Site selection and trade-area data for retail growth.
Choose locations with confidence using demographics, business density and trade-area signals resolved from any coordinate — the data behind smarter site selection.
Expansion decisions depend on who and what surrounds a site. Trade-area demographics and business density are scattered across registries and aggregators with inconsistent schemas.
What Neighbourly gives franchises teams.
The specific, production-grade capabilities behind franchises on Homicity — not features on a slide, but data and tooling you can ship on.
Radius and drive-context trade areas
Query a candidate coordinate with a radius to get a trade-area profile that combines Forward Sortation Area demographics with a Business density aggregate. You receive the surrounding population and commercial makeup in a single, repeatable request.
Firmographic competitor mapping
The Business layer returns nearby establishments by category and NAICS sector from any coordinate, bounding box or neighbourhood, so you can map competitors and complementary anchors around a site. Records carry sector classification for precise filtering.
Catchment demographic profiling
Resolve age, income, household composition and tenure by Forward Sortation Area for the catchment around each candidate, giving a consistent demographic fingerprint per site. The same fields are available everywhere in Canada, so comparisons hold across markets.
Portfolio-wide site scoring
Run every candidate through the identical trade-area and demographic pipeline to produce comparable scores across regions. Consistent attributes mean a Vancouver site and a Halifax site are evaluated on the same axes.
Boundary-based territory design
Draw and manage territories against verified Location Boundaries rather than arbitrary polygons, so franchise areas align to recognizable geography. Boundary geometry is returned for mapping and overlap checks.
Active-business density signals
Trade-area aggregates include active-business rate and POI counts by sector, giving a read on commercial vitality around a site. This distinguishes a busy retail node from a thin one before you sign a lease.
How Franchises teams use Neighbourly.
Trade-area analysis
Demographics and business density within a radius or drive-time of any candidate site.
Competitor & POI mapping
Nearby businesses by category and sector from one coordinate.
Catchment demographics
Age, income, household and tenure profiles for any catchment.
Territory planning
Consistent location attributes across markets for portfolio-wide planning.
Why franchises teams choose Homicity.
Compare sites on equal footing
Identical attributes in every market let expansion teams rank candidates objectively rather than debating incompatible reports.
Faster expansion decisions
Trade-area demographics and business density resolve from a coordinate in one call, compressing weeks of manual research.
Fewer costly misses
Demographic fit and commercial density are visible before a lease commitment, reducing the chance of an underperforming location.
Nationwide, single-source coverage
One API covers every Canadian market, so a growing brand does not switch data sources as it enters new provinces.
Data layers for Franchises
The Neighbourly layers most relevant to this industry — all under one API key, one schema, Canada-wide.
Three ways to put Neighbourly to work for franchises.
Use the data yourself, have us build the whole thing, or bring in our team for strategy and analysis — whatever fits how you work.
Canadian data residency
Hosted in Canadian data centres, end to end.
PIPEDA-compliant
Privacy-first by default, with provincial compliance built in.
One consistent schema
Every layer shares a spine, so data joins cleanly.
Always current
Live, maintained data — never stale snapshots.
Franchises & Retail — common questions
What data supports retail site selection?
Trade-area demographics, nearby business density by sector, and catchment boundaries — resolved from a coordinate or address — support data-driven site selection and territory planning.
Does Neighbourly have business and POI data?
Yes — corporate-registry data with NAICS sectors, POI records by category and trade-area density aggregates, queryable by coordinate, radius or viewport.
How do I run a trade-area analysis?
Query by a coordinate plus a radius to get nearby businesses and a trade-area density profile — sector breakdown, active-business rate and POI counts.
Can I map competitors and nearby businesses?
Yes. The Business layer returns nearby businesses by category and NAICS sector from any coordinate, bounding box or neighbourhood.
What demographic data is available for catchments?
Age, income, household composition and tenure profiles by Forward Sortation Area, so you can assess the population around any candidate site.
Can I plan territories across multiple markets?
Yes — consistent location attributes across every market let you compare sites and plan territories portfolio-wide from one API.
Can I score a batch of candidate sites at once?
Yes. Run a list of coordinates through the same trade-area and demographic pipeline to produce a comparable score set, which is ideal for shortlisting many candidates before field visits.
How granular is the demographic data for a catchment?
Demographics are provided by Forward Sortation Area, so catchment profiles reflect the population in and around the relevant postal geography rather than a broad municipal average.
Can I define trade areas by my own polygons?
You can query by coordinate and radius, bounding box or neighbourhood boundary. If you need bespoke drive-time or custom polygon logic, a custom build or data services engagement can layer that on top of the core data.
Does the business data distinguish sectors clearly?
Yes. Business records carry NAICS sector classification and category, so you can isolate direct competitors, complementary anchors or specific retail categories in a trade area.
Bring Neighbourly to your franchises product.
Tell us what you're building and we'll map the right data layers and plan to your use case.