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Tool Mastery | Trade Area

MattD
Alteryx Alumni (Retired)
Created

This article is part of the Tool Mastery Series, a compilation of Knowledge Base contributions to introduce diverse working examples for Designer Tools. HerTrade Area.pnge we’ll delve into uses of the Trade Area Tool on our way to mastering the Alteryx Designer:


When it comes to spatial analyses, few tools come up more than the Trade Area Tool. Whether you’re looking to pad polygons around your spatial objects in distance or drive time, you won’t need to make a trade-off - just the Trade Area Tool. A frequent mention in Alteryx retail use cases, the tool also can help to:

  • Find overlapping drive time distances (attached in the v10.6 Trade Area.yxmd):

This use case comes in handy when considering site/store geographical placement. Consider 3 offices that are to be replaced by one new office site. If you were to consider the commutes of every employee, you would probably want the new office equidistant from each of the existing sites – by drive time. Use the Trade Area Tool to increment drive time radii until all three intersect and there you’ll find your ideal office placement

Find overlapping drivetime distances.jpg

  • Identify coverage areas (attached in the v10.6 Trade Area.yxmd):

Be it telecommunication coverage or physical distance traveled, the Trade Area Tool can be used to map regions that encapsulate all of a customer base

Identify coverage areas.jpg

  • Avoidstore cannibalization (attached in the v10.6 Trade Area.yxmd):

You know how the saying goes; you can have too much of a good thing. Sometimes you need your space

Avoid store cannibalization.jpg

If you’re using trade areas in report maps, be sure to check out our Trade Area Labeling Macro!

By now, you should have expert-level proficiency with the Trade Area Tool! If you can think of a use case we left out, feel free to use the comments section below! Consider yourself a Tool Master already? Let us know at community@alteryx.com if you’d like your creative tool uses to be featured in the Tool Mastery Series.

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Attachments
Comments
plim
6 - Meteoroid

Great tool. After watching a couple of on demand training videos the below example was created. The aim was to determine which tube station is nearer to a waste recycling site and within a maximum 1.5 mile walking distance. This involved:

 

  1. Join the lat.long data to both my tube station address data and waste site address data
  2. Select and rename column headers to match
  3. Perform a union of both tube and waste site data
  4. Create map points
  5. Visualize the map with a 1.5 mile drive time 'trade area'

 

The first attempt and initial result is shown below:

 

Spatial Map 1.png

 

It was very quick and simple to setup!

 

AndyMoncla
10 - Fireball

Another tool to remember is the Non Overlap Drivetime tool.  I like it better than radii when customer mobility is an issue.

 

Non Overlap Drivetime.png               Non Overlap Drivetime and Radii Sm.png

 

 

derekbelyea
12 - Quasar

This information is useful.  I see that within the DESIGNER currently only the DISTANCE tool offers a built-in example.

 

It would be helpful for novices, if in future releases, the other SPATIAL tools also offered examples.

 

dist.png

davechndr
9 - Comet

Hi everyone,

 

I agree with those who feel that the Spatial tools should have examples the way some other tool families do.

 

For those new to learning the Spatial tools, like myself, the Documentation page on Alteryx's Community Page give a very good explanation of the various tools. I went through many of the tools within the tool families there and understood many of them! I do recommend going there, myself!

 

Hope this helps!!!! :)

 

My best,

@davechndr