Hexagonal gridded maps and information layers: a novel approach for the exploration and analysis of retail data

In retail business intelligences, and more specifically in an analysis of customer-supermarket relationship, the factors, such as geographic location of customers, demographic distribution, customers' preferences, accessibility to the store are crucial in decision-making tasks. Visualization is an important tool for analysis and decision-making, which should provide means to make informed business decisions. This article presents a novel approach to the hexagonal gridded maps, which integrates diverse information layers with adaptive zoom. These layers are complementary, providing different points of view over the same dataset and various levels of abstraction. Starting with a dot map, which portrays the impact of supermarket localization on customers choices, up to a choropleth map, which depicts population density in an adaptive form depending on the different granularities of administrative units. Ultimately, the presented visualization provides means to: (i) explore and analyze data regarding customer-supermarket relations; (ii) reveal the impact of supermarkets localization on customer preferences; (iii) suggest areas of low coverage by supermarkets. Additionally, the interplay among the complementary graphical layers provided by the visualization increases its exploratory and analytical power.

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