Competitor Expansion

See the estate move before the press release does.

A quarterly pass over a named competitor's stores, set against the last one, with a change log of what opened, grew or went quiet.

Get startedSee the comparison 
Aerial view of a retail park and its car park beside open fields and a motorway
GSD
High-res, 0.5–2 m
Cadence
Quarterly
Platform
High-res satellite
Spectral
RGB

The job today

When the locator is the last to know

A competitor's store locator tells you about a store once the fascia is up and the doors are open. The trade press tells you when the chain chooses to announce it. By then the site has been through its fit-out, and the review you are preparing is arguing over a catchment that changed a while ago.

So someone scrapes the locator, diffs it against last quarter's file and rings round to explain the gaps. You come away with a list of addresses. You rarely get a footprint, and you never get the store that simply grew.

Black and white aerial view of a large single-storey building with a long ridged roof, car park and trees around it

The quarterly estate update, step by step

  1. No. 1

    Hearing about a new store

    Locator and trade press

    It shows up on the locator when it trades, or in the trade press when the chain announces it.

    With Competitor Expansion

    It shows up as a new building in the quarterly pass, while it is being built.

  2. No. 2

    Pinning down where

    Locator and trade press

    An address from the locator or a planning application, geocoded by hand, with the odd site you cannot place.

    With Competitor Expansion

    A location for each change, taken from the imagery itself.

  3. No. 3

    Sizing it up

    Locator and trade press

    Nothing, or a guess from the press release and the street view.

    With Competitor Expansion

    An approximate footprint for every new or extended store, in square metres.

  4. No. 4

    Extensions

    Locator and trade press

    Invisible. An extension to a standing store does not change the locator entry or the address.

    With Competitor Expansion

    Flagged as extended, against the footprint at the last pass.

  5. No. 5

    Closures

    Locator and trade press

    The locator entry disappears some time after the shutters go down, if anyone notices the gap.

    With Competitor Expansion

    Flagged as closed when the last pass shows no visible activity at the store. You check it by hand.

  6. No. 6

    Getting it into the estate file

    Locator and trade press

    Retyping from the scrape and the press read into your spreadsheet.

    With Competitor Expansion

    A dated change log and a CSV you load into the same estate file.

Still yours

Reading what each move means for your catchments, the overlap with your own stores, and the response.

What you get

What lands each quarter

  • New / extended / closedLedger Nos. 1–3

    Quarterly change log

    The list of what changed since the last pass, one entry per store, dated. It replaces the locator diff from the first three rows of the comparison.

  • Per changeLedger Nos. 2–3

    Location and approximate footprint

    Where each change is and roughly how big the building is. This is what the locator and the press release leave out.

  • Map layerLedger No. 6

    Estate map overlay

    The estate and its changes drawn on a map, to drop over your own stores and catchments.

  • CSVLedger No. 6

    CSV export

    The same change log as a flat file for your model or estate spreadsheet.

How it works

  1. 01

    Name the estate

    Tell us which competitor, or which region of its estate, you want watched. A starting list of its stores helps. We do not go looking for competitors you have not named.

  2. 02

    First pass sets the baseline

    The first quarter fixes where the stores stand and how big each one is. Changes are measured from there.

  3. 03

    Each quarter, a new pass

    High-res RGB imagery is taken over the estate again and set against the last pass.

  4. 04

    A dated change log

    New builds, extensions and closed flags come back with location and approximate footprint, ready for your quarterly review.

Limits

The locator knows the name, we see the building

Imagery cannot read a fascia. A locator or a press release says who is trading. The pass says a building appeared or grew.

Quarterly, not live

A store built and opened inside one quarter may only show in the next pass. A build that began after a pass shows at the next one. Nothing here is a real-time alert.

Closures are flags

A closed flag means no visible activity at the last pass. It cannot tell a closure from a refit or a temporary shutdown. Check each one by hand.

Freestanding stores resolve, terraced units do not

At a pixel of 0.5 to 2 m, a supermarket, a retail park unit or a standalone store shows as a building you can measure. A single shop unit inside a terrace, or a unit inside a shopping centre, cannot be separated from its neighbours.

Footprint is not floorspace

From above you see the building outline. Storeys, mezzanines and interior refits do not show, and a rebrand on a standing building does not show either.

Cloud

A quarter with no usable clear pass rolls the check to the next one.

Construction only

Optical imagery sees physical change. It does not read sales, footfall, staffing or branding.

Who it's for

Switch if

  • You are the strategy or expansion analyst who owns one competitor's estate file
  • You need to know about stores and extensions during the build, not at the opening
  • Your quarterly review pack needs a footprint and a location, not a name on a list

Stay with the locator and the press if

  • You need the trading name, opening hours or a confirmed opening date
  • Your competitor's stores are mostly single units in terraces or inside centres
  • You want weekly or live alerts
  • You want to read sales, footfall or branding changes

FAQ

Questions before the first pass

Does this replace the store-locator scrape?

For expansion signal, yes: it takes its place in the quarterly update. The locator is still where you read a trading name and opening hours.

How do we check it against what we already know?

Pick a competitor estate where you know what opened and extended recently. Send us the estate and compare our change log with your file.

Does it cover every fascia automatically?

No. You name the estate or region you want tracked. There is no open-ended discovery of competitors.

How current is quarterly?

Changes are found against the prior quarter's pass. Something built and opened within one quarter may only show up in the next.

Can it tell a closure from a temporary shutdown?

Not reliably. A closed flag means no visible activity at the last pass. It is worth a manual check.

Does it read sales, footfall or branding?

No. Optical imagery sees physical construction change only.

Will it open in our model?

The change log comes as a CSV and as a map layer. We don't write into your systems.

Who owns the imagery and the change log?

Ownership and licence terms are agreed in writing when you get started. If your legal team needs them earlier, ask.

How is it bought and priced?

The price depends on the size of the estate you track and where it is. Tell us which estate and we'll scope it from there.

Start tracking one estate.

Name the competitor and the region. We'll tell you what a quarterly pass would show you.

Get started