not optimistic. The methodology is validated against actual store openings. #### What Accuracy Means When we report that recommended sites hit or exceed targets 99.8% of the time: * "Target" refers to the projection range (between Lower and Upper bounds) * Sites performing within or above this range are counted as hitting target * The model is calibrated to produce achievable projections, not aspirational ones #### Improving Accuracy Over Time Projection accuracy improves as: * Your store portfolio grows, providing more analogs * Models are recalibrated with recent performance data * Your team provides feedback on projection vs. actual results Work with your GrowthFactor team to periodically review model performance and adjust calibration as your brand evolves. *** ### Best Practices **Use projections as one input.** Sales forecasts are powerful but don't capture every factor. Lease terms, build-out costs, strategic value, and qualitative observations from site visits all matter. **Track actuals against projections.** After opening new locations, compare actual performance to the original projection. This feedback loop builds institutional knowledge about model reliability. # Demographics Demographics reveal who lives within your trade area—the population characteristics that determine whether local residents match your target customer profile. GrowthFactor provides detailed demographic breakdowns with national benchmarks and store average comparisons, helping you quickly assess customer fit for any site. *** ### Accessing Demographics {% columns %} {% column valign="middle" %} Demographics display in the results panel when you search a site. The data reflects the population within your currently selected trade area—if you change your trade area settings, demographic figures update automatically. Expand the demographics section to see distribution charts for each category. {% endcolumn %} {% column %}
{% endcolumn %} {% endcolumns %}
*** ### Viewing Options #### Chart View and Table View Toggle between chart and table views using the view toggle in the demographics modal. **Chart View** displays demographic data as visual bar charts comparing local population to national averages and store averages (when available). This view is ideal for quickly spotting demographic patterns and over/under-indexing. **Table View** displays the same data in a table format showing exact population counts and percentages. This view is useful for precise comparisons and when you need specific numerical values. Both views display: * **Local:** Population characteristics for your selected trade area * **National Average:** U.S. benchmark for comparison * **Store Average:** Average demographics across all your existing store locations (when available) *** ### Demographic Categories #### Age Distribution Shows the population breakdown by age group within the trade area. **Age Brackets:** * Under 10 * 10–19 * 20–29 * 30–44 * 45–59 * 60–69 * 70–79 * 80+ These brackets are designed to provide balanced, actionable segments—distinguishing younger families, working-age adults, and retirees in a way that aligns with typical retail customer profiles. **Key Metrics:** * **Largest Group:** The age bracket with the highest population count * **Biggest Difference:** The bracket that deviates most from the national average (over- or under-indexed) * **Median Age:** The midpoint age for the trade area population, compared to the national median and store average median (when available) #### Income Distribution Shows household income distribution within the trade area. **Income Brackets:** * Under $15,000 * $15,000–$24,999 * $25,000–$34,999 * $35,000–$49,999 * $50,000–$74,999 * $75,000–$99,999 * $100,000–$149,999 * $150,000–$199,999 * $200,000 and over The brackets provide granularity at both ends of the spectrum—distinguishing lower-income households that may be price-sensitive and higher-income households that support premium concepts. **Key Metrics:** * **Largest Group:** The income bracket with the most households * **Biggest Difference:** The bracket most over- or under-represented compared to national averages * **Median Income:** The midpoint household income for the trade area, compared to the national median and store average median (when available) #### Race Distribution Shows the racial composition of the trade area population, using U.S. Census race categories. Because the Census Bureau tracks Hispanic/Latino as an ethnicity independent of race, it's not one of the race categories in this breakdown. Instead, below the race chart or table you'll see the trade area's Hispanic/Latino population and its share of the total population, compared to the national average. #### Education Distribution Shows educational attainment levels for the adult population within the trade area—from less than high school through graduate degrees. #### Gender Distribution Shows the male/female population split within the trade area. #### Workspace Defaults Tab The Workspace Defaults tab displays the demographic variables configured for your workspace in [Workspace Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings#demographic-variables). These are workspace-specific metrics that matter most to your business, such as household composition, lifestyle indicators, or industry-specific demographic markers.
The demographics modal on the Workspace Defaults tab, listing each workspace variable with its local and store average values
Variables appear in the order set in Workspace Settings. Change that list and an open modal repopulates with the new variables. Admins also see an **Edit defaults** button in the tab header, which opens Workspace Settings and jumps to the list. The Workspace Defaults tab only appears when your workspace has variables configured and data is available for the searched trade area. If none have been set up, the tab is hidden. **What's displayed:** * Variable names as configured in your Workspace Settings * Local values for the searched trade area * Store average values across your existing locations (when available) *** ### Store Average Demographics Store average demographics show the aggregated demographic profile across all your existing store locations. This comparison helps you understand whether a potential site's demographics match the profile of your successful stores. #### How It Works GrowthFactor calculates store averages by: 1. Generating trade zones around each of your existing stores 2. Retrieving demographic data for each store's trade area 3. Averaging the demographic values across all stores #### When Store Averages Are Shown Store average data appears when: * Your organization has multiple existing stores in the system * Demographic data is available for your store locations * The feature is enabled for your organization If store averages are not displayed, only local and national comparisons will appear. #### Using Store Averages Store average comparisons help you: * **Validate site fit:** Sites with demographics similar to your store average are more likely to perform well * **Identify outliers:** Sites with demographics significantly different from your average may present higher risk or require different strategies * **Refine target customer profile:** Understanding the demographic commonalities across your successful stores helps clarify your ideal customer *** ### Key Demographic Insights Below each chart, GrowthFactor highlights three summary metrics to surface the most important takeaways. #### Largest Group The bracket containing the most people (or households, for income). This tells you the dominant segment in the trade area. **How to use it:** If the largest age group is 30–44, the area skews toward young families. If the largest income group is $50K–$75K, you're looking at a solidly middle-income market. #### Biggest Difference The bracket where the trade area deviates most from national averages—expressed as a percentage difference and whether it's above or below average. **How to use it:** This flags what makes the trade area distinctive. A trade area that's 25% above average in the 20–29 age bracket has a notably young population. One that's 30% below average in the Under $15K bracket has fewer low-income households than typical. #### Median Value The midpoint value (age or income) for the trade area, shown alongside the national median and store average median (when available) for comparison. **How to use it:** Medians cut through distribution complexity to give you a single benchmark. A median income of $85,000 vs. a national median of $75,000 tells you the area is more affluent than average at a glance. If your store average median income is $82,000, this site aligns closely with your existing customer base. *** ### Trade Area Impact Demographics are calculated for the population within your selected trade area boundary. This makes trade area selection critical to demographic analysis. #### Smaller Trade Areas Tighter boundaries (e.g., 5-minute drive, 50% foot traffic zone) show the demographics of your immediate, core customer base. Numbers will be smaller in absolute terms but may be more representative of who actually visits. #### Larger Trade Areas Wider boundaries (e.g., 20-minute drive, 80% foot traffic zone) capture a broader population. This provides larger sample sizes and may smooth out hyperlocal anomalies, but could dilute signals if the outer ring differs significantly from the core. #### Foot Traffic Trade Zones When using Foot Traffic Trade Zones, demographics reflect the areas where visitors actually originate—not just who happens to live nearby. This can produce different (and often more accurate) demographic profiles than radius-based approaches. **Note:** Foot Traffic Trade Zones may show lower absolute population numbers since they're scoped to visitor origins rather than arbitrary boundaries. The data is more precise but covers a more targeted geography. *** ### When Demographics Aren't Available Some trade areas are made up of many disconnected pieces, often a **Places** boundary pulled in with **Extract boundary**, or a Foot Traffic trade zone. When a trade area is too fragmented to calculate accurately, demographics show as unavailable, with a message, **"Demographics aren't available for this trade zone."** *** ### Data Sources GrowthFactor demographic data is sourced from ESRI and updated regularly. **Age Data:** Based on ESRI demographic data including population estimates by age groups. **Income Data:** Based on ESRI household income data including income distribution across standard brackets. National average benchmarks and store average calculations are derived from these ESRI sources, ensuring consistent and authoritative comparisons. *** ### Using Demographics in Site Selection #### Customer Match The primary question: does the local population match your target customer? If your concept targets young professionals with disposable income, look for: * Over-indexed 25–44 age brackets * Above-average median income * Strong representation in $75K+ income brackets If you serve families with children, look for: * Strong Under 10 and 30–44 age representation (parents and kids) * Median income aligned with your price point #### Comparing to Your Store Base When store average data is available, compare the searched site to your existing successful locations: * **Demographics closely match store average:** The site serves a population similar to your proven customer base—lower risk * **Demographics differ from store average:** The site may attract a different customer segment—assess whether this is an opportunity or a concern * **Some categories match, others differ:** Identify which demographic factors are most critical for your concept's success #### Identifying Mismatches Demographics can disqualify sites quickly. A luxury concept in a trade area with median income 30% below national average faces an uphill battle—regardless of how strong the traffic or visibility metrics look. Conversely, a value-oriented concept in an ultra-affluent area may struggle with perception or format fit, even if raw population numbers seem adequate. #### Contextualizing Other Metrics Demographics add context to other analyses: * **High foot traffic + mismatched demographics** → The traffic may not convert to *your* customers * **Strong competitor performance + aligned demographics** → Validates that your customer base is present and spending * **Weak sales projection + strong demographics** → Other factors (competition, access) may be limiting potential #### Comparing Sites When evaluating multiple opportunities, demographics provide an apples-to-apples comparison lens. Two sites with similar sales projections might have very different demographic profiles—and therefore different risk profiles for your concept. *** ### Best Practices **Start with your customer profile.** Before analyzing a site, know what demographic markers correlate with your brand's success. Which income brackets drive your sales? What age groups over-index in your customer base? **Focus on differences, not just absolutes.** The Biggest Difference metric often reveals more than raw numbers. An area perfectly matching national averages is unremarkable; an area dramatically over-indexed in your target segment is noteworthy. **Use store averages as a benchmark.** When available, store average comparisons provide a brand-specific benchmark more relevant than national averages alone. Sites matching your store average demographics are more likely to perform consistently with your existing portfolio. **Compare multiple trade area configurations.** If demographics look marginal at a 15-minute drive time, check what happens at 10 minutes. You may find a strong core customer base that gets diluted by a weaker outer ring. **Triangulate with foot traffic demographics.** If available, compare radius-based demographics to Foot Traffic Trade Zone demographics. Differences may reveal that your actual customer base differs from the resident population (e.g., daytime workers vs. residents). **Don't disqualify on a single metric.** Demographic mismatches are yellow flags, not automatic disqualifications. A below-average median income might be offset by unusually high population density or lack of competition. **Review your workspace's variables.** The demographic variables configured in Workspace Settings are the metrics your team has identified as most important for your concept. Pay close attention to how the site performs on them in the Workspace Defaults tab. For related analysis, see Trade Area Analysis, Sales Projections, and Foot Traffic and Brand Rankings. # Foot Traffic and Brand Rankings Foot traffic data transforms site analysis from theoretical to empirical. Instead of assuming how busy a location might be, you can see actual visitor patterns—both for the site you're evaluating and for the businesses surrounding it. GrowthFactor integrates foot traffic intelligence throughout the platform, helping you understand not just *what* businesses are nearby, but *how well* they're performing. {% hint style="info" %} **Beta Feature:** Foot traffic rankings are currently in beta. Data accuracy continues to improve as we refine our models. Please contact support if you encounter unexpected rankings. {% endhint %} *** ### Foot Traffic Heatmaps Enable the **Foot Traffic** layer from the Layers panel to visualize visitor density. The heatmap displays warmer colors (reds, oranges) in high-traffic areas and cooler colors (blues, purples) in lower-traffic areas. **Use foot traffic heatmaps to:** * Identify high-activity zones within a market * Validate that a site sits within the traffic flow * Compare relative activity between potential sites * Spot emerging retail corridors or declining areas *** ### Foot Traffic Trade Zones Foot Traffic Trade Zones show *where visitors come from* using anonymized mobile location data to map home and work locations of people who visit an area. #### Coverage Percentages The percentage slider (50–100%) controls how much of the visitor population to include in your trade zone boundary. | Coverage | What It Shows | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **50%** | Core zone—most concentrated, frequent visitors. Your primary customer base. | | **60–70%** | Balanced view capturing regular visitors while excluding pass-through traffic. | | **80%** | Broader catchment including most customers. Useful for demographic analysis. | | **100%** | Full extent of all observed visitors, including outliers. | #### Visitor Origin Types Toggle between two views: **Home Locations** — Where visitors reside. Best for evening/weekend retail, grocery, restaurants serving dinner. **Work Locations** — Where visitors are employed. Best for lunch-driven restaurants, convenience retail near offices, weekday daytime traffic. Comparing both views reveals whether a site serves local residents, the daytime workforce, or a blend—critical for understanding peak hours. {% hint style="info" %} Not every location has foot traffic data. If a site has no visitor tracking coverage — common for new developments or areas outside typical retail patterns — a **No foot traffic data for this location** message appears. {% endhint %} *** ### Brand Rankings Brand Rankings show how individual business locations perform relative to others in the same chain, based on foot traffic. #### Reading Brand Rankings Rankings appear as percentiles with color coding: | Ranking | Color | Meaning | | -------------- | ------ | ----------------------------------------------- | | **Top 25%** | Green | Strong performer; outperforms 75%+ of the brand | | **Top 26–50%** | Yellow | Average performer for the brand | | **Bottom 50%** | Red | Underperforms compared to most locations | | **N/A** | Gray | Insufficient data to calculate ranking | **Small chains:** For brands with fewer than 5 locations, rankings display as "X of Y" (e.g., "2 of 4") instead of percentiles. #### Ranking Levels Click any business to see performance across three geographic scopes: | Level | Comparison Set | | ------------ | -------------------------------------------- | | **Local** | Other brand locations within \~15 miles | | **State** | All brand locations within the same state | | **National** | All brand locations across the United States | A location might rank Top 10% locally but only Top 50% nationally—strong for its market but average compared to the brand's best nationwide. #### Why Rankings Matter Rankings provide context that raw visit numbers cannot: * **A Starbucks with 8,000 monthly visits** in the Bottom 25% suggests something about that site is underperforming. * **A cluster of Top 25% performers** nearby signals strong retail fundamentals. * **Multiple Bottom 50% competitors** may indicate location challenges worth investigating. *** ### Category Performance Category Performance compares a location against *all businesses in its category*, not just its own brand. | Comparison Type | What It Tells You | | --------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Brand** | How this location performs vs. other stores in the same chain | | **Category** | How this location performs vs. all businesses in the category | **Example:** A Target ranking Top 45% within Target but Top 30% in Department Stores nationally indicates an average Target but a strong department store—the location has solid fundamentals. *** ### Tracked Businesses Panel The **Tracked Businesses** section lists competitors and complements with foot traffic intelligence. **Features:** * **Unique Brands Only** toggle shows one location per brand (nearest) * **Rankings** display with color-coded badges * **Distance** shown for each business * **Click any business** to highlight on map and see full details **Quick interpretation:** | Pattern | Signal | | ---------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------ | | Multiple green badges nearby | Strong retail corridor, proven customer draw | | Mixed colors | Typical market with varied performance | | Predominantly red badges | Potential warning sign; investigate site factors | | Several N/A rankings | Smaller chains or newer locations without data | *** ### Best Practices **Combine heatmaps with rankings.** A site in a high-traffic zone surrounded by underperforming competitors is worth investigating further. **Check both brand and category performance.** Weak brand ranking but strong category ranking suggests the brand struggles while the location has merit. **Use visitor origin data to validate demographics.** If your trade zone shows visitors from high-income areas, demographics data should confirm this. **Look for patterns.** One underperforming competitor doesn't condemn a site; a pattern of weak performers across multiple brands suggests systemic issues. # Vehicle Traffic Vehicle traffic data reveals how many cars pass by a site each day—a critical factor for visibility, accessibility, and drive-by customer potential. GrowthFactor displays traffic counts directly on the map and summarizes nearby road traffic in the results panel. *** ### Hourly Vehicle Traffic When you search a site, or open a pin, existing store, or deal in a Market Planning study, the **Hourly vehicle traffic** panel shows the nearest named road's daily volume and its hour-by-hour pattern. #### What's Displayed * **Nearest road daily volume** — Vehicles Per Day (VPD) on the closest named road to the location. * **Road count** — how many nearby named roads were found, shown as a badge. * **Hourly bar chart** — 24 bars covering the day, built from that same nearest road. The peak hour is highlighted by default. Hover any bar to see its exact count and hour window, or click one to keep it highlighted instead of the peak hour. The hourly chart always reflects a single road, the nearest one—GrowthFactor doesn't sum hourly volumes across multiple roads. If hourly data isn't available for the nearest road, the chart says so instead of showing an empty one. *** ### Local Traffic Map Layer Enable the **Local Traffic** layer from the Layers panel to visualize vehicle counts directly on the map. #### How It Displays Traffic volume appears as: * **Color-coded roads:** Warmer colors (red, orange) indicate higher traffic; cooler colors (yellow, green) indicate lower traffic * **Inline VPD labels:** As you zoom in, specific vehicle counts display directly on road segments The more you zoom in, the more granular detail appears—major highways show counts at any zoom level, while local streets populate as you get closer. #### Popup Details Hover over any road segment to open a popup with the road name, road type, and **Daily volume** in VPD. Below that, a **Vehicles per hour** chart breaks the day into 24 hourly bars, with the peak hour highlighted and labeled. #### Reading the Map Use the traffic layer to: * **Identify major arterials:** Red roads are your primary traffic corridors * **Assess site positioning:** Is the site on a high-traffic road or set back on a quieter street? * **Understand traffic flow:** See how traffic moves through an area—which roads feed the site, where congestion occurs * **Compare visibility potential:** Sites on high-VPD roads have more drive-by exposure than those on low-traffic side streets *** ### Why Traffic Matters #### Visibility and Exposure For retail concepts that rely on drive-by awareness, traffic volume directly correlates with brand exposure. A site on a 25,000 VPD road gets seen by 25,000 potential customers daily—before any marketing spend. **High-visibility concepts:** * Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) * Convenience stores and gas stations * Fast casual dining * Auto services #### Accessibility Traffic data helps evaluate how easily customers can reach a location. Consider: * **Is the site on the high-traffic road or adjacent to it?** A site one block off a major arterial may miss drive-by traffic entirely. * **What's the traffic on access roads?** High highway traffic is valuable, but if the immediate access road is low-volume, the site may be hard to reach. * **Are there multiple approaches?** Sites accessible from several moderate-traffic roads may outperform those dependent on a single high-traffic road. #### Ingress and Egress High traffic volume is a double-edged sword: * **Pro:** More potential customers passing by * **Con:** Difficult left turns, limited access points, or congestion can frustrate customers A site on a 40,000 VPD divided highway may have excellent visibility but challenging access if there's no signal or median break. Consider traffic volume alongside practical access factors observed during site visits. *** ### Traffic vs. Foot Traffic GrowthFactor provides two distinct traffic metrics: | Metric | What It Measures | Best For | | ------------------------- | ------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Vehicle Traffic (VPD)** | Cars passing on roads | Drive-by visibility, auto-oriented retail, accessibility assessment | | **Foot Traffic** | Pedestrian visitors to an area | Walk-in potential, urban retail, understanding actual visitor patterns | Both matter, but their relative importance depends on your concept: * **Suburban strip center:** Vehicle traffic is primary; foot traffic is secondary * **Urban storefront:** Foot traffic may drive more business than road traffic * **Highway outparcel:** Vehicle traffic is critical; foot traffic is minimal See Foot Traffic and Brand Rankings for pedestrian traffic analysis. *** ### Interpreting Traffic Data #### High VPD, Not Always Better More traffic isn't universally positive. Consider: * **Speed:** A 50,000 VPD highway where cars travel 65 mph offers visibility but not convenient stopping. A 15,000 VPD road at 35 mph may generate more actual visits. * **Traffic type:** Commuter traffic (predictable, rushed) behaves differently than shopping traffic (browsing, flexible). * **Your concept:** A destination retailer can thrive on a lower-traffic road if customers seek them out. An impulse-driven concept needs high visibility. #### Context Matters A road with 8,000 VPD might be: * **Excellent** for a neighborhood services concept in a residential area * **Weak** for a QSR expecting significant drive-through volume * **Irrelevant** for a destination retailer drawing from a 20-mile radius Evaluate traffic in the context of your concept's customer acquisition model. #### Combining with Other Metrics Traffic data is most powerful when combined with other analyses: * **High traffic + aligned demographics** → Strong potential for drive-by conversion * **High traffic + poor visibility (setback, obstructions)** → Volume exists but may not translate to awareness * **Low traffic + high foot traffic** → Urban or pedestrian-oriented location; different customer acquisition model * **Low traffic + low foot traffic** → Validate that destination draw or other factors compensate *** ### Using Traffic in Site Selection #### Screening Criteria If your concept requires minimum traffic thresholds, use the vehicle traffic data for quick screening: * Below threshold on all nearby roads → Likely disqualify * Meets threshold on primary road → Continue evaluation * Exceeds threshold significantly → Flag as high-visibility opportunity #### Site Visit Preparation Review traffic data before visiting a site to: * Know which roads to observe during your visit * Identify the primary traffic flow and access points * Prepare questions about turn lanes, signals, and median breaks * Set expectations for the drive-by experience #### Committee Presentations Traffic data provides concrete, defensible numbers for site justifications: > "The site fronts Memorial Drive with 21,806 vehicles per day, providing strong visibility for our drive-through concept. Secondary access from Land Boulevard (15,286 VPD) offers an alternative approach from the east." *** ### Best Practices **Check all nearby roads, not just the frontage road.** A site might front a quiet street but sit 500 feet from a major arterial—or vice versa. **Zoom in on the map.** Traffic labels on smaller roads only appear at closer zoom levels. Don't assume a road has low traffic just because no number displays at a regional view. **Consider directionality.** A site on the "going home" side of a commuter route may capture more evening traffic than one on the "going to work" side. Traffic counts are bidirectional totals; actual patterns may favor one direction. **Validate with observation.** Traffic counts are averages. Visit during your peak business hours to observe actual conditions—is traffic flowing or gridlocked? Are turns easy or difficult? **Factor in seasonality and trends.** Published traffic counts may not reflect recent changes (new development, road construction, shifting commute patterns). Use the data as a baseline and supplement with current observation. For related analysis, see Foot Traffic and Brand Rankings, GrowthFactor Score and Insights, and Trade Area Analysis. # Points of Interest The Points of Interest (POI) layer displays local businesses surrounding your selected location or trade area. This layer helps you visualize the commercial landscape and business density in a given area, with filtering options to focus on businesses relevant to your analysis. *** ### Overview When enabled, the POI layer overlays business markers on the map representing nearby businesses. This information is valuable for: * Understanding the types of businesses operating near a potential site * Identifying commercial corridors and retail clusters * Evaluating the overall business density of an area * Discovering neighboring tenants and co-tenancy opportunities ### Enabling the POI Layer {% columns %} {% column %} 1. Click the **Layers** button in the top navigation bar 2. Under **Places**, locate **Points of Interest** 3. Click the visibility icon to toggle the layer on or off {% endcolumn %} {% column %}
Map Layers panel showing the Points of Interest layer under the Places category
{% endcolumn %} {% endcolumns %} *** #### POI Layer Filters When the Points of Interest layer is enabled, two filter buttons appear below it in the layers panel. These filters let you refine which businesses are displayed. **Foot Traffic Filter** Click the **Foot Traffic** button to show only businesses that have foot traffic data available. * **When enabled (blue):** Only businesses with foot traffic data are displayed * **When disabled (gray):** All businesses are displayed regardless of data availability **Tracked Filter** Click the **Tracked** button to show only businesses that match your organization's configured brand or category preferences — those marked as Drawn, Avoid, or Neutral. * **When enabled (blue):** Only tracked businesses are displayed * **When disabled (gray):** All businesses are displayed, including untracked ones *** ### Editing What's Shown You can change which brands and categories display on the Tracked POIs layer directly from the map. Your edits are personal to you and don't change the workspace settings. #### Workspace Defaults vs. Your Custom Set {% columns %} {% column valign="middle" %} The header of the editor tells you which set you're looking at: * **Using workspace defaults** — the tracked brands and categories configured in [Workspace Settings](/getting-started/workspace-settings), shared by everyone in the workspace * **Custom for you** — your own set, marked with a colored dot {% endcolumn %} {% column %}
Tracked POIs editor in a study, showing the Custom for you header with tracked brands and categories
{% endcolumn %} {% endcolumns %} #### How It Works 1. With the Tracked POIs layer enabled, click **Edit what's shown** below the layer toggle 2. Add or remove brands in the **Brands** section and categories in the **Categories** section There's no confirm step. Each change saves and takes effect on the map right away. **Clear** empties a whole section. #### Getting Back to Workspace Defaults * **Reset to defaults** — appears while you're in **Custom for you**. Discards your custom brands and categories and follows the workspace defaults again. A confirmation dialog appears first. * **Refresh defaults** — appears while you're **Using workspace defaults**. Pulls in the current workspace settings. #### Saving Your Set to the Workspace Admins in **Custom for you** mode also see **Save as new workspace defaults**. This overwrites the workspace's default brands and categories for every member, so a confirmation dialog appears first. The option requires a preset to already exist in Workspace Settings. *** # Competitors and Complements Understanding the businesses surrounding a potential site reveals the competitive landscape and co-tenancy opportunities. GrowthFactor identifies and analyzes both direct competitors and complementary retailers within your trade area, showing not just what's nearby but how well those businesses perform. *** ### Competitors vs. Complements #### Competitors Businesses that directly compete for your target customers. These are retailers or restaurants in the same category that offer similar products or services. **Examples for a sporting goods retailer:** * Dick's Sporting Goods * Academy Sports * REI * Big 5 Sporting Goods **Why they matter:** Competitor density affects market saturation. Too many competitors may indicate an oversupplied market; too few might suggest untapped demand—or a location that doesn't support your category. #### Complements Businesses that attract customers who are also likely to shop with you. These are retailers whose customer base overlaps with yours, creating beneficial co-tenancy. **Examples for a sporting goods retailer:** * Target (general merchandise overlap) * Best Buy (active lifestyle, tech-oriented customers) * Ulta Beauty (health and wellness adjacent) * Grocery anchors (regular traffic drivers) **Why they matter:** Strong complements drive foot traffic that benefits your store. A site next to a thriving Target sees consistent customer flow you can capture without generating it yourself. *** ### Configuring Competitors and Complements Your competitor and complement lists are configured at the workspace level in **Workspace Settings**. These lists determine which businesses are tracked and displayed when you search a site. #### Setting Up Lists Work with your GrowthFactor team or access Brand Settings to: * Define which brands are direct competitors * Identify complementary businesses relevant to your concept * Adjust lists as your competitive landscape evolves Once configured, these businesses are automatically identified and analyzed whenever you search a site. Each member can also keep a personal set of tracked brands and categories. A personal set takes the place of the workspace lists for that member alone. See [Editing What's Shown](/data-and-analytics/points-of-interest#editing-whats-shown). *** ### Tracked Businesses Panel When you search a site, the **Tracked Businesses** section in the results panel displays competitors and complements within your trade area. If the heading reads **Tracked Businesses · Custom for you**, you're looking at your own personal set rather than the workspace lists. Click **Manage** to see which brands and categories are in it, or to go back to the workspace defaults. #### Panel Layout All tracked businesses—both competitors (Avoid) and complements (Drawn)—appear in a single scrollable list. Each entry displays: * **Brand name** * **Match type** — whether the business matched as a **Tracked Brand** or a **Tracked Category** (with the category name shown) * **Popularity Score** — a 0–100 score reflecting how frequently the location is visited relative to others (when available) * **Distance** from the searched site * **Foot Traffic Ranking** badge — percentile performance vs. other similar locations in the local area (same brand locally when brand data is available, same category locally otherwise) #### **Filtering by Type** Use the filter tabs at the top of the list to narrow results: * **All** — shows all tracked businesses * **Brands** — shows only businesses matched by brand name * **Categories** — shows only businesses matched by business category #### **Sorting** Click the sort icon (sliders) to open the sort dropdown and choose how results are ordered: * **Distance** (default) — nearest businesses first * **Foot Traffic** — highest foot-traffic-ranked locations first * **Popularity** — highest Popularity Score first The **Unique Brands Only** toggle is also in this dropdown. When enabled, only the nearest location per brand is shown—useful when multiple outposts of the same chain exist in the trade area. Disable it to see all locations and assess total competitive density. #### Viewing Full Details Click **"View all \[X]"** at the bottom of each column to open the detailed list view with: * Complete list of all competitors or complements * Sortable by distance or performance ranking * Expandable entries showing full foot traffic breakdowns * Monthly visit counts and brand/category performance *** ### Reading the Business List #### Distance Shows how far each business is from your searched address. Closer competitors pose more direct competitive pressure; closer complements offer stronger co-tenancy benefits. #### **Popularity Score** A 0–100 score indicating how frequently a location is visited relative to other businesses. Higher scores indicate stronger foot traffic generation. Use this metric to quickly assess whether a nearby competitor or complement is actively drawing customers—regardless of brand name. The score reflects a combination of factors including: * Aggregated, anonymized consumer survey data from enterprise partners * The volume of datapoints available about a location * Place history (e.g., temporary closures) * Operating hours and available amenities Popularity Score is a dynamic metric updated monthly, meaning it can increase or decrease as underlying signals change. #### Foot Traffic Rankings Each business may display a percentile ranking indicating how that specific location performs compared to other similar locations in the local area — the same brand locally when brand data is available, or the same category locally otherwise: | Ranking | Meaning | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Top 10%** | Exceptional performer; this location outperforms 90% of comparable local stores | | **Top 25%** | Strong performer | | **Top 50%** | Average for its comparison group | | **Bottom 25%** | Underperformer | | **Bottom 5%** | Among the weakest comparable local stores | | **N/A** | Insufficient data to rank | Rankings reflect local-area performance. Click a business to see brand, category, state, and national comparisons. See Foot Traffic and Brand Rankings for detailed methodology. #### Interpreting Rankings **For competitors:** * High-performing competitors confirm customer demand exists in the area * Low-performing competitors may indicate location challenges—or an opportunity to capture share * A mix of rankings suggests varied micro-location quality within the trade area **For complements:** * High-performing complements are strong traffic anchors that benefit your site * Low-performing complements provide less co-tenancy value than their brand name might suggest * The nearest complement's performance matters most for direct adjacency benefits *** ### Using Competitor Analysis #### Assessing Market Saturation Count competitors and evaluate their distribution: * **Few competitors, strong performers:** Undersupplied market with proven demand—attractive entry opportunity * **Few competitors, weak performers:** May indicate location doesn't support the category—investigate why * **Many competitors, strong performers:** Saturated but thriving market—can you differentiate? * **Many competitors, weak performers:** Oversupplied market struggling to support existing players—proceed with caution #### Competitive Density by Distance Consider how competitors are distributed: * Immediate competitors (under 1 mile): Direct head-to-head competition * Nearby competitors (1–3 miles): Moderate competitive pressure * Trade area competitors (3+ miles): May share customers but less direct conflict A site with no competitors within 2 miles but several at 4–5 miles may have a local monopoly while still validating market demand. #### Competitor Performance as Signal Strong-performing competitors validate that customers are present and spending in the category. If nearby competitors consistently rank in the top quartile, the location supports your category well. Weak-performing competitors raise questions: * Is the location fundamentally flawed? * Are those specific sites poorly executed? * Is there an opportunity to outperform with a better offering? *** ### Using Complement Analysis #### Evaluating Co-Tenancy Strong complements create a virtuous cycle—their traffic becomes your traffic. Prioritize sites near: * High-performing grocery anchors (consistent weekly visits) * Thriving big-box retailers (Target, Walmart, Costco) * Category-relevant specialty retailers * Popular restaurants that drive destination trips #### Anchor Quality Matters Not all anchors are equal. A complement ranking in the Bottom 25% of its chain provides less value than the brand name suggests. Always check performance, not just presence. **Example:** A site "near Target" sounds appealing, but if that Target ranks in the Bottom 10% nationally, it's not generating the traffic you'd expect from the brand. #### Complement Mix Evaluate the overall complement profile: * **Diverse, strong complements:** Multiple traffic drivers create resilient customer flow * **Single anchor dependency:** Risk if that anchor underperforms or closes * **Weak complement performance:** Location may lack the draw needed to support your concept *** ### Points of Interest (POI) Layer Beyond the Tracked Businesses panel, the **Points of Interest (POI)** layer shows all businesses in the area on the map. #### When to Use It Enable the POI layer to: * Discover retailers not on your tracked lists * Understand the complete retail mix * Identify emerging competitors or potential complements * Assess overall retail density and health #### **Filtering to Tracked Businesses** Use the **Tracked** filter button beneath the POI layer in the Layers panel to show only your configured businesses (those with Drawn, Avoid, or Neutral relationships). Click a marker to see its relationship type in the popup. #### How It Displays POI markers appear on the map with: * Business name markers * Brand logos for recognized chains * Category Icons * Clustering at zoomed-out views; individual pins when zoomed in Click any business to see its foot traffic data and performance rankings. *** ### Best Practices **Check performance, not just presence.** A trade area "full of competitors" isn't concerning if they're all underperforming—it may signal opportunity. A single dominant competitor ranking in the Top 10% is more threatening than five weak ones. **Weight nearby complements heavily.** The complement next door matters more than one across the trade area. Immediate adjacency drives meaningful traffic sharing; distant complements have diluted benefit. **Look for patterns.** If every retailer in an area—competitors and complements alike—ranks in the bottom half, the location may have structural challenges regardless of your concept. **Consider the customer journey.** Are complements positioned to create natural shopping trips that include your store? A complement in the same center matters more than one across the street with difficult access. **Update your lists periodically.** As your competitive landscape evolves (new entrants, brand repositioning, closures), keep your competitor and complement lists current to maintain relevant analysis. **Use rankings to calibrate expectations.** If the best-performing retailer in the trade area ranks at the 60th percentile, don't expect to crack the Top 25%—adjust your projections and expectations accordingly. For related analysis, see Foot Traffic and Brand Rankings, GrowthFactor Score and Insights, and Sales Projections. # Cannibalization ## Cannibalization Cannibalization analysis estimates how much a new location's trade area overlaps with your existing stores. When trade areas overlap, some customers who would have visited your current locations may shift to the new site—transferring sales rather than generating purely incremental revenue. Understanding cannibalization helps you evaluate the true net contribution of a new site and protect your existing portfolio. *** ### How Cannibalization Is Calculated Cannibalization measures trade area overlap between the searched site and your existing stores. #### The Methodology 1. **Define trade areas:** Both the proposed site and each existing store have defined trade areas based on your selected configuration (drive time, radius, or foot traffic zone). 2. **Identify overlap:** The platform calculates where these trade areas intersect geographically. 3. **Estimate customer impact:** Based on the overlap area and the customer distribution within it, the model estimates what percentage of the existing store's customers fall within the new site's trade area. 4. **Express as percentage:** The result is shown as an overlap percentage—the portion of the existing store's trade area customers who could potentially shift to the new location. #### What the Percentage Means A 25% cannibalization estimate means approximately 25% of the existing store's trade area overlaps with the proposed site. Customers in that overlap zone may choose the new, closer location instead of continuing to visit the existing store. This doesn't mean 25% of sales will transfer—actual customer behavior depends on many factors—but it quantifies the geographic exposure. *** ### Reading the Cannibalization Card When you search a site near existing stores, the **Cannibalization** section appears in the results panel. #### What's Displayed Each potentially impacted store shows: | Field | Description | | --------------- | ---------------------------------------- | | **Address** | The street address of the existing store | | **City, State** | Location identifier | | **Percentage** | Estimated trade area overlap | | **Risk Level** | Categorized impact (Low, Medium, High) | #### Risk Levels Risk levels provide a quick assessment framework: | Level | Typical Range | Interpretation | | ---------- | ------------- | ------------------------------------------- | | **Low** | Below 15% | Minimal overlap; limited transfer risk | | **Medium** | 15–25% | Moderate overlap; some customers may shift | | **High** | Above 25% | Significant overlap; material impact likely | These thresholds are guidelines. Your organization may have different tolerances based on store density strategy and concept characteristics. #### Multiple Store Impact If the proposed site overlaps with several existing stores, each is listed separately. Total network impact may exceed any single store's percentage—a new site cannibalizing 15% from three nearby stores has broader portfolio implications than one cannibalizing 25% from a single store. *** ### Cannibalization Map Layer Enable the **Cannibalization** layer from the Layers panel to visualize trade area overlaps on the map. #### How It Displays When enabled, the map shows: * **Existing store trade areas:** Shaded regions around your current locations that fall within range of the searched site * **Overlap zones:** Areas where the proposed site's trade area intersects with existing store trade areas * **Color intensity:** Darker or more saturated colors may indicate higher overlap concentration #### Reading the Visualization The map helps you understand the geographic relationship between locations: * **How close are the trade areas?** Adjacent but non-overlapping trade areas pose no cannibalization risk * **Where does overlap occur?** Is it in a dense population center or a sparse edge of the trade area? * **Which direction does overlap extend?** A new site might cannibalize customers from the east while leaving western customers unaffected #### Adjusting Trade Areas Cannibalization calculations depend on your trade area settings. Try different configurations to understand sensitivity: * A 10-minute drive time might show no overlap * A 15-minute drive time might show moderate overlap * A 20-minute drive time might show significant overlap This helps you understand at what customer travel threshold the stores begin competing for the same shoppers. *** ### Comparing Locations in a Market Planning Study The Cannibalization card described above compares a searched site against your existing portfolio. Inside a **Market Planning study**, you can also compare a pin, store, or deal against **other pins, stores, and deals in the same scenario**. #### Running a Comparison 1. Open a Market Planning study and click a pin, store, or deal to open its detail panel. 2. Select the **Cannibalization** operation—the analysis runs automatically. 3. Every other pin, store, and deal in the scenario with a trade zone attached is included by default; uncheck any row to exclude it and recompute. #### What's Compared * Only custom trade-area shapes drawn and attached to a pin, store, or deal participate—there's no fallback to a default trade zone. If the target has no attached shape, add one before running the comparison. * If the target has more than one attached shape, each is evaluated as its own candidate. * Comparisons follow the same rule: only pins, stores, and deals with an attached shape participate; anything without one is skipped. #### Reading the Results Each candidate shape lists the pins, stores, deals, and drawn areas it overlaps, sorted by overlap percentage, with the same **Low / Mid / High** risk badges used in Site Analysis. The total overlap percentage for a candidate reflects its combined, de-duplicated footprint across every overlapping comparison—it isn't a sum of the individual percentages, since neighboring trade areas can overlap each other too. *** ### Cannibalization and Sales Projections Sales projections in GrowthFactor are based on **cannibalized sales**—the model is calibrated on the actual revenue of your existing stores, which already reflects the impact of overlap between locations. The Sales Forecast card notes this directly: *"Forecast is based on cannibalized sales."* Because the forecast already reflects cannibalization, don't discount the projection by the overlap percentage—doing so would double-count the impact. #### Where Cannibalization Analysis Fits Use the cannibalization analysis to understand the impact on your existing portfolio rather than to adjust the forecast: 1. **Identify affected stores:** See which existing locations share trade area with the proposed site 2. **Size the transfer:** Estimate how much of each store's sales may shift to the new location 3. **Judge acceptability:** Decide whether the overlap is acceptable given the new site's projected revenue #### Estimating Impact on Existing Stores To estimate how much sales may shift away from an existing store: ``` Estimated Sales Transfer = Existing Store Sales × Cannibalization % ``` **Example:** * Site cannibalizes 20% from Store A (which does $1,500,000) * Estimated sales transfer from Store A = $1,500,000 × 20% = $300,000 This simplified calculation assumes cannibalized customers fully transfer. In practice, some customers in overlap zones may continue visiting their original store, split visits between locations, or increase overall spending with your brand due to added convenience. #### Portfolio Perspective Consider cannibalization from a total portfolio view: * **Single store impact:** How much does each existing store lose? * **Network impact:** What's the total sales transfer across all affected stores? * **Net growth:** Does total brand revenue increase, decrease, or stay flat? A new store might cannibalize existing locations but still grow total brand revenue if it also captures customers who weren't previously shopping with you. *** ### When Cannibalization Is Acceptable Cannibalization isn't inherently bad. Strategic reasons to accept overlap include: #### Defensive Positioning Opening in a market before competitors do—even with some self-cannibalization—may be preferable to ceding the location to a rival. #### Market Saturation Strategy Some brands intentionally cluster stores to dominate a market, accepting internal overlap to maximize brand presence and convenience. #### Replacing Underperformers A new, better-positioned store might cannibalize a struggling existing location that you plan to close or relocate. #### Customer Convenience Adding locations reduces customer travel time, potentially increasing visit frequency and loyalty—even if individual store sales decline. #### Growing the Pie In some cases, a new store in an overlap zone serves customers who weren't making the trip to the existing location, resulting in net new transactions for the brand. *** ### When Cannibalization Is Problematic High cannibalization raises concerns when: #### No Net Growth The new store merely redistributes existing sales without capturing new customers—you've added operating costs with no revenue gain. #### Existing Store Viability If cannibalization pushes an existing store below profitability thresholds, you may face a forced closure or underperforming asset. #### Lease Obligations Cannibalizing a store with a long remaining lease term creates financial exposure—you're paying rent on a location you've undermined. #### Franchisee Conflicts For franchise systems, encroaching on existing franchisee territories creates relationship and legal complications. *** ### Interpreting Cannibalization Results #### Low Cannibalization (Under 15%) **Typical interpretation:** Minimal concern. The stores serve largely distinct customer bases. **Action:** Proceed with standard evaluation; cannibalization is unlikely to materially affect the opportunity. #### Moderate Cannibalization (15–25%) **Typical interpretation:** Noticeable overlap exists. Some sales transfer is likely. **Action:** Factor cannibalization into financial modeling. Assess whether net contribution remains attractive. Consider whether the overlap zone is strategically important to defend. #### High Cannibalization (Above 25%) **Typical interpretation:** Significant overlap. The new store will compete meaningfully with existing locations. **Action:** Carefully evaluate strategic rationale. Model net revenue scenarios. Consider whether the existing store should be repositioned, closed, or consolidated. Assess competitive dynamics—would a competitor take this location if you don't? *** ### Using Cannibalization in Decisions #### Financial Modeling Incorporate cannibalization into your pro forma: * Base case: Projected sales minus estimated cannibalization * Downside case: Higher cannibalization assumption (e.g., 1.5× the estimate) * Portfolio case: Model impact on total brand revenue, not just new store performance #### Site Comparison When choosing between multiple opportunities, cannibalization can be a tiebreaker: * Site A: $2M projection, 10% cannibalization → \~$1.85M net * Site B: $2.2M projection, 30% cannibalization → \~$1.75M net Site A may be more attractive despite the lower gross projection. #### Committee Discussions Present cannibalization transparently: > "This site projects $2.4M in annual sales with 27.79% overlap with our Boston location at 350 Washington St. That store currently does $1.8M. Estimated transfer is approximately $500K, resulting in net new revenue of roughly $1.9M. We believe the location is strategically important to secure before \[competitor] expands in this corridor." *** ### Best Practices **Always check cannibalization for sites near existing stores.** Even if a site looks strong on standalone metrics, high cannibalization can undermine the investment. **Model multiple scenarios.** Cannibalization estimates have uncertainty. Test how the deal looks at 1.5× or 2× the estimated overlap. **Consider the customer perspective.** Would customers in the overlap zone genuinely prefer the new location? Is it more convenient, better positioned, or higher quality? Customer preference affects how much theoretical overlap translates to actual transfer. **Look at the existing store's trajectory.** A store already declining might see cannibalization as acceleration of an existing trend rather than new damage. **Factor in lease timing.** If the existing store's lease expires soon, moderate cannibalization may be acceptable as part of a planned portfolio optimization. **Don't let cannibalization alone kill good sites.** A strategically important location with manageable cannibalization is often worth pursuing. The goal is informed decision-making, not zero overlap. For related analysis, see Sales Projections, Trade Area Analysis, and My Stores. # Available Listings The **Available Listings** layer puts retail and land properties on the map. Each pin is a broker's listing, carrying the available space, asking rate, broker contact details, and a link back to the original listing. Off-market properties are included alongside publicly marketed ones. {% hint style="info" %} **Closed Beta:** Available Listings is in closed beta for Labs and Enterprise customers. {% endhint %} *** ### Turning the Layer On {% columns %} {% column valign="middle" %} In a Market Planning study, open the **Layers** tab in the right panel and click **Add layer**. Pick **Available Listings** from the **Add a data layer** picker. Adding it to one study doesn't add it to your others. The layer lands already visible, and appears under **Data** alongside your other layers. {% endcolumn %} {% column %}
Layers tab of a Market Planning study, showing Available Listings added under the Data section
{% endcolumn %} {% endcolumns %} On Site Analysis, click **Layers** in the top-right corner. **Available Listings** sits under the **Listings** category. It starts hidden, so click it to turn it on. Listings only draw once you've zoomed in to roughly city level. If you are too zoomed out, you will see "Zoom in to see listings" under the Available Listings layer row. ### Reading the Map Each pin tells you two things: * **The icon** — the property type. A storefront for retail, a folded map for land. * **The color** — the listing status. | Color | Status | | ------ | ------------------------------------- | | Green | Active | | Amber | Price reduced | | Indigo | Pending | | Gray | Leased, sold, off market, or inactive | Gray pins are slighty faded so they aare distinguished from active inventory. The group covers a few different situations. Leased and sold listings have transacted, and they stay on the map as recent comparables. Off-market and inactive listings haven't. The property isn't being publicly marketed, but it may still be available, and the card carries the broker contact to ask. Hover a pin to see the address and available size. Click it to open the full listing card. ### Filtering the Layer Click **Filter listings** below the layer row to narrow what's on the map. A colored dot on the button means a filter is applied.
The Filter listings panel showing the property type, transaction, status, and available size filters
* **Property type** — **Retail** and **Land**. Click a pill to include or exclude that type. * **Transaction** — **Lease** and **Sale**, the deal type the broker listed. * **Status** — **Active**, **Price reduced**, and **Pending** each get their own checkbox. One **Sold, leased & off market** checkbox covers the gray statuses together, inactive included. * **Available size (SF)** — set a **Min**, a **Max**, or both to show only listings whose available space overlaps that range. Land is measured in acres, so it's hidden while a size range is set. **Reset** clears every filter and returns to the layer's default, which excludes sold, leased, off market, and inactive listings. ### The Listing Card The card opens with the property type, the transaction type, and a status badge, followed by the address, the city and state, and the property subtype. Below that, whichever of these the broker published: * **Available SF** — the space available across the listing's suites. A single figure when there's one size, a range when suites differ, and `from 2,500 SF` or `up to 8,000 SF` when only one end of the range is published. Land listings show **Land Area** in acres instead. * **Asking Rate** — the rate, with its basis. `$32.00/SF/yr` and `$1.85/SF/mo` are both common. * **Price** * **Year Built** * **Last updated on** — the date the listing was last modified in the source feed. Broker details follow: name and company, then email, mobile, and office number. Each contact is a link, and the button beside it copies the value to your clipboard. Listing data is licensed from Resimplifi *** # Map Layers #### Accessing the Layers Panel Click the **Layers** button in the top-right corner of the map view. The Map Layers panel appears on the right side of the map, organizing available layers into categories. Each layer shows a count of items currently on the map (e.g., "Competitors 4" or "All Stores 90"). Click any layer to toggle its visibility, or use **Show All** / **Hide All** to control entire categories at once #### Managing Available Layers To customize which layers appear in your legend, click the **Manage Layers** button at the bottom of the Map Layers panel. This opens the layer management settings, where you can enable or disable layers for your legend. Disabled layers won't appear in the Map Layers panel but can be re-enabled at any time. #### Layer Categories **Area & Traffic** Visualize geographic context and movement patterns around a site. * **Trade Area** — Displays the boundary of your selected trade zone. Updates automatically when you change your trade area settings. This layer is display-only—clicking it doesn't open a popup. * **Local Traffic** — Shows vehicle traffic counts on roads. More detailed data populates as you zoom in, displaying average daily vehicle counts on street segments. Hover a road to see its daily volume and an hourly traffic breakdown. **Places** Display points of interest for your competitive landscape. * **Points of Interest (POI)** — All nearby businesses, including your configured competitors (Avoid), complements (Drawn), and neutral tracked brands/categories. Use the **Foot Traffic** and **Tracked** filter toggles to show only POIs matching those criteria. **Listings** Display retail and land properties around a site, publicly marketed and off-market alike. Available to accounts in the closed beta. * **Available Listings** — Retail and land listings from brokers, colored by status. Click a pin for available space, asking rate, and broker contact details, or use **Filter listings** to narrow by type, transaction, status, and size. See [Available Listings](/data-and-analytics/available-listings). **Zoning** Visualize zoning designations to understand land use regulations and development potential around a site. * **Residential** — Areas zoned for residential development and housing. * **Commercial** — Areas designated for commercial and retail activities. * **Industrial** — Zones allocated for industrial and manufacturing uses. * **Mixed Use** — Areas that allow a combination of residential, commercial, and other uses. * **Agricultural** — Land zoned for farming and agricultural purposes. * **Public** — Areas designated for public facilities and government uses. * **Recreational** — Zones set aside for parks, recreation, and open space. * **Other** — Zoning categories that don't fall into the standard classifications. Each zoning type can be toggled individually to focus on specific land use patterns relevant to your site analysis. Use the **Show All** / **Hide All** toggle to control the entire Zoning category at once. **Your Locations** Display your store portfolio and related analysis. * **Cannibalization** — Trade areas of nearby existing stores that may overlap with a potential new site. This layer is display-only—use the Cannibalization section in the results panel for overlap details. * **All Stores** — Every location in your existing store database. **Deal Stages** Display deals on the map grouped by pipeline stage. Each stage is a separate toggleable layer showing deal count. Use **Show All** / **Hide All** to control the entire category, or toggle individual stages to focus on specific parts of your pipeline. **Custom Layers** Custom layers you've created or imported appear here and can be toggled like any other layer. #### Custom Layers To create and manage custom layers, navigate to **My Layers** in the left sidebar under Manage. From the **My Layers** page, you can: * Click **New Layer** to create a custom map layer * Click **Import Layer** to upload an existing map file #### Browsing My Layers The page lists what you can see, with the creator and creation date on each entry. Switch between grid and list with the view toggle, and use **Search layers** to filter by name. Click **Filter** to change what's listed: * **Show** — **My Layers** (the default) or **Workspace Layers**, which holds layers created by other members of the workspace * **Sort by** — **Newest first** (the default), **Oldest first**, or **Alphabetical** If you have access to more than one workspace, **Filter** also narrows the list to specific workspaces. Click any entry to open it for editing, or use its **⋯** menu to delete it. Deleting a layer removes it from every map that uses it. Custom layers you create will appear in the Custom Layers section of the Map Layers panel and can be toggled like any other layer. In Market Planning studies, custom layers aren't added automatically. Open the **Layers** tab in the study's right panel, click **Add layer**, and expand **Custom Layers** to choose which of your layers to bring into that study. Removing one from a study only removes it from that study's map—it doesn't delete the underlying layer. #### Customizing Feature Colors and Icons When editing a custom layer, you can style each feature individually by clicking on it to open the feature panel. **Colors** All feature types (points, lines, and polygons) support per-feature color customization: * Select from a set of preset colors (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, brown, gray). * Click the **+** button to open a full color picker and choose any custom color. * Features without a specified color default to **blue** for shapes and lines, and **red** for point markers. It is best practice to specify a color for each feature so your layer renders consistently. **Icons (point features only)** Point markers support a custom icon in addition to a custom color: * Click the icon dropdown to open the icon picker. * Choose from icon categories — **Shapes** (circle, star, heart, square), **Places** (pin, store, house, car), and **Other** (flag, person, warning). * Icons are previewed as circles inside the layer editor but will display as your chosen icon on all other maps. * The default icon is a **circle**. *** ### Importing Layers The **Import Layer** feature allows you to upload existing map files to use as custom layers in GrowthFactor. #### Supported File Formats You can import layers in the following formats: * **GeoJSON** (.geojson, .json) — Geographic data in JSON format * **KML** (.kml) — Keyhole Markup Language files from Google Earth and other mapping tools * **KMZ** (.kmz) — Compressed KML files * **CSV** (.csv) — Comma-separated values files with latitude and longitude columns, imported as point layers **File size limit:** 50MB per file #### How to Import a Layer 1. Navigate to **My Layers** in the left sidebar under Manage 2. Click the **Import Layer** button 3. Drag and drop your file into the upload area, or click to browse for a file 4. Review the auto-populated layer name (based on the filename) 5. Edit the layer name if desired 6. Click **Import Layer** The layer will be processed and added to your Custom Layers. You can then toggle it on and off from the Map Layers panel like any other layer. #### Import Requirements * Files must be in one of the supported formats (.geojson, .json, .kml, .kmz, .csv) * Files must be under 50MB * The file must contain valid geographic data * **CSV files** must include latitude and longitude columns. Accepted column names include: `latitude`/`lat`/`y` for latitude and `longitude`/`lon`/`long`/`lng`/`x` for longitude. Rows with missing or invalid coordinates are skipped automatically. #### After Import Once imported, your custom layer: * Appears in the Custom Layers section of the Map Layers panel * Can be toggled on and off like any other layer * Remains available across all your mapping sessions * Can be managed from the My Layers page *** Layer visibility settings do not affect underlying data or calculations—they only control what's displayed on the map. # My Stores My Stores is your central hub for managing your existing location portfolio. View, edit, and organize all your stores in one place—keeping the data that powers your sales projections, cannibalization analysis, and analog modeling accurate and up to date. *** ### Accessing My Stores Navigate to **My Stores** in the left sidebar under the Manage section. The page displays all locations in your organization's store database. *** ### Views Toggle between two views depending on your task: #### Table View Displays stores in a spreadsheet-style format with sortable columns: | Column | Description | | ------------------ | -------------------------- | | **Number** | Store number or identifier | | **Address** | Street address | | **City** | City name | | **State** | State abbreviation | | **Zip** | ZIP code | | **Square Footage** | Store size in square feet | | **Sales** | Annual sales figure | | **Open Date** | Date the store opened | **Sorting:** Click any column header to sort ascending or descending. This helps you quickly find stores by location, performance, size, or tenure. **Searching:** Use the search bar to filter stores by address, city, or other attributes. Results update as you type. #### Map View Displays all stores as pins on an interactive map. This view helps you: * Visualize your geographic footprint * Identify regional clusters and coverage gaps * Understand spatial relationships between locations * Plan expansion in the context of existing stores Click any pin to view that store's details. *** ### Store Information Each store record contains the following fields: #### Core Fields | Field | Description | Used For | | ------------------ | ----------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------- | | **Store Number** | Your internal identifier for the location | Reference and organization | | **Address** | Street address | Geocoding, mapping, and location analysis | | **City** | City name | Location identification | | **State** | State | Regional filtering and analysis | | **ZIP Code** | Postal code | Geographic grouping | | **Square Footage** | Store size | Sales PSF calculations, analog matching | | **Annual Sales** | Revenue figure | Analog modeling, sales projections | | **Open Date** | When the store opened | Maturity assessment, analog filtering | *** ### Editing Stores Keep your store data current to ensure accurate analysis across the platform. #### How to Edit 1. Locate the store in Table View or Map View 2. Click the **edit icon** (pencil) next to the store 3. Update any fields in the Edit Store modal 4. Click **Save Changes** #### Editable Fields All core fields can be modified: * Store Number * Square Footage * Address, City, State, ZIP Code * Annual Sales * Open Date #### When to Update Update store records when: * **Sales figures change:** Refresh annual sales with current actuals for accurate projections * **Store renovations:** Update square footage if the store expands or contracts * **Corrections:** Fix any data entry errors discovered during analysis *** ### Deleting Stores Remove stores that are no longer part of your portfolio: 1. Locate the store in Table View 2. Click the delete option 3. Confirm deletion **Caution:** Deleted stores are removed from your database and will no longer appear in analog modeling, cannibalization analysis, or map views. Only delete stores that have permanently closed or were entered in error. *** ### How Store Data Powers the Platform Your store database is the foundation for key platform features: #### Sales Projections Analog modeling compares searched sites against your existing stores. Accurate sales and square footage data directly impacts projection quality. * **Sales figures** determine performance benchmarks * **Square footage** enables PSF calculations * **Location attributes** drive similarity matching #### Cannibalization Analysis The platform calculates trade area overlap between searched sites and your existing stores. Store locations must be accurate for meaningful cannibalization estimates. #### Map Layers Your stores appear on the Site Analysis map via the **All Stores** layer, providing context when evaluating new sites. *** ### Data Quality Best Practices **Keep sales current.** Outdated sales figures skew projections. Update annually at minimum, or more frequently if your business is seasonal or rapidly changing. **Verify addresses.** Incorrect addresses affect geocoding, which impacts trade area analysis and cannibalization calculations. Ensure addresses are complete and accurate. **Audit periodically.** Review your store database quarterly to catch closures, relocations, or data errors before they affect analysis. **Document unusual stores.** If a store has circumstances that make it a poor analog (temporary construction impact, non-standard format), contact your GrowthFactor team at to have it excluded from comparisons. *** ### Bulk Updates For large-scale data updates (annual sales refresh, portfolio restructuring), contact your GrowthFactor team. Bulk imports and updates can be processed to avoid manual entry for large portfolios. *** ### Related Features Store data integrates with: * **Site Analysis:** Stores appear on maps and power analog comparisons * **Sales Projections:** Store performance drives revenue forecasts * **Cannibalization:** Store locations determine overlap analysis * **Deal Dashboard:** Compare pipeline opportunities against your existing portfolio # My Files **My Files** is your workspace's file storage. Use it to keep the spreadsheets your analysis depends on — store lists, sales history, portfolio exports — in the workspace alongside the work that uses them. Files here are stored, not drawn on the map. To put your own geographic data on a map, import it as a custom layer instead. See [Map Layers](/manage/map-layers). *** ## Uploading a File 1. Open **My Files** in the sidebar under Manage. 2. Click **Upload File**. 3. Drag a file into the upload area, or click to browse. 4. Edit the **File Name** if you want something clearer than the original filename. The extension is kept for you. 5. Click to upload. **Accepted formats:** Excel (`.xls`, `.xlsx`) and CSV. **File size limit:** 50MB. *** ## Finding a File The list shows every file in the workspace with: | Column | What it shows | | --------------- | ------------------------ | | **File Name** | The name given at upload | | **Uploaded By** | Who added it | | **Size** | File size | | **Uploaded** | When it was added | | **Workspace** | Which workspace holds it | | **Type** | File format | Search by name, uploader, or type. When nothing matches you'll see **No files match your search**. *** ## Downloading a File Open a file's **⋯** menu and choose **Download**. Anyone with access to the workspace can download what's stored in it, so treat the workspace as the boundary for anything sensitive. *** ## Deleting a File Deletion goes through the GrowthFactor team. Open the file's **⋯** menu and choose the delete option to open **Request File Deletion**, then submit the request. You'll see confirmation that it was received, and the team reviews and processes it. {% hint style="info" %} A file stays available until the team processes the request. For anything time-sensitive, reach out at . {% endhint %} # Shared Maps A shared map is a snapshot of a Site Analysis view that you can send to anyone — teammates, executives, franchisees, brokers. Recipients open it in a browser, without needing a GrowthFactor account. The **Shared Maps** page shows maps you and your workspace have shared. *** ## Creating a Shared Map You create a shared map from Site Analysis. 1. In Site Analysis, search the location and set up the view you want to send: the trade area, and the layers you want visible. 2. Click **Share** in the results panel header. 3. Name the map. 4. Set your **Sharing Options**, described below. 5. Click **Create Shared Map**, then send it by email or link. *** ## Choosing What Recipients See The **Sharing Options** panel controls what's in the map. It appears once you've searched an address. ### Data Two checkboxes gate the sensitive numbers, controlling what is sent outside of your company. | Option | What it controls | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Sales Forecast** | Forecast and existing sales data in the **GrowthFactor Model** card and all map popups | | **Foot Traffic Data** | Brand and business category rankings in the **Tracked Businesses** card and all map popups | Clearing a box removes that data from the shared map everywhere it would otherwise appear, including popups. ### Cards The remaining analysis cards are individually selectable. Only the ones you check appear for the recipient. ### Layers Every layer visible when you share is included, including custom data layers. Turn off anything you don't want sent before you click **Share**. *** ## Sending the Map Once the map is created, you can send it two ways: * **Share via Email** — type an address and press `Enter` to add it. Repeat for more recipients, then click **Share**. * **Copy Link** — copies a link you can paste anywhere. Click **Back** to change your sharing options. *** ## What Recipients Can Do Recipients see the map, the layers you shared, and whichever cards you enabled. The view is bounded to the area you shared and capped at a maximum zoom, so they can't pan or zoom out into the rest of your data. They can't add deals, export, or reshare. Everything is read-only. *** ## Finding Your Shared Maps Open **Shared Maps** in the sidebar under Manage. Each map lists its author and creation date. Use **Search maps** to filter by name. Click **Filter** to change what's listed: * **Show** — **My Maps**, the ones you created, or **Workspace Maps**, created by other members of the workspace * **Sort by** — **Newest first**, **Oldest first**, or **Alphabetical** A map saved without a name is listed as **Untitled Map**. *** ## Managing a Map Open a map's **⋯** menu for: * **Share** — reopen the sharing dialog to send it again * **Copy Link** — copy its link * **Move to workspace** — move it to a different workspace * **Delete** — remove it, which breaks any link already sent **Delete** requires edit access to the workspace holding the map. # Filters List & library filters narrow what you *see* across your dashboard pages — deals, sites, files, maps, layers, and Market Planning studies — by workspace, type, and sort order. *** ## List & Library Filters {% columns %} {% column valign="middle" %} Most dashboard pages share a single **Filter** menu for narrowing long lists. Look for the **Filter** button (funnel icon) at the top right of the page — it appears on **Deals, Sites, Files, Maps, Layers,** and **Market Planning studies**. The button shows a badge with the number of filters currently applied, so you can tell at a glance when a list is narrowed. {% endcolumn %} {% column %}
Consolidated Filter menu showing Show, Sort by, and Workspaces sections
{% endcolumn %} {% endcolumns %} ### What's in the menu The menu combines every way to narrow a list in one place. Each page shows only the sections that apply to it: * **Show** — limit the list by type or scope (for example, **My Layers** or **Workspace Layers** on the Layers view) * **Sort by** — order the list (for example, **Newest first**, **Oldest first**, or **Alphabetical**) * **Workspaces** — scope the list to one or more workspaces. The workspace tree mirrors your hierarchy, so you can include a parent and its sub-workspaces together. A count next to each workspace shows how many matching items it holds ### Resetting Click **Reset** at the top of the menu to clear every applied filter at once and return the list to its default view. # Deal Dashboard The Deal Dashboard is your command center for managing site opportunities from initial discovery through signed lease. Stop losing promising sites in spreadsheets and email threads—track your entire pipeline in one place with full visibility for all stakeholders. *** ## Accessing the Deal Dashboard Navigate to **Deal Dashboard** in the left sidebar under the Manage section. The dashboard displays all deals across your organization, organized by pipeline stage. *** ## Dashboard Views Toggle between three views using the icons in the top-right corner: ### Kanban View The default view displays deals as cards organized into columns by pipeline stage. This view is ideal for: * Visualizing pipeline health at a glance * Moving deals between stages via drag-and-drop * Quickly scanning deal volume by stage * Pipeline review meetings and status updates Each column shows the stage name and deal count. Cards display key deal information including location, address, GrowthFactor Score, and status rating. ### Table View Displays all deals in a spreadsheet-style format with sortable columns. This view is ideal for: * Filtering deals by specific criteria * Sorting by score, location, or date * Reviewing detailed information across many deals * Exporting data for external analysis **Filtering:** Use stage filters to show only deals in specific pipeline stages. **Columns:** Customize which columns display based on what matters most to your workflow. ### Map View Plots all deals geographically on an interactive map. This view is ideal for: * Understanding geographic distribution of your pipeline * Identifying regional clusters of opportunities * Viewing deals alongside existing stores * Spatial analysis of pipeline coverage Toggle existing store visibility to see deals in context with your current footprint. *** ## Pipeline Stages Deals progress through customizable stages that reflect your evaluation workflow. ### Default Stages | Stage | Purpose | | ---------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Searched** | Sites identified for initial review; not yet actively evaluated | | **Evaluation** | Deals under active analysis and consideration | | **LOI** | Letter of Intent submitted or in negotiation | | **Signed** | Lease signed; deal closed | | **Disqualified** | Sites reviewed and rejected | ### Stage Behavior **Searched and Disqualified** stages can be collapsed or hidden if you don't need them visible, keeping focus on active pipeline stages. ### Custom Stages Your organization can customize pipeline stages to match your actual workflow. Click **+ New Stage** to add stages specific to your process (e.g., "Site Visit Scheduled," "Committee Review," "Lease Negotiation"). *** ## Deal Cards Each deal displays as a card with essential information for quick assessment. ### Card Information | Element | Description | | --------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Location** | City and state | | **Address** | Street address (click to open full site analysis) | | **Score** | GrowthFactor Score (1–100) | | **Rating** | Score category (Excellent, Great, Good, OK, Bad) with color coding | | **Map Preview** | A thumbnail map preview showing the site location, replacing the previous analysis icon. Click the preview to open the full site analysis map | ### Score Ratings Cards display color-coded ratings for instant visual assessment: | Rating | Color | Score Range | | ------------- | ------ | ----------- | | **Excellent** | Green | 90–100 | | **Great** | Blue | 80–89 | | **Good** | Yellow | 70–79 | | **OK** | Orange | 60–69 | | **Bad** | Red | Below 60 | Deals without scores display "No score yet" until analysis is completed. ### Card Actions Click on any deal to see further deal details. Click the **...** menu on any card to access additional options: * Edit the Deal * Move to different stage * Disqualify the deal (menu reads **Delete** once it's already in the Disqualified stage, permanently removing it) *** ## Moving Deals Through the Pipeline ### Drag and Drop (Kanban View) Click and drag any deal card to move it between stages. Drop the card in the target column to update its status. Changes save automatically. ### Stage Selection (All Views) Open the deal details and select a new stage from the dropdown, or use the card menu to move deals. *** ## Deal Details Click any deal card to open the full detail view with comprehensive site information and deal management tools. ### Site Intelligence All Site Analysis analysis is accessible within the deal: * GrowthFactor Score and lens breakdown * Sales projections * Demographics * Traffic data * Competitors and complements * Cannibalization analysis ### Deal Information Editable fields specific to the deal: | Field | Description | | ------------------ | ------------------------------------- | | **Stage** | Current pipeline stage | | **Owner** | Team member responsible for the deal | | **Square Footage** | Site size (flows into projections) | | **Notes** | Free-form notes about the opportunity | ### Activity Log Track everything that happens with a deal: * Stage changes with timestamps * Comments from team members * File uploads * Score updates The activity log creates an audit trail of deal progression for accountability and historical reference. ### Comments Add comments to discuss deals with your team: 1. Open deal details 2. Enter your comment in the activity section 3. Submit to add it to the deal record Comments are visible to all team members with dashboard access, enabling asynchronous collaboration. ### File Attachments Attach documents directly to deals: * LOIs and lease drafts * Site plans and floor plans * Photos from site visits * Financial analyses * Broker packages Unlimited file uploads keep all deal documentation centralized and accessible. *** ## Searching and Filtering ### Search Bar Use the search bar at the top of the dashboard to find deals by: * Address * City * Deal name * Any text in deal records Results filter in real-time as you type, working across all views. ### Stage Filters (Table View) In Table View, filter to show only deals in specific stages. This helps focus on subsets of your pipeline (e.g., only LOI-stage deals for negotiation review). ### Column Customization (Table View) Choose which columns display in Table View to focus on the metrics that matter for your current task. *** ## Exporting Data Export your pipeline data for external analysis, reporting, or sharing. ### Excel Export Click the export button to download deals as an Excel file containing: * All deal records with selected fields * Current stage and status * Scores and ratings * Location information ### Print (Kanban View) Print the Kanban view for physical pipeline boards or meeting handouts. *** ## Deals on the Map Deals integrate with the Site Analysis map for spatial context. ### Viewing Deals on Maps In Site Analysis, the **Deal Stages** section in the Layers panel shows your pipeline geographically: * Toggle visibility by stage * See deal counts per stage * View deals alongside existing stores and analysis layers ### Shared Maps When creating Shared Maps, you can include deals to show stakeholders your pipeline in context with site analysis. *** ## Collaboration Features ### Deal Ownership Assign team members as deal owners to clarify responsibility: 1. Open deal details 2. Select owner from the dropdown 3. Save changes Ownership makes it clear who's driving each opportunity forward. ### Team Visibility All team members with dashboard access see the same pipeline, enabling: * Shared understanding of pipeline status * Collaborative decision-making * Handoffs between team members * Management visibility into deal flow ### Activity Tracking The activity log captures who did what and when: * Stage changes show who moved the deal and when * Comments are attributed to their authors * File uploads track who added documents This transparency supports accountability and helps new team members get up to speed on deal history. *** ## Best Practices **Create deals early.** Add sites to your pipeline as soon as they're worth tracking, even before deep evaluation. The Searched stage exists for early-stage opportunities. **Keep stages updated.** Move deals promptly when status changes. An accurate pipeline enables meaningful reporting and prevents balls from dropping. **Use comments for context.** Document key observations, concerns, or next steps in comments. Future-you (or a colleague) will appreciate the context. **Attach files consistently.** Store all deal-related documents in the deal record, not in email or local folders. Centralized documentation saves time and prevents lost information. **Review the pipeline regularly.** Use the Kanban view for weekly or biweekly pipeline reviews. Stale deals in early stages should be moved forward or disqualified. **Leverage scores for prioritization.** Sort by GrowthFactor Score to focus energy on the highest-potential opportunities. Don't let weak-scoring deals consume disproportionate attention. **Disqualify decisively.** Move rejected sites to Disqualified rather than deleting them. This preserves the record and prevents re-evaluating the same site later. *** ## Related Features The Deal Dashboard integrates with: * **Site Analysis:** Create deals directly from site analysis * **Deal Dropbox:** Receive external site submissions * **Shared Maps:** Include deals in shareable map links * **GrowthFactor Score:** Automatic scoring for prioritization * **Activity Tracking:** Detailed deal history and audit trail # Creating and Managing Deals Every site opportunity in your pipeline starts as a deal. This guide covers how to create deals, manage deal information, and work with individual deal records throughout the evaluation process. *** ### Creating Deals Deals can be created from multiple entry points depending on your workflow. #### From Site Analysis The most common method—create deals directly from site analysis: 1. Search any address in Site Analysis 2. Review the site intelligence in the results panel 3. Click **Add Deal +** next to the address 4. The deal is created in the **Searched** stage **Benefits of this method:** * All site analysis (score, projections, demographics, traffic, competitors) automatically attaches to the deal * No duplicate data entry required * Deal record links back to full site analysis #### From the Deal Dashboard Create deals directly within the dashboard: 1. Navigate to Deal Dashboard 2. Click within a stage column or use the add deal option 3. Enter the site address 4. The platform geocodes the address and generates site analysis 5. Deal appears in your selected stage This method is useful when you're working from a list of addresses and want to batch-add sites to your pipeline. #### Via Deal Dropbox External parties submit sites that automatically become deals: 1. Broker or landlord accesses your Deal Dropbox link 2. They submit a site address (and optionally attach site flyers) 3. GrowthFactor automatically: * Creates a deal record * Generates a GrowthFactor Score * Extracts data from any attached documents * Adds the deal to your dashboard See Deal Dropbox for setup and configuration. #### From Market Planning Convert any pin in a Market Planning study directly into a deal: 1. Open a Market Planning study 2. Click any pin on the map to open its detail panel 3. Click **Create deal** to seed a new deal with the pin's location data 4. The pin becomes a deal on the map. It takes on its stage's color and a deal icon, and it's no longer draggable 5. Any trade zones anchored to the pin move over to the new deal 6. Clicking the pin opens the deal's detail view Each pin can be linked to only one deal, so **Create deal** no longer appears on a pin's context menu once it's linked. If the linked deal is later deleted, selecting the pin offers a **Delete pin** button to clean it up along with any of its trade zones. *** ### Deal Information Each deal contains site intelligence plus deal-specific management information. #### Automatic Site Intelligence When a deal is created, the platform automatically generates and attaches: | Data | Description | | ----------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | **GrowthFactor Score** | AI-powered site rating (1–100) with lens breakdown | | **Sales Projections** | Revenue forecast based on analog modeling | | **Demographics** | Population characteristics within trade area | | **Traffic** | Vehicle counts on nearby roads | | **Competitors & Complements** | Nearby businesses with performance rankings | | **Cannibalization** | Overlap with existing store trade areas | | **AI Insights** | Contextual news and information about the location | This intelligence updates if you modify trade area settings and can be refreshed as new data becomes available. #### Deal-Specific Fields Fields you manage for each deal: | Field | Description | Purpose | | ------------------ | ---------------------- | --------------------------------- | | **Stage** | Current pipeline stage | Track progress through evaluation | | **Owner** | Assigned team member | Clarify responsibility | | **Square Footage** | Site size in sq ft | Refine sales projections | | **Notes** | Free-form text | Document observations and context | #### Address Information | Field | Description | | ------------------ | ----------------------------------- | | **Street Address** | Full street address | | **City** | City name | | **State** | State | | **ZIP Code** | Postal code | | **Coordinates** | Latitude/longitude (auto-generated) | *** ### Editing Deals Keep deal information current as you learn more about each opportunity. #### Opening Deal Details Access the full deal record by clicking any deal card in Kanban view, any deal row in Table view, or any deal pin in Map view. This opens a dedicated deal page with the complete deal record on the left and an Activity sidebar on the right. #### Editable Fields Update any deal-specific field: 1. Open deal details 2. Click into the field you want to edit 3. Make your changes 4. Changes save automatically (or click Save, depending on field) #### Updating Square Footage Square footage is particularly important—it flows directly into sales projections: 1. Open deal details 2. Enter or update the square footage field 3. Sales projections automatically recalculate to show Total Sales based on the entered size If you don't know exact square footage, leave it blank and work with Sales PSF projections until you have confirmed sizing. #### Editing the GrowthFactor Score The AI-generated score can be manually adjusted based on your evaluation: 1. Open deal details 2. Locate the GrowthFactor Score section 3. Edit the score to reflect your assessment 4. The original AI score is preserved for reference Adjust scores after site visits or when you have information the model doesn't capture (planned developments, access issues, anchor changes). *** ### Managing Pipeline Stage Moving deals through stages tracks progress and keeps your pipeline accurate. #### Changing Stages **Kanban View (Drag and Drop):** 1. Click and hold the deal card 2. Drag to the target stage column 3. Release to drop—stage updates automatically **From Deal Details:** 1. Open the deal 2. Select new stage from the Stage dropdown 3. Change saves automatically **From Card Menu:** 1. Click the **...** menu on any deal card 2. Select "Move to..." 3. Choose the target stage **From Market Planning:** 1. Select the deal on the study map 2. Click the stage swatch in the map toolbar 3. Choose the new stage #### Stage Change Tracking Every stage change is logged in the deal's activity history: * Previous stage * New stage * Who made the change * Timestamp This creates an audit trail of how deals progressed through your pipeline. #### Disqualifying Deals When a site doesn't meet your criteria: 1. Move the deal to the **Disqualified** stage 2. Add a comment explaining the disqualification reason 3. The deal is preserved but removed from active pipeline views **Why disqualify rather than delete:** * Preserves record of evaluated sites * Prevents re-evaluating the same site later * Maintains activity history for learning * Can be reactivated if circumstances change *** ### Deal Ownership Assign clear responsibility for each opportunity. #### Assigning an Owner 1. Open deal details 2. Click the Owner field 3. Select a team member from the dropdown 4. Assignment saves automatically #### Owner Visibility The assigned owner appears on deal cards in Kanban view, making it easy to see who's responsible at a glance. #### Reassigning Deals Change ownership when: * Deals transfer between team members * Regional responsibility shifts * Team members leave or join * Workload rebalancing is needed Simply select a new owner from the dropdown—the change is logged in activity history. *** ### Notes and Documentation Capture context and observations that don't fit structured fields. #### Adding Notes 1. Open deal details 2. Locate the Notes section 3. Enter your observations 4. Save changes #### What to Document Effective deal notes capture: * **Site visit observations:** "Parking lot in poor condition, would need repaving" * **Stakeholder input:** "Regional manager concerned about access from westbound traffic" * **Key findings:** "Anchor tenant lease expires 2026—risk factor" * **Next steps:** "Awaiting LOI response from landlord, follow up Friday" * **Deal history:** "Originally submitted by CBRE, broker contact: Jane Smith" #### Notes vs. Comments | Notes | Comments | | ------------------------------- | ------------------------------- | | Single, editable text field | Chronological thread of entries | | Good for current status summary | Good for ongoing discussion | | Overwritten when updated | Preserved as activity history | | Visible in deal details | Part of activity log | Use notes for current-state information; use comments for time-stamped updates and team discussion. *** ### File Attachments Centralize all deal documentation within the deal record. #### Uploading Files All file types are uploaded through a single, unified upload button or drag-and-drop area: 1. Open deal details 2. Navigate to the Files section 3. Click the upload button or drag files onto the drop zone 4. After uploading, you are prompted to tag each file as its type: **Site Overview**, **LOI**, or **Additional** 5. Optionally rename each file before saving You can upload multiple files at once. Additional files support multi-file upload in a single operation. #### Supported File Types Upload any document type relevant to your deals: * **PDFs:** LOIs, lease drafts, site flyers, broker packages * **Images:** Site photos, floor plans, signage concepts * **Documents:** Word docs, internal memos * **Spreadsheets:** Financial analyses, rent comparisons #### File Display Files are displayed as cards in a grid. Each card shows: * **Thumbnail preview** for images, or a file-type icon for other formats * **File type label** (Site Overview, LOI, or Additional) * **File name** * **Uploader name** * **Upload date** #### Previewing Files Click any file card to open a preview directly in the browser (for supported formats such as PDFs and images). Unsupported formats will download instead. #### Deleting Files All file types can be deleted from the deal record. Deleted files are removed from both the deal and storage. This action cannot be undone. #### Unlimited Uploads The Deal Dashboard supports unlimited file uploads per deal. *** ### Deleting Deals Remove deals that were created in error or are no longer needed. #### How to Delete 1. Click the **...** menu on the deal card 2. Select the menu item — it reads **Disqualify** for an active deal, or **Delete** once the deal is already in the Disqualified stage 3. Confirm the action #### When to Delete vs. Disqualify | Action | When to Use | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------------------- | | **Delete** | Deal was created in error, duplicate entry, test record | | **Disqualify** | Site was evaluated and rejected on merit | **Default to disqualifying.** Deleted deals are permanently removed with no recovery option. Disqualified deals preserve history and can be reactivated. *** ### Bulk Operations For managing multiple deals efficiently. #### Multi-Select (Table View) In Table View, select multiple deals to perform bulk actions: * Move to stage * Assign owner * Export selection #### Bulk Import For adding many deals at once (e.g., list of broker submissions, market sweep results), contact your GrowthFactor team. Bulk imports can be processed to avoid manual entry. *** ### Deal Lifecycle Example A typical deal progression: 1. **Creation:** Site submitted via Deal Dropbox from broker → appears in Searched stage 2. **Initial Review:** Team member reviews score and key metrics → moves to Evaluation if promising, or Disqualified if not 3. **Deep Evaluation:** Owner assigned, detailed analysis reviewed, comments added documenting concerns and opportunities 4. **Site Visit:** Photos uploaded, notes updated with on-ground observations, score adjusted if needed 5. **Internal Approval:** Deal reviewed in committee, comments capture feedback, moves to LOI stage upon approval 6. **Negotiation:** LOI document uploaded, notes track negotiation status, comments log key developments 7. **Close:** Lease signed, documents attached, deal moved to Signed stage 8. **Handoff:** Deal record contains complete history for construction/operations teams *** ### Best Practices **Create deals generously, disqualify quickly.** It's better to have a site in your pipeline than to lose track of it. Use the Searched stage as a holding area, then move to Evaluation or Disqualified based on initial review. **Assign owners immediately.** Every deal in Evaluation or beyond should have a clear owner. Unassigned deals tend to stall. **Update stages promptly.** Move deals as soon as status changes. Real-time pipeline accuracy enables meaningful forecasting and prevents dropped balls. **Document as you go.** Add notes and comments while information is fresh. Your future self—or a colleague picking up the deal—will thank you. **Attach files to deals, not email.** Every document related to a deal should live in the deal record. This prevents "did you see the attachment?" confusion and ensures nothing is lost. **Tag files after upload.** When uploading files, assign the correct type (Site Overview, LOI, or Additional) so your team can quickly identify each document's purpose. **Use square footage when known.** Entering square footage unlocks Total Sales projections, giving you a clearer picture of the opportunity size. **Review disqualified deals periodically.** Circumstances change. A site disqualified for a strong competitor might become viable if that competitor closes. *** ### Related Features Deal creation and management connects with: * [Deal Dashboard](/deals/deal-dashboard) — dashboard views and pipeline management * [Deal Activity](/deals/deal-activity) — detailed history of deal changes * [Deal Dropbox](/deals/deal-dropbox) — external site submissions * [Site Analysis](/site-analysis-legacy/site-analysis) — the analysis that powers deal intelligence # Deal Activity Activity Tracking creates a complete audit trail for every deal in your pipeline. Every stage change, comment, file upload, and edit is logged with timestamps and attribution—ensuring full transparency and accountability throughout the deal lifecycle. *** ### The Activity Log Each deal maintains a chronological activity log capturing everything that happens from creation to close. #### Accessing the Activity Log 1. Open any deal from the Deal Dashboard 2. Navigate to the Activity section in the deal details 3. View the complete history of deal activity #### What's Tracked The activity log automatically captures: | Activity Type | What's Recorded | | --------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Deal Creation** | When the deal was created, by whom, and how (Site Analysis, Dropbox, manual) | | **Stage Changes** | Previous stage, new stage, who made the change, when | | **Comments** | Full comment text, author, timestamp | | **File Operations** | Uploads, replacements, and removals with filename and user attribution | | **Deal Lead Changes** | Previous deal lead, new deal lead, who made the change | | **Assignee Changes** | Previous assignee, new assignee, who made the change | | **Field Updates** | Changes to square footage, notes, scores, and other deal fields | | **Custom Fields** | Adding, updating, or removing custom field values | | **Report Requests** | When reports are requested, report type, who requested | | **Deal Deletion** | When a deal is deleted, reason (if provided), who deleted it | *** ### Stage Change History Every pipeline movement is documented for complete deal progression visibility. #### What's Captured When a deal moves between stages: ``` [Date/Time] — [User Name] Moved from [Previous Stage] to [New Stage] ``` #### Example Stage History ``` Jan 7, 2025 2:34 PM — Sarah Chen Moved from LOI to Signed Jan 3, 2025 9:15 AM — Sarah Chen Moved from Evaluation to LOI Dec 18, 2024 4:22 PM — Mike Rodriguez Moved from Searched to Evaluation Dec 15, 2024 10:08 AM — Deal Dropbox Deal created in Searched ``` This history shows exactly how and when a deal progressed, who drove each transition, and how long the deal spent in each stage. #### Using Stage History **Pipeline velocity analysis:** Calculate average time in each stage to identify bottlenecks. **Accountability:** See who moved deals forward (or let them stall). **Process improvement:** Understand typical deal progression patterns. **Audit trail:** Document decision-making for internal review or post-mortem analysis. *** ### Comments Comments create a threaded discussion history attached to each deal. #### Adding Comments 1. Open deal details 2. Locate the comment input field in the Activity section 3. Type your comment 4. Press **Cmd+Enter** (Mac) or **Ctrl+Enter** (Windows) to save, or click the Save button **Keyboard shortcuts:** * **Cmd/Ctrl + Enter** — Save comment * **Escape** — Cancel and close the comment input #### Comment Visibility Comments are visible to all team members with Deal Dashboard access. Use comments for: * Team discussion about the opportunity * Status updates and progress notes * Questions for colleagues * Documentation of decisions and rationale #### Comment Best Practices **Be specific:** "Landlord countered at $32 PSF NNN, reviewing with finance" is more useful than "Negotiating." **Tag next steps:** "Awaiting phase 1 environmental report, expected Thursday" helps the team know what's pending. **Capture decisions:** "Committee approved moving forward contingent on 10-year lease term" documents critical decision points. **Note external communications:** "Called broker, left voicemail" creates a record of outreach attempts. #### Comments vs. Notes | Comments | Notes | | ------------------------------------- | ------------------------- | | Chronological, append-only | Single editable field | | Multiple entries from different users | One current-state summary | | Preserved in activity history | Overwritten when updated | | Time-stamped and attributed | No history of changes | Use **comments** for ongoing updates and discussion. Use **notes** for current-state summary information. *** ### File Operation History Document attachments, replacements, and removals are logged in the activity stream. #### What's Recorded When files are uploaded: ``` [Date/Time] — [User Name] Uploaded [Document Type]: [Filename] ``` When files are replaced: ``` [Date/Time] — [User Name] Replaced [Document Type]: [Old Filename] → [New Filename] ``` When files are removed: ``` [Date/Time] — [User Name] Removed [Document Type]: [Filename] ``` #### File History Value File operation tracking helps you: * Know when documents were added, replaced, or removed * See who contributed or modified materials * Understand document chronology (which LOI version came first) * Track document changes over the deal lifecycle * Verify that expected materials were received *** ### Deal Lead & Assignee History Changes in deal responsibility are tracked for both the deal lead and assignee roles. #### What's Captured When the deal lead changes: ``` [Date/Time] — [User Name] Updated lead from [Previous Lead] to [New Lead] ``` When the assignee changes: ``` [Date/Time] — [User Name] Updated assignee from [Previous Assignee] to [New Assignee] ``` #### Using Assignment History **Handoff tracking:** See when and why deals transferred between team members. **Workload patterns:** Understand how deals flow through your team. **Accountability:** Know who was responsible at each point in the deal's life. *** ### Deal Creation Records The origin of every deal is documented. #### Creation Sources | Source | What's Recorded | | ----------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------- | | **Site Analysis** | "Created from Site Analysis by \[User]" | | **Deal Dropbox** | "Submitted via Deal Dropbox" with source information | | **Market Planning pin** | "Created deal from pin \[Pin label] in \[Study name]" | | **Manual Entry** | "Created by \[User]" | | **Bulk Import** | "Imported by \[User/System]" | #### Dropbox Submissions For deals submitted through the Deal Dropbox, additional information may include: * Submitter name and email * Brokerage or company * Any notes or context provided * Attached files (site flyers, etc.) *** ### Viewing Activity #### Activity Feed Layout Activities display in reverse chronological order (newest first) showing: * **Timestamp:** Date and time of the activity * **User:** Who performed the action * **Action:** What happened * **Details:** Relevant specifics (comment text, filenames, stage names) #### Scrolling History For long-running deals with many activities, scroll through the log to review full history. Older activities remain accessible regardless of deal age. *** ### Team Collaboration Activity Tracking enables effective team collaboration on deals. #### Shared Visibility All team members see the same activity history, ensuring: * Everyone has full context * No information silos * New team members can get up to speed quickly * Managers have visibility without asking for updates #### Asynchronous Collaboration Activity logs support teams working across time zones or schedules: * Add comments when you learn something new * Colleagues see updates when they next review the deal * No need for real-time communication on every development * History is preserved even if team members are unavailable *** ### Accountability and Audit Activity Tracking provides accountability at individual and team levels. #### Individual Accountability Activity logs show who: * Created the deal * Moved it through stages * Added comments and documentation * Changed ownership * Made key decisions This attribution encourages ownership and follow-through. #### Team Accountability Aggregate activity data reveals team patterns: * Which stages have the most activity * Where deals tend to stall * How quickly deals progress * Who's driving pipeline movement #### Audit Requirements For organizations with compliance or audit requirements, activity logs provide: * Immutable record of deal history * Timestamp verification * User attribution * Decision documentation *** ### Activity-Based Insights Use activity history to improve your process. #### Time-in-Stage Analysis Calculate how long deals spend in each stage: ``` Deal entered Evaluation: Dec 18 Deal moved to LOI: Jan 3 Time in Evaluation: 16 days ``` Track this across deals to identify: * Average time per stage * Deals moving faster or slower than typical * Stages where deals tend to stall #### Activity Velocity Monitor activity frequency as a health indicator: * **High activity:** Deal is progressing, team is engaged * **Low activity:** Deal may be stalled or deprioritized * **No activity for extended period:** Flag for review #### Decision Pattern Analysis Review activity on closed deals (Signed or Disqualified) to understand: * What comments preceded advancement decisions * How long successful deals spent in each stage * What documentation was gathered before committee approval * Common reasons for disqualification *** ### Best Practices **Comment liberally.** When in doubt, add a comment. The marginal cost is near zero; the value of documented context is high. **Update in real-time.** Log activity as it happens, not in weekly batches. Real-time updates keep the whole team informed and prevent forgotten details. **Be specific in comments.** "Good call with broker" is less useful than "Broker confirmed landlord will consider 5-year initial term with two 5-year options." **Document decisions and rationale.** Don't just log *what* happened; explain *why* when it's not obvious. "Moving to Disqualified—cannibalization too high at 35%" is more valuable than just changing the stage. **Use activity history in handoffs.** When transferring deal ownership, the receiving team member should review full activity history for context. **Review activity before meetings.** Before committee reviews or check-ins, scan recent activity to refresh your memory on deal status. **Don't rely on memory.** If something happened with a deal, log it. Activity history is your institutional memory—use it. *** ### Related Features Activity Tracking integrates with: * **Deals Overview:** Pipeline views showing deal status * **Deal Creation & Management:** Actions that generate activity records * **Deal Dropbox:** Submission tracking and source attribution * **Sharing and Exporting:** Include activity history in exports and reports # Deal Dropbox The Deal Dropbox streamlines how you receive site opportunities from external parties. Give brokers and landlords a simple way to submit sites directly to your pipeline—each submission is automatically scored, analyzed, and added to your Deal Dashboard without manual data entry. *** ### What Is the Deal Dropbox? The Deal Dropbox is a submission portal that allows external parties to send you site opportunities. Instead of receiving site flyers via email and manually entering addresses into your system, the Dropbox creates a direct channel from broker to your pipeline. #### How It Works 1. **You share a link:** Provide your Dropbox link to brokers, landlords, or other site sources 2. **They submit sites:** External parties enter an address and optionally attach documents 3. **GrowthFactor processes:** The platform automatically analyzes the site 4. **Deal appears in your dashboard:** Scored and ready for your review #### What Gets Automated When a site is submitted through the Dropbox: | Step | Automation | | ---------------------- | --------------------------------------------------- | | **Geocoding** | Address is validated and mapped | | **Scoring** | GrowthFactor Score generated automatically | | **Revenue Forecast** | Sales projection created based on your analog model | | **Data Extraction** | Information pulled from attached site flyers | | **Dashboard Addition** | Deal added to your pipeline for review | *** ### Sharing Your Dropbox Link Access your Dropbox sharing options from the Deal Dashboard toolbar. #### Sharing Options | Option | Description | | -------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | **QR Code** | Scannable code that opens your Dropbox submission portal | | **Copy Link** | Direct URL to share via email, text, or messaging apps | | **Download QR Code** | Save the QR code as a PNG image for print materials | Include your Dropbox link or QR code in broker outreach emails, marketing materials, or business cards to make it easy for site sources to submit opportunities directly to your pipeline. *** ### Submitting a Site External parties have two options for submitting sites to your Dropbox. #### Photo or File Select the **Photo or File** button to upload or capture photos of a property flyer, brochure, or site signage. The platform uses AI to automatically extract property details from each image. **What AI extracts:** * Property address * Square footage * Delivery/available date * Triple-Net Rent (PSF) — minimum and maximum values Uploading a single file auto-populates the submission form below with the extracted data. A confidence indicator (high, medium, or low) shows how certain the AI is about each extracted value, and submitters can review and correct any fields before submitting. Uploading multiple files at once starts a bulk upload instead. See Bulk Upload below. #### Bulk Upload Selecting 2 to 50 files at once submits them as separate deals — one file per deal. Each file is analyzed individually, and the results appear in a review grid with one row per file. Each row shows editable fields for: * **Address** — required; rows with a missing address are flagged and block submission * **Square Footage** * **Triple-Net Rent (PSF)** — minimum and maximum * **Delivery Date** A status indicator on each row shows whether that file is still analyzing, ready to submit, or failed. Failed rows can be corrected manually or removed from the grid. Submitter name, email, and phone are entered once above the grid and applied to every deal in the batch. Selecting **Submit** creates all ready deals at once. Deals that succeed are removed from the grid; deals that fail — for example, an address that can't be geocoded — stay in the grid with an error so the submitter can fix and resubmit them. #### Address Mode Search for an address using autocomplete, then confirm the location on an interactive map. This mode is useful when the submitter knows the address but doesn't have a flyer to upload. *** ### Submission Form #### Property Details | Field | Required | Description | | ----------------------- | -------- | -------------------------------------------- | | **Address** | Yes | Street address with autocomplete suggestions | | **Square Footage** | No | Property size in square feet | | **Triple-Net Rent PSF** | No | Rent range (minimum and maximum) per sq ft | | **Delivery Date** | No | When the property will be available | | **Google Maps Link** | No | Link to property location | | **Notes** | No | Additional details about the opportunity | #### File Attachments Submitters can attach supporting documents to their submission: * **Primary photo:** One property image (in Photo or File mode, single-file uploads) * **Additional files:** Up to 25 files * **Maximum file size:** 50MB per file * **Supported formats:** PDF, Word documents, images (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP), text files Files can be uploaded via drag-and-drop or file browser. Deals created through a bulk upload don't support additional file attachments — each deal keeps only its source photo. #### Submitter Information Contact details are required for all submissions: | Field | Required | Description | | --------- | -------- | --------------------- | | **Name** | Yes | Submitter's full name | | **Email** | Yes | Valid email address | | **Phone** | Yes | Contact phone number | This information is stored in the deal notes, making it easy to follow up with the submitter. *** ### After Submission When a site is submitted through the Dropbox: 1. **Deal created:** A new deal record is created in your first pipeline stage 2. **Files attached:** All uploaded documents are attached to the deal record 3. **Submitter recorded:** Contact information is added to deal notes 4. **Analysis generated:** GrowthFactor Score and sales projections are calculated 5. **Ready for review:** The deal appears in your Deal Dashboard immediately From there, you can review the submission, move it through your pipeline stages, and follow up with the submitter as needed. For bulk uploads, each deal in the batch goes through this same process independently and appears in your Deal Dashboard as its own record. # Site Analysis Site Analysis takes one address and returns a full read on it: demographics, competitors, traffic, a score, and a sales forecast, in a single panel. {% hint style="info" %} Site Analysis appears under **Legacy** in the sidebar. It evaluates one address at a time. To compare several locations on one map, or to plan a whole market, work in a study instead — see [Market Planning](/guides/market-planning). {% endhint %} ### Layout Overview Site Analysis has three main components: #### Search Bar (Top) Enter addresses to analyze. Adjacent controls include: * **Trade Area Selector** – Configure your analysis boundary (e.g., "16 min drive time") * **Layers** – Control what's displayed on the map
#### Map (Center) Interactive map displaying: * Your searched location * Trade area boundaries * Existing stores, competitors, complements * Traffic data * Foot traffic heat maps * Custom layers and deal pins Standard map controls (zoom, pan, basemap style) are in the lower right corner {% columns %} {% column %} **Results Panel (Left)** Site intelligence for your searched location: * Address and action buttons (Add Deal, Share, Export) * [GrowthFactor Score](/data-and-analytics/growthfactor-score) * Sales projections * Nearby businesses (competitors and complements) * Cannibalization analysis * Traffic data * Demographics summary Click **View full analysis** for detailed information. {% endcolumn %} {% column %}
{% endcolumn %} {% endcolumns %} #### Entering an Address The search bar at the top of the map accepts any U.S. address. Simply type and select from the autocomplete suggestions to ensure accurate geocoding. You can search using: * **Full street addresses** (e.g., "123 Main St, Boston, MA 02108") * **Partial addresses** with city and state (e.g., "Main St, Boston, MA") * **Intersections** (e.g., "Main St & Oak Ave, Chicago, IL") * **City or neighborhood names** for broader exploration (e.g., "Downtown Austin, TX") Once you select an address, the map centers on that location and the platform automatically loads all relevant site intelligence into the results panel. #### Analyze Anywhere Don't have a specific address? You can also start an analysis by right-clicking directly on any point on the map and selecting **"Begin Site Analysis."** This is useful when exploring areas visually or evaluating sites where you only know the general location. *** ### Keyboard and Mouse Tips | Action | How | | --------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | | **Pan the map** | Click and drag | | **Zoom** | Scroll wheel or +/- buttons | | **Analyze any point** | Right-click on map → "Begin Site Analysis" | | **Open deal details** | Click any deal card | *** #### Trade Area Settings The trade area selector (displayed in the top bar, e.g., "16 min drive time") controls the geographic boundary for your analysis. Click it to adjust your trade area using: * **Presets:** Standardized radiuses configured for your organization * **Walk/Drive Times:** Custom isochrones based on actual travel time (1–60 minutes) * **Trade Zones:** Foot traffic-based boundaries showing where visitors actually come from After adjusting settings, click **Apply Changes** to update all data in the results panel to reflect your new trade area. For what each method measures and when to use it, see [Trade Zones](/data-and-analytics/trade-zones). #### Layers Click **Layers** to control what's displayed on the map. Toggle visibility for traffic data, business markers, your store locations, deal stages, and custom data overlays. Use **Manage Layers** at the bottom of the panel to choose which layers are available in your legend. See [Map Layers](/manage/map-layers) for details. ### Understanding the Results Panel When you search a site, the results panel opens on the left side of the screen, presenting a comprehensive analysis organized into expandable cards. #### Site Header The top of the panel displays: * **Full address** of the searched location * **Print icon** to generate a PDF report via Waldo * **Add to Deals** button to add this site to your deal pipeline #### GrowthFactor Score The GrowthFactor Score provides an AI-powered assessment of the site across key real estate dimensions. This score gives you an instant, objective benchmark for comparing sites—no manual analysis required. The score is editable, allowing you to adjust it based on your own evaluation after visiting the site or gathering additional context. #### Sales Projections This card displays revenue forecasts based on analog modeling against your existing store portfolio. * **Midpoint:** The expected sales figure based on comparable stores * **Lower/Upper Range:** Confidence interval showing the realistic performance range * **Lowest/Highest Sales Among Comparable Stores:** Anchors showing the full spectrum of analog performance Enter the square footage of the site you're evaluating to see **Total Sales** projections, or leave it blank to view **Sales PSF** (per square foot). #### Nearby Businesses This section lists **Competitors** and **Complements** within your trade area, ranked by distance from the site. Each business displays: * **Distance** from the searched location * **Foot Traffic Ranking** badge showing how that location performs against comparable local stores (same brand when brand data is available, same category otherwise); click the business for state and national comparisons Click **"View all"** to see the complete list with detailed performance breakdowns, including monthly visit counts and category performance metrics. This helps you assess not just *what* businesses are nearby, but *how well* they're performing. #### Demographics Expandable demographic cards show the population characteristics within your defined trade area: * **Age Distribution:** Population breakdown by age group with comparison to national averages * **Income Distribution:** Household income brackets with comparison to national averages * **Additional breakdowns:** Race, education, and gender distributions Each chart highlights the largest group, the biggest difference from national averages, and median values—giving you quick insight into whether the local population matches your target customer profile. #### Cannibalization If the searched site falls within the trade area of any existing stores, this card shows the potential impact: * **Store address** of each potentially affected location * **Impact percentage** estimating the overlap * **Risk level** (Low, Medium, High) for quick assessment The Cannibalization layer on the map visualizes these overlapping trade areas, helping you understand the geographic relationship between the new site and your current footprint. #### AI Insights This beta feature automatically searches for relevant news, developments, and contextual information about the location. Click to expand and view sources—useful for understanding local market conditions, upcoming developments, or recent changes in the area. # Sharing and Exporting Site Analysis has two buttons in the results panel header for getting your analysis out of the platform: * **Share** — create an interactive shared map and send it by link or email * **Export** — generate a PDF report or an Excel file *** ## Share 1. Search any address in Site Analysis. 2. Click **Share** in the results panel header. 3. Configure your sharing options and distribute via link or email. This creates a shared map, which recipients can open without a GrowthFactor account. For the maps you've already created, see [Shared Maps](/manage/shared-maps). *** ## Export 1. Search any address in Site Analysis. 2. Click **Export** in the results panel header. 3. Choose **Print Report** or **Export to Excel**. | Option | Output | Use case | | ------------------- | ------------ | ----------------------------------------------- | | **Print Report** | PDF document | Committee presentations, formal documentation | | **Export to Excel** | XLSX file | Data analysis, custom reporting, record-keeping | *** ## Print Report (PDF) **Print Report** generates a PDF built for committee presentations: * **Cover page** — a map of the site with a full legend (target location, trade area, existing stores, tracked businesses, and cannibalized area), alongside the GrowthFactor Score badge, the sales forecast with its confidence range, and a snapshot of key trade area demographics. Your workspace logo appears throughout the report when configured. * **Lens detail pages** — each GrowthFactor Score lens gets its own page showing the lens score, grade, and the full reasoning behind the rating. * **Section pages** — demographics (including any variables configured for your workspace), businesses, trade areas, cannibalization, traffic, and AI insights, depending on what you select. ### Choosing What to Include When you export, a dialog lets you select which sections to include. Each selected option becomes a separate page in the PDF, or a sheet in Excel. Sales Forecast and Visitation appear at the top of the list, with the remaining sections below. *** To export your pipeline instead of a single site, see [Deal Dashboard](/deals/deal-dashboard). To export a study, see [Sharing and Exporting Studies](/study/sharing-and-exporting-studies). # MCP The GrowthFactor MCP lets you use GrowthFactor's site-evaluation tools directly inside the AI assistant you already use — Claude (Desktop, Web, Code), Cursor, or any MCP-compatible client. Instead of switching tabs into the GrowthFactor app, you ask Claude things like "score this address" or "rank my pipeline" and it pulls real data from your GrowthFactor workspace. {% hint style="info" %} **Availability:** The GrowthFactor MCP is available to Labs and Enterprise customers. {% endhint %} *** ## What you can do with the MCP Every figure the assistant cites comes from a real tool call against your account. The MCP uses the same tools that power the GrowthFactor app: | You can ask about… | What it does | | ---------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Scoring a location** | GrowthFactor Score (0–100) with the lens breakdown and explanations | | **Demographics** | Population, income, age, education for a trade zone (drive-time, walk-time, or ring) | | **Foot traffic** | Pedestrian patterns at the exact point | | **Analogs** | Similar stores in your own portfolio to benchmark against | | **Cannibalization** | Trade-zone overlap with your existing sites | | **Your portfolio** | List, view, create, and update sites | | **Your pipeline** | List, view, create, and update deals | | **Reports** | Generate and retrieve site evaluation reports | | **ML predictions** | Run any sales-prediction model your workspace has configured | ## MCP vs. the GrowthFactor Agent The MCP and the in-app [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent) run on the same analytics tools, so they share the core data. The difference is where they run and what each is best at. **In most cases, build your strategy in the Agent.** It's where you draw and combine trade zones into custom territories, find your whitespace, drop and compare pins live on the map, and annotate it all for your team — and it remembers your work across sessions. **Reach for the MCP** when you want GrowthFactor data inside the AI tool you already use, most often to turn a finished strategy into a committee-ready deck. | Feature | MCP | Agent | | --------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **Where it runs** | Your AI client (Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT) | Inside the GrowthFactor app | | Demographics, traffic, scoring, analogs | ✓ | ✓ | | Sites & deals (list, create, update) | ✓ | ✓ | | Compute a trade zone | ✓ | ✓ | | Sales-forecast reports | ✓ | ✓ | | **Build & combine trade zones** | — | Union, intersect, and subtract zones into custom territories | | **Whitespace / gap analysis** | — | Subtract existing coverage to find uncovered demand | | **Cannibalization** | Single point vs. your portfolio | Pin-based — compare a pin against every other pin, area, and site, drawn on the map | | **Live market-planning visuals** | Returns data to your client | Drops pins, draws zones, and renders the full map and tables as you plan | | **Annotate & share the map** | — | Mark up, comment on, and rename study elements for your team | | **Memory** | Stateless — each call starts fresh | Remembers you and your team across conversations | | **Committee-ready decks** | Pipe GrowthFactor data into your AI client to assemble a deck | — | | **Omnichannel access** | — | On the roadmap | **Suggested workflow:** build your strategy in the Agent — draw your territories, run cannibalization and whitespace analysis, and shape your market plan visually — then use the MCP to turn it into a committee-ready deck in your AI client. ## Supported clients The MCP works with any MCP-compatible client. The most common are: * **Claude Code** * **Cursor** * **ChatGPT** ## Connecting GrowthFactor to your MCP client * [ChatGPT Setup documentation](https://help.openai.com/en/articles/11487775-apps-in-chatgpt) * [Claude Setup documentation](https://support.claude.com/en/articles/11176164-use-connectors-to-extend-claude-s-capabilities) ### Authentication The MCP uses your existing GrowthFactor login. When you add the server, your client opens a browser tab and prompts you to sign in. Approve the connection and you're done. Re-auth happens automatically when your session expires. You can revoke the connection at any time from your AI client's connector settings. ### Configuration The server URL is the same everywhere: `https://mcp.growthfactor.ai/mcp`. The steps differ by client. #### Claude Desktop and Claude.ai 1. Open **Settings** {% columns %} {% column %} 2\) Select **Connectors**
{% endcolumn %} {% column %} 3\. Click **Add custom connector** at the bottom of the page ![](https://2595087262-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FjYLFGKmaRxwLlrdFzDm2%2Fuploads%2FTvkK8K8wIW1v4mVzS2Ff%2FScreenshot%202026-05-11%20at%203.31.49%E2%80%AFPM.png?alt=media\&token=2449047a-0f95-4942-87ce-049a22945d73) {% endcolumn %} {% endcolumns %} 4. Click **Add custom connector** at the bottom of the page 5. Name it **GrowthFactor** and paste `https://mcp.growthfactor.ai/mcp` as the URL 6. Save. Claude opens a browser tab to GrowthFactor — sign in with your usual login and approve the connection. #### Claude Code 1. Add the server by running the following in your command prompt or terminal: ```bash claude mcp add --transport http growthfactor https://mcp.growthfactor.ai/mcp ``` 2. Start the authentication flow by running `/mcp` inside Claude Code and selecting **GrowthFactor.** 3. Claude Code opens a browser tab to GrowthFactor — sign in with your usual login and approve the connection. You'll see `Authentication successful. Connected to growthfactor.` in the terminal once it's done. *** ## Example prompts Open a chat in your AI client and ask the assistant directly. A few starting points: * "Score 123 Main St, Austin with a 10-minute drive-time trade zone." * "Pull demographics and analogs for the corner of Newbury and Dartmouth in Boston." * "What's the vehicle traffic near 123 Main St, Austin between 8 and 9 AM?" * "Which 5 deals in my pipeline have the best foot traffic? Rank them." * "Where should I open next in Nashville?" — the assistant will pick candidate corridors, score each, and compare them in a table. ## Workspace context If you belong to more than one workspace, the assistant will ask which one to use. Say "use the Acme workspace" once and it'll stick for the rest of the conversation. The MCP respects the **active workspace's** Site Score lenses, default trade zone, tracked brands, and brand-specific model defaults — the same context the in-app [GrowthFactor Agent](/study/growthfactor-agent) uses. ## Privacy and permissions * Access uses your existing GrowthFactor login and respects your workspace permissions. If you can't see a site in the app, the assistant can't see it either. * **Write actions** (create deal, update site) require you to specify the exact target and value. The assistant won't experiment with your data. * You can revoke the connection at any time from your AI client's connector settings. ## Tips for good results * **Be specific about trade zones** ("10-minute walk", "2-mile ring") or let the default apply — the assistant will tell you which zone it used. * **Tell it your intent** ("I'm scouting for a second location near my best store") — it tailors the analysis and helps us improve the product. * **For broad asks** ("where in Boston?"), the assistant proposes candidate areas first and waits for your go-ahead before running a full scan. # FAQs
Where can I learn more about Retail Expansion? Try visiting our [Retail Expansion Knowledge Base!](https://www.growthfactor.ai/resources/retail-location-analysis-guide-2025-trade-area-analysis-best-practices)
## Layers
Why can't I see certain layers on my map? If a layer isn't appearing in your Map Layers panel, it may be turned off for your legend. Click **Manage Layers** at the bottom of the panel to open the **Manage Layers** dialog, where you can enable any hidden layers. See [Map Layers](/manage/map-layers).
My teammate opened my study and the layers I added are gone. Why? The layers you add to a study are remembered in your browser, not saved to the study. A teammate opening the same study sees the default layers. You'll see the defaults again too if you open the study in a different browser.
I deleted a custom layer. Did that affect other maps? Yes. Deleting a layer from **My Layers** removes it everywhere it was used. Removing a layer from a single study is different — that only takes it off that study's map and leaves the layer intact.
## Studies
How do I delete a study? You archive it rather than delete it. Choose **Archive** from the study's **⋯** menu. Archived studies move to the **Archived** tab and open read-only. **Unarchive** brings one back. There is no permanent delete. See [Studies Overview](/study/overview).
Can I compare two sites if they have different trade zones? Not meaningfully. A 10-minute drive time and a 1-mile ring cover different ground, so their demographics and business counts aren't comparable. Give candidates the same trade zone method before comparing them. See [Trade Zones](/data-and-analytics/trade-zones).
## Data
Why does my foot traffic trade zone show a smaller population than a ring? A foot traffic zone only covers where visitors actually come from, so it usually encloses less area than a ring drawn at a similar scale. The numbers are lower but more precise — they describe people who visit, not everyone who lives nearby.
## Files
Why can't I delete a file myself? File deletion goes through the GrowthFactor team. Choosing delete opens **Request File Deletion** and submits a request for review, so the file stays available until it's processed. For anything time-sensitive, email . See [My Files](/manage/my-files).
# Changelog New updates and improvements {% updates format="full" %} {% update date="2026-09-15" %} ## Two Ways to Rank a Business Every business popup on the map carries a **Rankings** block with a toggle for which ranking you want. Switch between **Popularity** and **Foot Traffic** and the numbers swap in place. * **Popularity** ranks the business on its popularity score, powered by Dataplor * **Foot Traffic** ranks it on annual visits, powered by Unacast Each source ranks a business two ways: against its **Brand**, and against its **Category**. Both break out **Local**, **State**, and **National**. Each card shows where the business lands and how many stores it was ranked against.
A tracked business popup for Chipotle Mexican Grill, with the Rankings toggle set to Popularity, Powered by Dataplor beneath it, and Brand cards ranking it Local, State, and National
Popularity reaches businesses visit data doesn't. A POI with no foot traffic match used to open on **No foot traffic data available** with nothing else to say. Those popups now lead with their popularity ranks. An independent business has no brand to rank against, so it shows a **Category** ranking only. When only one source can rank a business, the block names that source instead of offering a toggle. ## Deals Carry Their Name on the Map A deal pin is the same white label pill a study pin uses, with the deal's name on it and its stage colour on the border. You no longer hover to read which deal a pin is. Long names wrap to a second line. A colour dot on the pin's trailing corner names the workspace the deal belongs to, so you can tell a shared deal from your own without selecting it. Deals cluster. Zoom out and nearby deals collect into one bubble with a count. Click it to zoom in on what's inside. A bubble can hold deals from more than one stage. ## One Forecast Card Everywhere Studies and Site Analysis draw a forecast the same way. The forecast figure, its change against the comparison, the model picker, and the site properties sit in one card on both pages. The PDF cover follows the same layout. A workspace with no models configured gets a message in the card instead of a heading over blank space. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-09-11" %} ## A New Home Page Signing in lands you on a home page that opens with one question: **Where are we growing today?**
The home page, with a greeting above the Where are we growing today? heading, the search box, and the New study, All studies, and Deal dashboard shortcuts
Type an address into the search box and a new study opens with a pin dropped there and its default trade zone drawn. Type a question instead and the new study opens with the GrowthFactor Agent already working on it. The dropdown offers both, so you pick which one you meant. Press the `/` key from anywhere on the page to jump into the box. Under the search box, **New study**, **All studies**, and **Deal dashboard** get you where you were going in one click. **Where you left off** lists the three studies you edited most recently, and when you touched them. **Home** now sits in the sidebar, and the logo brings you back here. ## Foot Traffic for the Areas You Draw Foot traffic now works on the shapes you draw. Select a polygon you traced or a boundary you extracted, open the **Data** tab in the right panel, and the **Foot Traffic** row estimates the visits inside it. Click **Estimate** to start. The first run takes several minutes. Keep working while it builds, then come back to the shape and the estimate is waiting. You get **Annual visits** for the area, the **YoY** change, and a **Monthly visits** chart covering two years. The chart opens on the busiest month. **Last 12 months** and **The year before** sit side by side, so you can see which months moved. Click any column to read that month's total.
A drawn polygon over Kendall Square beside its Foot Traffic panel, showing annual visits, the year-over-year change, and a monthly visits chart with the peak month called out
Shapes under 10,000 m² carry a note. Small areas hold little signal, so draw the building plus its parking for a steadier estimate. An area with a hole in it, or one that crosses over itself, has no single region to measure, and a message asks you to redraw it as a solid shape. ## Filter the Listings on Your Map The **Available Listings** layer narrows to the inventory you're looking for. In a study, open the **Layers** tab and click **Edit** on the **Available Listings** row. On Site Analysis, click **Layers**, then **Filter listings** under the layer. Both open the same **Filter listings** panel.
The Filter listings panel open under Available Listings in a study's Layers tab, showing the Property type, Transaction, Status, and Available size filters
* **Property type** — **Retail** or **Land** * **Transaction** — **Lease** or **Sale** * **Status** — **Active**, **Price reduced**, **Pending**, and **Sold, leased & off market**. The last one starts off, so transacted and off-market properties stay out of the way until you ask for them * **Available size (SF)** — a **Min** and a **Max** in square feet The map redraws as you change anything. **Reset** returns every filter to its default. While a filter is on, the **Filter listings** button carries a dot, so you can tell the map is narrowed. Your filters follow you. They're saved in your browser and apply to every study and to Site Analysis until you reset them. Land is measured in acres, so setting a size range hides land listings. The panel says so under the size boxes. Listings draw once you've zoomed in to roughly city level, and every pin is a single listing now. ## A Search Bar That's Always There The study map toolbar carries a search field you can see. It sits at the left of the toolbar, reading **Search**. Click it or press the `S` key to expand it, and `ESC` closes it. Dropping a pin by hand has its own toolbar button, **Drop a pin** (shortcut `D`).
The study map toolbar, with the collapsed Search field at its left, then the drop pin, shapes, and annotation tools, undo and redo, and Export
Search an address or a place name. Picking a result flies the map there and drops a pin. #### Search for Places, Not Just Addresses Type a business or a landmark by name and it comes back as a suggestion. Pick one and the pin takes the place's name, so a pin on Fenway Park is called **Fenway Park** rather than its street address. Site Analysis takes place names too, and leads its results card with the name. An empty search box opens your **Recent Searches**, up to nine of them, each removable. #### Drop a Pin and Its Trade Zone Together The search bar carries a checkbox naming your workspace's default trade zone, like **Add 1 mile radius**. Tick it and every pin you search for arrives with that zone already drawn. It stays ticked until you untick it. The **Add trade zone** popover leads with the same default. One click draws it, and **Edit default** changes what it is. ## Forecasts Read the Cannibalization You Set Up A forecast run inside a study uses the trade zones you selected in the **Cannibalization** panel: the candidate zone you're working on, plus the comparison zones you picked. It no longer weighs your whole portfolio within 100 miles, so a forecast reflects the locations you're actually comparing. Move a selected zone and the forecast recomputes. The live forecast, the PDF, and the Excel export all report the same numbers. While the step runs, the operation reads **Calculating cannibalization**. If it fails, the forecast reads **Forecast unavailable because study cannibalization failed.** ## Improvements and Bug Fixes * **Renaming a deal renames its trade zones** — zones drawn on a deal or a store relabel to match the new name, and a zone you named yourself keeps your name. Zones drawn before this keep the name they have * **The agent promotes a pin to a deal** — ask it to turn a study pin into a deal and the pin itself becomes the deal, keeping its trade zones, analyses, name, and comments. It used to create a second location at the same spot and leave the pin behind {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-09-10" %} ## A New Basic Map Style **Basic** joins **Streets** and **Satellite** in the map style options. It's a muted base map, so pins, shapes, and data layers stand out against it. Pick it from the map style button on any map, or from **Map style** in a study's **Layers** tab.
A study map on the Basic style, with the Layers tab's Map style row showing Basic selected
{% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-09-08" %} ## Choose the Demographics Your Workspace Uses Workspace admins can now pick which demographic metrics the platform reports on. Open **Workspace Settings → Demographic variables**, add the variables you want, and set how each one displays. This can be a raw count, or a percentage of a denominator you choose. Drag variables to reorder.
The Demographic variables section of workspace settings
Your list drives demographics everywhere. The demographics modal keeps its usual age, income, gender, race, and education breakdowns, and adds a **Workspace Defaults** tab showing your variables in the order you listed them. Change the list in settings and an open modal repopulates, with an indicator while the new numbers load.
The demographics modal's Workspace Defaults tab
Turn on **Analog Matching** for a variable and it also becomes one of the metrics used to find analog stores, so the comparables you match on and the demographics you report on are one list. #### Exports Carry Them Too PDF and Excel exports include your **Workspace Defaults** variables, for both demographics and analogs. #### Presets Are Retired Demographic presets have been replaced by your own configured list, and the preset switcher no longer appears in Workspace Settings. ## Analogs Run on Their Own Analogs is now its own operation in a Study rather than a section nested inside a forecast. It runs automatically for every pin and deal using your workspace's default trade zone, so comparable stores are there without opening the forecast first, and a location can be weighed on its analogs alone. Study exports always include analogs when the operation succeeded. ## Improvements and Bug Fixes * **Tracked businesses survive a brand rename** — tracked brands and categories now survive a brand rename, and two sub-brands sharing a name are distinguished * **Studies show which workspace they're in** — a study's right panel carries a workspace badge, and the **Study** tab returns you to the study overview * **The deal dashboard reflects your changes right away** — changing a deal's stage from its details page, or its workspace from the move resources page, now shows on the dashboard without a refresh {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-08-20" %} ## Hourly Vehicle Traffic Across the Product Hourly vehicle traffic now appears everywhere you work with a location, not just the **Vehicle Traffic** hover popup. Click a pin in a study or search an address in Site Analysis and the traffic panel breaks the day into 24 hours, with the peak hour called out. The same breakdown carries into PDF and Excel exports for both studies and site analysis.
The Hourly vehicle traffic card in the Site Analysis sidebar, showing the nearest road's daily volume and a 24-hour bar chart with the peak hour highlighted
#### Ask the Agent About Hours The GrowthFactor Agent reads hourly traffic too. Ask which hours are busiest on a road segment, or how two candidates compare at the times of day that matter to you, and it answers from the hourly numbers rather than the daily total. ## Territories Are Retired Files you upload show as a standard map layer, and all uploads open in the same layer view. The Territories layer group and its legend entry no longer appear, and the share dialog no longer offers Limit to territory boundary. ## The Agent Warns You Before You Run Out of Room Long agent conversations have a context limit. As you approach it, a message appears in the chat while there's still room to act. If you are approaching the context limit, consider starting a new chat. ## Improvements and Bug Fixes * **Agent approvals stay reachable** — a batch of approval cards no longer grows past the top of the chat panel where the **Approve** buttons couldn't be clicked. The list scrolls, and **Approve all** and **Cancel all** appear when more than one action is waiting * **Cannibalization names deals in its footer** — the note explaining which locations take part now lists deals alongside pins and stores, matching what the comparison actually includes * **Scoring sites over MCP bug fixes** — scoring a site through MCP returned **This feature isn't enabled for your organization** for organizations that do have it enabled * **Site listing popups stay on screen** — a listing popup near the edge of the map no longer opens partly outside the viewport * **Competition Analysis sees your tracked competitors** — a competitor listed in a deal's **Tracked Businesses** panel could be missed by the Competition Analysis lens, which then scored the site as having no competition nearby. Both read the same brands now * **Study PDF exports explain their failures** — a study with a large number of pins could fail to export with no explanation. The render window is longer, and a failure now tells you to export fewer pins * **Re-uploading a site CSV updates instead of duplicating** — sending the same file again matches each row to the site it already created and updates it. The upload preview shows which rows will be created and which will be updated before you commit * **Foot traffic points of interest render cleanly** — enabling foot traffic points of interest with tracked businesses off no longer shows "?" markers for untracked locations {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-08-12" %} ## Vehicle Traffic by Hour Hover a road segment on the **Vehicle Traffic** layer and the popup now breaks the day into 24 hours. You get the daily volume, a bar for each hour, and the peak hour called out beneath the chart.
The Vehicle Traffic hover popup, showing daily volume and a 24-hour bar chart with the peak hour highlighted
Segments without hourly coverage say so instead of showing an empty chart. ## The Agent Asks Before It Acts The GrowthFactor Agent now stops for your approval before it creates, changes, or deletes anything. An approval card appears in the chat above the composer, naming the action and the details it's about to use. Choose **Approve** to let it run, or **Cancel** to stop it. Approval is required for creating and updating sites and deals, and for deleting pins, shapes, and annotations in a study. Everything else runs as before. When the agent lines up several of these at once, each one gets its own card. The run picks up again once you've decided on all of them. ## Bulk Upload to the Deal Dropbox Your Deal Dropbox link can now take several deals at once. Anyone submitting through it can select up to 50 files on the **Photo or File** step. A single file works the way it always has. Two or more open a review grid with a row per file, and the address, square footage, price, and date already pulled from each one. Every field stays editable, and each row shows whether it's ready or still needs an address. Rows can be dropped before anything is submitted. Submitter name, email, and phone are entered once and cover the whole batch. ## Improvements and Bug Fixes * **Show all and hide all layers** — each section of the study **Layers** tab has a toggle in its header that flips every layer in that section at once * **Demographics corrected on multi-part areas** — population counts were doubling and education percentages could exceed 100%. Medians on cities made up of many separate pieces came back far too high, in one case reporting a median age of 123.2. Areas too fragmented to enrich now read **Demographics aren't available for this trade zone** instead of showing zeros * **Foot traffic trade zones name the actual problem** — an address with no visitor coverage now reads **No foot traffic data for this location** and points you to a ring or drive-time zone instead. A real failure keeps the **Couldn't draw trade zone** message, so retrying is only suggested when it might help {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-08-05" %} ## Cannibalization Across Your Whole Study Cannibalization in a Market Planning study now works between any two locations on the map. Compare a pin against another pin, against your existing stores, and against your deals. Open a pin, store, or deal in the study panel and select the **Cannibalization** operation.
Cannibalization on a study pin, showing overlap against two other pins
Each trade zone drawn on the location you're analyzing gets its own tab. Pick one and you get a combined overlap percentage for that zone, then a row for every pin, store, and deal it overlaps. Each row carries its own percentage and a **Low / Mid / High** badge. Uncheck a row to leave that location out, and the overlap recomputes without it. Only locations with a trade zone drawn on them take part. If a pin you expected is missing from the list, draw a trade zone on it. **Full breakdown** opens the complete picture: every source trade zone scored against each of your target's zones, with the highest overlap called out at the top.
The full cannibalization breakdown, scoring each source trade zone against the target's zones
#### Deals Are Part of the Comparison Deals in the study are now compared alongside pins and stores. A deal's trade zones count as its footprint, so a candidate weighed against a deal already in your pipeline shows that overlap directly. #### Ask the Agent The GrowthFactor Agent runs the same comparison. Ask how much a pin overlaps the other pins in your study and it reports each overlap along with a union total. Name specific pins or drawn areas to narrow the comparison, or ask it to leave your portfolio stores out. When a pin has no trade zone, the agent says so and offers to draw one before running the numbers.
The GrowthFactor Agent running pin-to-pin cannibalization in a study
Study PDF and Excel exports carry the same results. ## Turn a Pin Into a Deal **Create deal** on a study pin now carries the pin's work over with it. The deal takes the pin's name, and the trade zones drawn on the pin move to the deal so they stay attached. The pin restyles to your first deal stage's color and picks up a deal icon. It then appears in the **Deals & Stores** section of the study overview, with the same deal details and operations any other deal pin has. Pins that have become deals are no longer draggable, so the deal's location stays put. ## Improvements and Bug Fixes * **Radius label out of the way while drawing** — the radius readout on a circle now sits opposite your cursor instead of following it, so it no longer swallows the click that sets the size * **Education percentages match everywhere** — education breakdowns in the demographic chart and detail modal now use the same base population as the preset list and the agent, so the percentages agree * The study panel shows a loading indicator while a deal loads, instead of briefly reading "Deleted deal" {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-07-29" %} ## Market Planning **Market Planning is entering general access!** Market Planning expands your horizons, letting you analyze entire markets and plans in addition to specific sites. Market Planning work is done in **studies**, so you can save your work and share it with your team. A study is one map in one workspace holding everything you've put on it — the candidates you're weighing, the areas you've drawn, and the analysis you've run against them. It stays private until you share it with your workspace, and it's all saved as you go.
A Market Planning study: the agent, the map with its pins, and the study panel
#### Pins, Shapes, and Trade Zones on One Map Drop pins for the locations you care about, draw or extract the areas around them, and generate trade zones as rings, drive and walk times, or foot-traffic catchments. Your existing stores and deals are already on the map, so a new candidate can be compared against your footprint the moment you place it. Shapes can be combined with union, intersect, and difference when the area you want doesn't match a boundary anyone has drawn.
Study map toolbar with the Shapes menu open
#### Analysis Wherever You're Working Every pin and zone carries the analysis you'd expect: demographics, GrowthFactor Score, sales projections, foot traffic, and cannibalization against everything else in the study. Weigh one address on its own, or lay out a dozen candidates across a market and compare them side by side.
The analysis available at a pin
#### The Agent Works in Your Study The GrowthFactor Agent sits beside the map and acts on the study directly. Ask it to drop a pin, draw a trade zone, pull demographics, run cannibalization, or leave a note, and the change lands on the map for you and your teammates to see.
The GrowthFactor Agent acting on a study
#### Built for Teams Share a study with your workspace as an editor or view-only, leave annotations anywhere on the map, and comment on individual pins and shapes. Studies can be starred, searched, sorted, and archived, and any study exports to PDF or Excel — with the agent transcript and annotations along for the ride.
Sharing a study with your workspace
{% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-07-10" %} ## Automatic Study Naming New Market Planning studies start out as "Untitled study" — now they name themselves. As soon as you ask the GrowthFactor Agent a question or drop your first pin or boundary, the study is automatically retitled to reflect what you're exploring (e.g. "Tampa retail expansion"). Any existing study still called "Untitled study" gets the same treatment the next time you work in it. Studies you've already renamed yourself are never touched. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-07-08" %} ## Deal Analysis Regenerating an analysis from the deal dashboard now respects your workspace's configured default analysis settings, such as a custom ring radius, instead of reverting to the platform defaults. ## PDF Report The Print Report PDF now gives more context on the map pages, including the number of tracked businesses and the population a polygon encompasses, so it's clearer what you're looking at. A table of contents has been added to the first page, and the GrowthFactor Score is consolidated onto a single page. ## Agent The agent's Pedestrian & Vehicle Traffic table now reports each road segment's real distance from the site in miles — matching the rest of the report — instead of showing the segment's own length in meters. ## Improvements and Bug Fixes * Chat suggestion text now matches the font size of the rest of the sidebar * Removed the "Give $500, Get $500" referral prompt {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-07-01" %} ## Context Menu for Pins and Trade Zones Right-clicking (or long-pressing on touch) a pin or trade zone on the study map now opens a context menu with actions.
**Pin context menu** * **Draw trade zone** — open the trade zone builder pre-targeted at this pin * **Create deal** — create a deal seeded with the pin's data (hidden if a deal is already linked) * **Add comment** — jump straight to the Comments tab for this pin in the side panel * **Rename** — enter inline edit mode for the pin's name * **Delete** — remove the pin **Trade zone context menu** * **Edit trade zone** — enter vertex-edit mode (available for custom-drawn zones only) * **Add comment** — jump straight to the Comments tab for this trade zone * **Rename** — enter inline edit mode for the trade zone's name * **Delete** — remove the trade zone ## Deals from Pins Pins and the deals created from them are now connected. A pin linked to a deal shows a **file icon** so you can tell at a glance which pins have become deals, and a **View deal** link takes you straight to that deal's page. Each pin maps to a single deal. Creating a deal from a pin that already has one is no longer possible, so you won't end up with duplicate deals for the same location. The deal's activity log records where it came from: *"Created deal from pin \[pin name] in \[study name]"* so every deal traces back to the study and pin that started it.
## Demographics The study demographics panel is richer and more precise: * **Counts and percentages together** — demographic breakdowns again show both the absolute number and the percentage, and clicking a metric reopens the full detail modal (including education) * **Exact values** — unrounded figures are now available directly in the panel, not just through the agent * **Sharper population figures** — population is shown to three significant figures, so nearby values like 1.66k and 1.74k are distinguishable instead of both rounding to 1.7k * **Consistent variable order** — the order you set for preset variables now carries through to the analog demographics table, including income buckets * **Presets tab** — the Presets tab appears only when your workspace has preset variables configured and data is available, instead of showing an empty tab ## Improvements and Fixes * **Draw a trade zone around any address** — ask the GrowthFactor Agent for a trade zone around a raw address and it geocodes the location, drops a pin if one doesn't already exist, and draws the zone. This may have caused issues in previous versions, but is now functioning properly. * **Drafting outreach emails** — the agent can now draft leasing and broker outreach emails on request instead of declining {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-06-24" %} ## Agent The GrowthFactor Agent now knows about **vehicle traffic**. Ask it for traffic counts along a corridor or near a candidate site and it pulls the data directly in conversation.
## Improvements and Bug Fixes * The members list now sorts alphabetically by name, with name shown as the leftmost column * Content Security Policy — the app now ships a Content Security Policy that the browser enforces, restricting which scripts, styles, and resources are allowed to load. This helps protect the application from potential attacks. * Outlier stores are now excluded from comparables even when selected through the model card, improving forecast and cannibalization accuracy by keeping stores with missing data out of the results * Boolean model inputs now render their default values correctly * Adjusted the ordering and formatting of Esri demographic variables {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-06-18" %} ## Model Inputs Setting up a forecast is now faster and less cluttered. Models can be configured with default values for their input fields, so each new forecast opens pre-filled with sensible inputs instead of a blank panel — handy when a team consistently models with the same assumptions. Once your inputs are set, you can collapse the model inputs entirely to keep the focus on results. ## Agent Improvements The GrowthFactor Agent now remembers your conversations. Every chat is saved to History, so you can step away and pick up right where you left off, with the full thread loaded back exactly as you left it. Transcripts are clean and accurate, showing the conversation as it actually happened. The agent has also become a little more careful: when you ask it to submit a feature request, it now confirms with you before sending rather than filing it automatically. ## Improvements and Bug Fixes **Consolidated filter menu** — workspace filtering and the other page filters now live together in a single menu, making it easier to narrow what's shown
{% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-06-03" %} ## Redesigned PDF Export The **Print Report** PDF has been reorganized for readability: * **New cover page** — a larger map with an expanded legend (including the cannibalized area), alongside the GrowthFactor Score badge, the sales forecast with a visual confidence range, and a demographic snapshot. Your workspace logo appears when configured * **Lens detail pages** — each GrowthFactor Score lens gets its own page with its score, grade, and the full reasoning behind it * **Clearer export options** — each selected option becomes a separate page (PDF) or sheet (Excel), with Sales Forecast and Visitation listed first ## Multi-Select Model Inputs Sales forecast model features can now accept multiple values. Multi-select features are marked **(multiple)** and display their options as clickable pills — toggle every option that applies to the site and the forecast updates accordingly. ## Improvements and Bug Fixes * **Book a walkthrough** — a new link at the bottom of the sidebar opens a booking page where you can schedule time with our team for platform questions * Re-inviting a deactivated member now automatically reactivates their account with prior workspace roles restored — no support request needed * Fixed sharing maps via email; the share dialog now explains how to add multiple recipients, and the Share button works as soon as a valid email is entered * Sites created from coordinates (CSV upload or MCP) now have their address split into proper street, city, state, and ZIP fields instead of one combined address line * The Sales Forecast card now notes that the forecast is based on cannibalized sales * Visibility is no longer included in the default GrowthFactor Score lens set for new organizations (existing configurations are unchanged) * The Trade Area and Cannibalization map layers are now display-only and no longer show popups when clicked * Removed the unused Custom Maps page {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-05-12" %} ## Improvements and Bug Fixes **Market Selection Workflow in the Agent** Ask the GrowthFactor Agent about a region (city or state) and it now responds with a rough market estimate built from demographics and site scores for the core nearby municipalities, plus a pointer to the full market selection product. **Agent Reliability** * Site scores in agent text now match the value shown on the map marker for the same location * When a site score isn't available, the agent says so instead of falling back to a default value of 50 * Internal identifiers no longer appear in agent responses * Gemini streaming errors (rate limits, transient failures) surface as readable messages in the chat instead of a generic error * Fixed agent-generated map markers duplicating when navigating back to a conversation **Other Fixes** * Long-pressing on the map opens the context menu, making map interactions easier on touch devices * The Deals map layer now respects your active workspace, so only deal pins from that workspace appear * Long custom layer names in popup titles wrap instead of overlapping the close button {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-05-07" %} ## GrowthFactor Agent Meet the **GrowthFactor Agent** — a conversational AI analyst built into the GrowthFactor app. Ask it to find sites, score locations, pull demographics, run cannibalization, fetch foot traffic, and assemble trade zones. The agent carries out the work using the same tools you'd use yourself, and surfaces the results back as text, tables, and map layers.
GrowthFactor Agent panel with starter prompts
* **Map layers from the agent** — trade zones, cannibalization, and candidate-site analyses run by the agent show up in the map legend so you can toggle them alongside your other layers * **Trade zones on request** — specify a trade zone in your question and the agent uses that one instead of the workspace default #### Market Selection Map Layer A per-brand **Market Selection** map layer, powered by GrowthFactor's market-selection model, is available to select customers alongside your other custom layers. Reach out to to enable it for your brand. #### Workspace Access and Mobile * **Downward access for viewers** — viewers and members of a parent workspace can see sites, deals, custom layers, and shared maps from sub-workspaces they have access to * **Site Score lenses for admins** — fixed an issue where workspace admins couldn't see Site Score lenses that exist on their workspace * **Mobile workspace settings** — the Workspace Settings dialog (defaults, members, resources, site score) is usable on mobile #### Cannibalization and Forecast * **Store names alongside cannibalization addresses** — cannibalization results include the store name or ID next to the address, matching the analogs card * **Removed outdated forecast disclaimer** — the "Forecast does not account for cannibalization" note has been removed; cannibalization is factored into the underlying model * **More foot traffic data in PDF exports** — the PDF report export includes additional foot-traffic data for surrounding retailers, supporting side-by-side property overviews #### Improvements and Bug Fixes * The Deal Dashboard is now the default home page after login * New filter UI for deals, sites, and files makes it easier to narrow large lists * Fixed an issue where copied custom layers couldn't be renamed in their new workspace * Hidden the draw button for polygon trade zones where it didn't apply * Tag names can no longer be created blank * Site sales values reject negative numbers * Workspaces with no sites or no Site Score lenses return empty results instead of error toasts {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-04-22" %} ## Workspaces Workspaces let you organize your organization's data — stores, deals, layers, files, and more — into separate groups with independent access controls. Use workspaces to partition work by region, department, brand concept, or any structure that fits your team. Workspaces form a tree hierarchy starting from a root workspace. Each workspace can have its own name, description, color, and settings — including model variables, trade zones, and brand behaviors — so different teams can tailor their analysis independently. Resources like deals, sites, tags, shared maps, custom layers, and files can be moved or copied between workspaces individually or in bulk. #### Redesigned Workspace Switcher The workspace switcher in the sidebar now lists every workspace you have access to, not just the ones you're a direct member of. Workspaces you have admin access to through a parent role but haven't joined directly show an inline **Join** option. Clicking it adds you as an Admin and switches you into the workspace. Admins of the active workspace also see three quick-action buttons at the bottom of the dropdown: * **+ New workspace** — create a sub-workspace with the active workspace as parent * **Settings** — open Workspace Settings * **Add member** — invite a teammate or new user directly to the active workspace
Workspace switcher with Join buttons and quick actions
#### Consolidated Workspace Settings Workspace administration now lives in a single dialog opened from the **Settings** button in the workspace switcher. The left pane is a workspace tree picker, the right pane has four tabs for the selected workspace: * **Defaults** — preset, trade zone, tracked brands, and tracked categories that drive site analysis * **Members** — the workspace's roster, with per-workspace Viewer / Member / Admin roles * **Resources** — bulk-move (or, for custom layers, copy) deals, sites, shared maps, custom layers, files, and tags between workspaces * **Site Score** — workspace context and lenses for the GrowthFactor Score Workspace name, color, and description are editable inline at the top of the right pane, and a **+ Create sub-workspace** action is always one click away.
Consolidated Workspace Settings dialog with the Defaults tab selected
#### Move and Copy Files and Custom Layers Between Workspaces Files and custom layers can now be transferred between workspaces, both individually (via each card's three-dot menu) and in bulk (from the Resources tab in Workspace Settings). Custom layers are **copied** so the original stays in the source workspace; files, deals, sites, shared maps, and tags are **moved** out of the source. #### Members and Permissions A redesigned **Members** page gives admins full control over who can access what. Each member can be assigned a Viewer, Member, or Admin role per workspace, with permissions flowing downward through the tree. The new **Viewer** role provides read-only access for stakeholders who need visibility without editing access. #### Other Improvements * **Known Issues** — a new entry in the help menu opens a public list of current platform issues, with statuses and last-updated dates so you can see what we're working on {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-04-15" %} ## Ask AI Assistant A new **Ask AI** button is now available in the Help menu across all dashboard pages. Click the **?** icon in the sidebar footer, then select **Ask AI** to open an AI-powered assistant that can answer questions about the GrowthFactor platform — without leaving the app. The assistant comes with suggested questions to get you started, like "How do I create a new deal?" and "How do I search a site?", and can help you navigate features, understand data, and troubleshoot issues in real time.
Help menu with Ask AI button
Ask AI assistant modal
#### Sites Page Stores now open on a full dedicated page instead of the previous edit modal. Click any store in **My Stores** to open its detail page with a header, breadcrumb navigation, and four stat cards (Square Footage, Annual Sales, Sales / Sq Ft, and Open Date). * Inline editing — click any store field to edit it in place with instant save * Tags — add, remove, and create tags with autocomplete from your org's tag library * Demographics — for geocoded stores, view trade-area demographics grouped into collapsible categories (Population, Income, Households, Education, and Growth) with top metrics highlighted * New "Create Store" page — dedicated page with address autocomplete, store detail fields, tags, and a save bar #### Smoother Org Switching Switching between organizations is now more reliable: * Same-org click — clicking the org you're already in no longer triggers a full reload — it shows a quick "Already in \[org name]" instead * Member names — now update immediately after switching orgs * Demographics — now always reflects the current org's settings after a switch * Missing deals — navigating to a deal that doesn't exist in your new org now shows a helpful message instead of a broken page #### Other Improvements and Fixes * The Help menu now shows a live colored dot showing whether the platform is operational, degraded, or experiencing downtime * GrowthFactor Score lenses now display in consistent chronological order instead of random order * Fixed a bug that could cause GrowthFactor Scores to fail to load intermittently * Fixed duplicate map layers appearing after navigating between deals * Creating a store with an invalid address now returns a proper error message instead of failing silently {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-04-08" %} ## Improvements and Bug Fixes **Percent and Raw Toggle on Demographic Charts** Demographic bar charts now include a toggle to switch between percent and raw value views, making it easier to compare data in the format most useful to your analysis. **Vehicle Traffic GrowthFactor Score Lens** Vehicle traffic data is now available as a GrowthFactor Score lens, giving you an additional dimension for evaluating site potential. **Referral Button in Sidebar** A new referral button has been added to the sidebar, making it easy to share GrowthFactor with colleagues and partners. **Other Fixes** * GrowthFactor Score lenses and results are now saved correctly on shared maps * Fixed multi-point cannibalization not correctly including total store cannibalization data * Fixed shared map creation failing when deal stages were duplicated * Fixed an error that occurred when clicking "Done" on circle draw without drawing a circle * Fixed demographic data failing to load in certain configurations {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-04-01" %} ## Temporary Brand and Category Filtering You can now personalize which brands and categories display on the Tracked POIs layer directly from the map. Click **Edit what's shown** under the Tracked POIs toggle to add or remove specific brands and categories from the display. Click **Apply** to confirm your changes, **Reset** to revert, or **Sync** to match your organization's current settings. These edits are temporary and scoped to your session — they don't affect other team members or change your organization's permanent settings. For permanent changes, update your organization's presets in Organization Settings. {% embed url="" %} #### Other Improvements **Other Improvements** **Map Previews on Deal Dashboard** Deal cards on the Deal Dashboard now display a map preview thumbnail instead of the previous analysis icon. Click the preview to jump directly into the full site analysis map, making it easier to visually identify and navigate to deal locations. **GF Score Lens Weights and Data Source Configuration** GrowthFactor Score lenses can now be weighted to reflect what matters most to your concept — if one or two scoring dimensions are more important, their weights can be increased so they contribute more to the overall score. Lens descriptions and data source connections can also be customized per lens. Reach out to the GrowthFactor team at to configure your lenses. > :rotating\_light: **Known Issue**: The Shared Maps feature currently **re-generates the enhanced GrowthFactor Score** when it is shared. This will be addressed in the next release **Updated Help Menu** The help menu has been redesigned with a new icon-based layout in the sidebar, providing quick access to documentation, the product roadmap, feedback, and keyboard shortcuts. **Other Fixes** * Decimal radii are now supported for ring-based trade zones (e.g., 1.5 miles, 0.75 miles) * Analog details modal now displays actual store numbers from your company instead of generic numbering * Improved toggle interaction for site property fields based on user feedback * "Save Changes" button on settings pages is now larger and more noticeable * Hidden Dataplor score from the interface * GF Score regeneration now properly regenerates all lenses when triggered from the Deal page * GF Score prompts updated to provide more detailed answers and reasoning * Tracked Businesses lens now includes distance context for improved analysis quality * Admin users can now upload PDFs directly to the files page * Added support for cannibalization in models * Fixed heatmap layer not appearing on shared maps * Fixed deal file updates sending incorrect format when modifying existing deals * Fixed site ID names displaying with a `#` prefix in the analogs list * Fixed text overflowing the text box during file uploads * Removed foot traffic sort option from shared maps when foot traffic data is not shared * Various UI refinements and styling improvements {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-03-24" %} ## GrowthFactor Score Customization Customize the prompts and data sources for GrowthFactor Score Data to make scores more accurate, helpful, and relevant to your business. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-03-20" %} ## Category & Name-Based Tracking Competitive filtering now works by both category and name, across company size. In your settings, you can specify both names to track and categories to track. The UI displays results limited to your selections, with a gated number of categories or brands per account. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-03-18" %} ## New Full Deal Pages We have shifted from the deal modal to full dedicated deal pages. Deals now open on their own page instead of a modal overlay. * Responsive full-page layout with activity sidebar * Centralized file uploads — single drag-and-drop for all file types, with tagging after upload * Google Drive-style file cards with thumbnail previews, file info, and in-browser file previews * Multi-file upload with per-file renaming {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-03-04" %} ## "Local Business" Renamed to "Visitation" We've renamed the "Local Business" section to "Visitation" across the platform, including in data cards, map popups, and report exports. This better reflects what the section actually covers: foot traffic data and nearby business rankings. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-03-04" %} ## Separate Share and Export Buttons We've split the "Share & Export" button into two separate actions — "Share" and "Export" — each with its own dialog. The Create Shared Map dialog now gives you granular control over what recipients can see. You can toggle visibility for specific data (Forecast, Visitation), individual cards (Analogs, Demographics, Score, etc.), and choose whether to limit the map to a territory boundary. All currently visible layers, including custom data layers, are included automatically. The Export Report dialog lets you quickly select which sections to include in your print or Excel export without any of the sharing options getting in the way. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-02-12" %} ## See Existing Store Foot Traffic Existing store foot traffic and trade zone data can now be viewed with a click for any pin on a map. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-02-05" %} ## "Open Report" Button for Sited Analysis Map New "Open Report" button lets you analyze competitors on the Sited Analysis Map. When you click on a business on the map to see its visits, you can now open a report and run a GrowthFactor search on that specific location. This lets you dig into competitor demographics, customer draw, and potential brand cannibalization. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-02-05" %} ## Edit Deal Names in Deal Dashboard Deal names can now be customized instead of just showing the address. This makes it easier to identify and manage deals the way you think about them. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-02-04" %} ## Customizable Forecasting Models with Flexible Feature Selection You can now have our team use arbitrary site data to forecast anything — from sales, to memberships, to sales of specific retail baskets. Select from multiple forecasting models directly in the platform. Instead of filtering out sites to adjust your forecast, we now create tailored models for your store sets. Note that this means your selected filters will no longer affect your forecasting results. We've also updated Excel and PDF exports to reflect which model and inputs were used to produce the forecast. Reach out to our team at to build and start using new models! {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-02-04" %} ## Added Button in Sidebar to Product Docs Added a "Help & FAQs" in the sidebar that links to the product documentation. This documentation explains each feature and how to use them. It also elaborates on best practices, tips, and frequently asked questions. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-02-04" %} ## Remove Forecasting Card for Users Without the Feature For organizations that don't have forecasting models, we have hidden the forecasting card. This removes the default data from the site analysis page and report exports, streamlining the user experience. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-02-04" %} ## Bug Fixes and Minor Changes **Minor Updates** * Renamed "Quick Search" page to "Site Analysis" * Renamed sales PSF on platform to "Forecast Midpoint" to better fit new, more general models * Brand behavior inputs are now validated, and will error with "Invalid Brand Name" when incorrect slug is used * Adding a brand behavior now auto-scrolls to the new row * Deleting presets now requires confirmation, preventing accidental deletions * Minor spacing and styling adjustments * "Share" button has been renamed to "Share & Export" in hints and descriptions * Added labels to "Download Deals" and "Dropbox" buttons on Deal Dashboard **Bug Fixes** * Improved foot traffic local totals for competitors/complements * Fixed a bug where the address column from a CSV upload was ignored if a latitude and longitude were also provided * Removed the toggle between Sales PSF and Total from sales forecasting — users can still toggle the results by clearing or re-entering the square footage * Prevented saving brand settings changes while the page is still loading * Corrected formatting on confirmation popups when optional label or cancel buttons are displayed {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-01-23" %} ## Bug Fixes — Jan 23, 2026 This release resolves several bugs, including issues with foot traffic data, layer visibility, sales reporting, and version updates for the GrowthFactor tool. * Foot traffic is now yearly * Share Zoning Layer on Shared Maps * Preserve layer visibility when you refresh the page * Fix bug on total sales not showing in analog comparison screen * Banner to indicate when a new version of GrowthFactor is available {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-01-23" %} ## Scroll Bar Hidden When Not in Use The scroll bar on the POI data card now disappears when not in use, improving the appearance of screenshots taken of the data card for analysis. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-01-14" %} ## Maps in PDFs Improved PDF maps — the ability to include maps in PDFs has been added, improving exports from the platform. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-01-13" %} ## Users Can Now Persistently Access Their Reports Users can now persistently access and customize their reports and analyses: * Re-access the reports and analyses you have done for a site on the Deal Dashboard, allowing you to build upon your previous work * Attach multiple analyses to each deal, allowing you to do "what ifs" and see how the numbers change if you tweak analysis parameters {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-01-05" %} ## Integrated Data Sources Provide Comprehensive Business Insights Integrated data sources provide comprehensive business insights by enabling access to a range of Tier 1 data, including customer site metadata, foot traffic, places data, and demographics. This lays the groundwork for incorporating additional data sources into our modeling — including site-specific metadata, foot traffic, and more. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-01-02" %} ## UI Refresh Refreshed UI with improved map functionality: * Easier access to create deals, share, and export * Larger map view * Clicking on a tracked business takes you directly to that business * More demographic data highlights available * Ability to run analysis by clicking on a map marker {% endupdate %} {% update date="2026-01-02" %} ## Remove Non-Logo Logos Resolved customer feedback that single-letter logos can be confusing, especially when viewed at a distance, by removing non-logo logos. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2025-12-04" %} ## Growth Factor Analysis and Recommendations The GrowthFactor Score feature provides an AI-powered analysis of a business's growth potential, synthesizing recommendations to help optimize their growth strategy based on factors like the surrounding area, market trends, and positioning. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2025-12-04" %} ## Deal Dropbox The new Deal Dropbox allows external parties to quickly submit new sites to retailers. It automatically tags the submitted sites, runs them through the GrowthFactor AI model to generate a score and revenue forecast, and adds the deals to the retailer's dashboard. The Dropbox can also extract data from site flyers, eliminating the need for manual data entry. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2025-12-04" %} ## Unlimited File Uploads on Deal Dashboard The Deal Dashboard now allows for unlimited file uploads, providing users with greater flexibility and storage capacity to manage their deals more effectively. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2025-12-04" %} ## Deal Dashboard Print, Export, and Other Minor Improvements The Print Deal Dashboard has been updated to improve its functionality and user experience. We also enabled the ability to export to Excel, along with some performance improvements. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2025-11-17" %} ## Easier Way to Send Feedback Contact button in the sidebar makes it easy to send us feedback. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2025-11-11" %} ## Customizable Shareable Maps Brokers and franchise developers can now customize the insights they share with prospects, allowing them to highlight the most relevant data that supports their narrative without overwhelming the viewer. * Toggle on/off key map layers or data panels: Demographics, Psychographics, Foot traffic trends, Vehicle counts, Competitor locations * Shared version shows only what's selected — clean, focused, and persuasive {% endupdate %} {% update date="2025-11-09" %} ## Hide Cannibalization on Shareable Maps You can now hide cannibalization on shareable maps, along with any other analysis dimension. {% endupdate %} {% update date="2025-11-03" %} ## Custom Layer Mapping Comprehensive custom data layer functionality that enables users to create, edit, combine, and analyze custom geographic boundaries. This unlocks new spatial analysis capabilities for clients, allowing them to define territories that match their business needs and overlay custom data within those boundaries, leading to more informed location decisions. {% endupdate %} {% endupdates %}