> Source: https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/
> Updated: 2026-11-01

Geomarketing

# How does geomarketing help a business decide where to be?

Guides for people who are not geographers: the questions behind a location decision, the methods that answer them and the numbers to look at.

In short

Geomarketing helps a business decide where to be by measuring what surrounds an address: who lives within reach, how much they spend, where competitors stand and how people travel. These guides explain the ideas in plain English, with Australian examples and public sources, so the method works whatever tool you use.

[Open the map](https://www.k-stra.com/a/?src=geomarketing)

13 guides

## Which question do you want to understand?

-   Start here

    ### What is geomarketing?

    The definition, where the ideas come from — from Reilly’s retail gravitation to Huff’s probabilities — and the data it runs on in Australia.

    Example: Palmerston, NT

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/what-is-geomarketing/)

-   Where should I open?

    ### How to choose a store location

    Seven steps with the common mistake of each, the free public sources for doing it by hand, and the rules that come before demand.

    Example: pharmacies in Adelaide

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/how-to-choose-a-store-location/)

-   Who can reach my store?

    ### What is a catchment area?

    Zones, five ways to draw one, what to read inside a trade area, and why postcodes rarely match the area people actually travel from.

    Examples: Newcastle and Penrith, NSW

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/catchment-area/)

-   Which area should I draw?

    ### Isochrone, isodistance or radius

    Four ways to draw the area around one address, four different counts of residents, and what the research says about straight lines.

    Example: Fremantle, WA

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/isochrone-vs-isodistance/)

-   Which one do I need?

    ### Location intelligence, geomarketing and GIS

    Three terms that overlap: what each one is, who uses it, and why the method behind a number matters more than the label.

    Example: South Yarra, VIC

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/location-intelligence/)

-   How do I compare my shortlist?

    ### Site selection scorecard

    The criteria worth measuring, how to weight them, and a scorecard of four real candidate sites under two weightings.

    Example: supermarkets in Melbourne

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/site-selection-guide/)

-   Where is the market underserved?

    ### Demand, supply and opportunity

    Demand, competition, opportunity and market gap on four maps of the same town, and how to read them together.

    Example: Wagga Wagga, NSW

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/demand-supply-opportunity/)

-   Will my new store hurt my others?

    ### Retail cannibalisation

    Why stores of one network share customers, three ways to measure it, and when the overlap is worth it.

    Examples: Port Macquarie, Canberra, Brisbane

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/cannibalisation/)

-   Where do I win, and where am I unknown?

    ### Market share and penetration

    The two formulas, the data each needs, and why both fall with distance from the store.

    Example: loyalty cards in Canberra

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/market-share-and-penetration/)

-   How much can an area spend?

    ### Income and consumption indices

    What 100 means, how the indices are built from ABS data, and why spending varies less than income.

    Examples from five areas

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/income-and-consumption-indices/)

-   Postcode, suburb or SA2?

    ### Australian geography levels

    The nine levels of Australian data, how many areas each has, which nest and which do not, and what changed in 2026.

    Example: a postcode split three ways

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/australian-geography-levels/)

-   What should I ask a vendor?

    ### Choosing a geomarketing tool

    Ten questions to put to any geomarketing software, from data freshness to where your files are stored, with our own answers.

    Criteria, no vendor names

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/choosing-a-geomarketing-tool/)

-   What does this term mean?

    ### Geomarketing glossary

    60 terms in plain English, from catchment area and isochrone to market gap, SA1 areas and the Huff model, each with a link to more.

    A to Z

    [Read the guide](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/glossary/)


How to read them

## How are the geomarketing guides different from the solutions?

The guides explain ideas and methods, cite public sources and use a different Australian place each time. Every example comes from an analysis run on real ABS data, and the year of each figure is written next to it.

The solutions are the practical side: the same questions turned into a task in K-Stra, with screenshots, the cost in credits and a worked example. Read a guide to understand the method, a solution to apply it.

Related pages

-   [Retail site selection](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/retail-site-selection/)
-   [Catchment area analysis](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/catchment-area-analysis/)
-   [Demographic analysis](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/demographic-analysis/)
-   [Cannibalisation analysis](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/cannibalisation-analysis/)
-   [Sales territory mapping](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/sales-territory-mapping/)
-   [Frequently asked questions](https://www.k-stra.com/faq/)

From reading to doing

## Every guide starts from an address.

Open the map, type yours and draw its catchment. Exploring needs no account.

[Open the app — free to explore](https://www.k-stra.com/a/?src=geomarketing)

You pay only for the analyses you run
