Improving Location Intelligence through Big Data and Artificial Intelligence
Nommon held its first in-person workshop aimed at the retail sector to present its location intelligence solution, InSite, a decision-support tool designed to assist different businesses in their expansion strategies.
On June 12th, Nommon hosted the first edition of its event “Nommon Innovation Days: Improving Expansion Strategies through Big Data and Artificial Intelligence,” an in-person workshop for Directors of Expansion, Distribution, and Marketing, as well as other professionals interested in the development, management, and optimisation of a network of retail outlets. The event, held at the Meeting Place in Castellana 81, provided an opportunity to reflect on the role of technology in addressing a wide range of challenges faced by the retail sector, such as store location and the optimisation of distribution and advertising strategies. It also served to showcase the latest advancements of InSite, Nommon‘s location intelligence tool designed to support various businesses in their expansion strategies.
Manuel Álvarez, Nommon’s Operations Director, opened the workshop with a brief introduction about Nommon and its product suite, highlighting the company’s journey from developing data products to integrating modelling techniques and artificial intelligence to incorporate predictive and prescriptive capabilities. Manuel Álvarez explained how the company’s extensive experience in geolocated data analysis and predictive modelling has been instrumental in developing solutions tailored to the needs of the retail sector, enabling an understanding and prediction of consumers’ spatial behaviour. The InSite tool is built upon this expertise in mobility and presence analytics, drawing on a wide range of geospatial data, including anonymised data from mobile networks, sourced from Nommon’s market-leading Mobility Insights and Population Insights solutions.
Driving Location Intelligence
Next, Rafael Jordá, InSite‘s Product Manager, took the floor to provide an overview of the tool, which is offered under a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model via a web application. He explained the various data sources it utilises and demonstrated its use, focusing on two of its modules: “Store Monitoring” and “New Openings Evaluation.”
Rafael Jordá began his presentation by explaining how, in recent years, numerous location intelligence tools have been developed, integrating geospatial data with advanced visualisation and spatial analysis capabilities. However, when it comes to conducting predictive analyses to support expansion decisions, the range of available solutions in the market is much more limited. InSite aims to fill this gap by going beyond mere descriptive capabilities, integrating machine learning and optimisation models to generate sales forecasts and provide recommendations on the opening, closing, or relocation of retail outlets.
The “Store Monitoring” module allows continuous tracking of the store network, evaluating each store’s performance based on revenue data, visits, traffic, etc. It also provides a characterisation of competitors, which can be classified according to the user preferences, indicating the opening of new spaces and the distance between the user’s stores and competing shops. Lastly, this module includes an analysis of the catchment area to identify the commercial attractiveness of a location based on the demographic and socio-economic profile of potential customers and the locations of competitors and other shops. Rafael Jordá showcased these functionalities during a live demonstration, where he was able to filter and explore all this information using the maps and dashboards provided by InSite to facilitate decision-making.
Rafael Jordá then explained the “New Openings Evaluation” module, which estimates the revenue of a new store in a specific location and with a given configuration. This module also shows the sales cannibalisation of the user’s current store network by the new establishment, as well as other relevant indicators, such as mirror stores—existing stores whose potential demand is most similar to the studied location. These predictive studies are made possible by artificial intelligence models trained with each client’s data, considering the explanatory variables of their market. Finally, in addition to running simulations for new locations, the tool allows results to be extracted via customised reports, supporting expansion strategies.
After the tool presentation, Manuel Álvarez resumed speaking to share some ideas about the product’s short, medium, and long-term evolution. He emphasised the goal of making InSite a useful tool not only for expansion decisions but also for other decision-making areas, such as operations and marketing. Among the features to be added shortly is a “Site Selection” module, which will enable users to identify the set of locations with the highest sales potential for new openings within a specified area. Other future functionalities mentioned include the ability to conduct impact studies of relocations or closures, the provision of recommendations for reconfiguring store spaces based on customer behaviour, and support functionalities for designing and evaluating marketing campaigns.
InSite Use Case: Veritas
The event featured a presentation by Joaquín Belón, Director of Expansion for Veritas, a leading company in the distribution of organic products and an InSite client since 2023. Joaquín Belón shared his experience with the tool, the project’s objectives, and certain customisations of InSite that have been implemented to meet Veritas’s needs. He highlighted some aspects of the tool relevant to their project, such as the ability to gain a better understanding of potential customers by segmenting them by age, gender, place of residence, and income level. He also mentioned the possibility of downloading reports to support expansion decision-making, compare different new opening projects, and improve result reporting for approval. Joaquín Belón concluded his presentation by talking about the continuous improvements in the InSite models for Veritas, upcoming developments, and the opportunities offered by new data sources and artificial intelligence to enhance knowledge about future customers, adapt commercial strategies, and drive the retail sector forward.
About Nommon Innovation Days
Nommon began organising in-person workshops in 2016, aiming to present their data analysis solutions derived from mobile network operators for mobility studies. Edition after edition, the event has gained recognition in the transport industry in Spain, becoming an essential date for Nommon and many of its clients, partners, researchers, and many professionals in the industry. From 2020, Nommon started hosting numerous webinars with a similar focus and content in Colombia, Brazil, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina, as well as more specific meetings on tourism and retail. In 2022, Nommon held its first in-person event in London. This year, Nommon is organising these events under the brand “Nommon Innovation Days” to give them a common identity that reinforces their role as spaces for collaboration and idea-sharing on innovation and new technologies, structured around Nommon product suite. Recently, it held their annual event on the applications of big data and artificial intelligence in transport planning and operations. The workshop held on June 12th, titled “Nommon Innovation Days: Improving Expansion Strategies through Big Data and Artificial Intelligence,” was the first edition of this new space for the retail sector and to present the latest advancements in the InSite solution.
