> Source: https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/competitor-analysis/ > Updated: 2026-11-09 Solutions · Competitor analysis # How do I analyse the competitors around a location? Counting the competitors you pass on the way to work is not an analysis. Here is how to measure who is really competing for the same customers, and where they leave room. In short Analyse local competitors by listing every business of your sector within the drive time customers will travel, then measuring how many there are per 10,000 residents against the council, the state and Australia. Weigh each one by size and pull, map where competitive pressure is highest, and look for places where spending is high and competition thin. [Map your competitors](https://www.k-stra.com/a/?src=solutions-competitor-analysis) What makes this hard ## Why is local competition hard to judge? The competitors you notice are the large ones on main roads. The small ones down side streets, the formats you do not consider rivals and the stores just outside your area take customers all the same. Numbers without a reference mislead as well. Sixty competitors sounds crowded until you know how many residents they share, and how many stores per resident the rest of the state supports. And not all competitors weigh the same. A warehouse-format chain store can turn over several times what a neighbourhood shop does, so a map of pins treats very different rivals as equals. 460,461 Australian businesses started in 2025–26, while 375,331 closed. The competitors around a site are not a fixed list. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Counts of Australian Businesses, including Entries and Exits, released August 2026. *[Image: K-Stra competition map for liquor stores within 15 minutes of 150 Moorabool Street, Geelong VIC: shades of red where existing stores pull hardest, and the table of stores per 10,000 residents for the catchment, Greater Geelong, Victoria and Australia.]* Competition · Geelong 3.99 stores per 10,000 residentsThe competition layer for liquor stores around Moorabool Street. Darker red is where existing stores pull hardest; on the right, 3.99 stores per 10,000 residents in the catchment against 2.76 in Australia. Method ## How do you analyse local competitors, step by step? 1. Step 01 ### Define the sector, not the brand List every business that sells what you sell, including independents and formats you do not think of as rivals. 2. Step 02 ### Draw the area customers travel Use the same drive or walk time as your own catchment. Competitors just outside it still pull its residents. 3. Step 03 ### Measure the density Count the businesses per 10,000 residents and compare with the council, the state and Australia. A count alone means little. 4. Step 04 ### Weigh each competitor A large chain store and a corner shop are not equal rivals. Size, ratings, reviews and estimated sales tell them apart. 5. Step 05 ### Map the pressure Where several competitors reach the same streets, each new entrant shares the same spending. Map that pressure point by point. 6. Step 06 ### Find the thin spots Look for places where the spending within reach is high compared with the competition already there. 7. Step 07 ### Check what changes Listings open and close every month. Repeat the count before you sign, not only when you start looking. Researchers have long measured the same thing in a different way: how many people a market needs before it supports one, two or more businesses of a kind. The question behind density is the same — whether this area has room for one more. Source: Bresnahan and Reiss (1991), “Entry and competition in concentrated markets”, [Journal of Political Economy 99(5)](https://doi.org/10.1086/261786) . Data ## What data do you need for a competitor analysis? A map of the businesses in your sector and the population around them. Nothing needs uploading; your own stores can be added if you want them on the same map. - ### Every business of the sector 2M+ Australian businesses and stores from public online listings, sorted into 78 sectors, with address, rating and number of reviews. [The data catalogue](https://www.k-stra.com/product/data/) - ### Residents around them ABS population estimates at 30 June 2025, counted address by address, to turn a number of stores into a density. [Demographic analysis](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/demographic-analysis/) - ### Spending in the sector Household spending from the ABS national accounts for 2024–25, assigned to each sector, which drives demand and opportunity. [Demand and opportunity](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/how-to-choose-a-store-location/) - ### Estimated annual sales For existing retail stores: a band of yearly sales with its confidence, built from chain accounts, ABS retail totals for 2024–25 and floor area, and more roughly for independents. Estimates, not reported figures. [Every source and year](https://www.k-stra.com/product/data/) *[Image: K-Stra table of the 64 liquor stores within 15 minutes of 150 Moorabool Street, Geelong VIC, with category, address, travel time, rating, reviews and estimated annual sales in bands, under the competition map.]* The full list of the 64 stores, ordered by the weight the model gives each one. The last column shows estimated annual sales as a band, and a dash where it is not. In K-Stra ## How do you analyse competitors in K-Stra? Markets & Brands is a module of the What step. Pick a whole sector or up to ten brands, switch on estimated sales of the stores, and run it on any area. 1. Whole sectorEvery store of the sector in the area, demand, competition, opportunity and market gap on the map, and the five best locations at least 500 m apart. 2. Specific brandsUp to ten named brands, with distance, travel time, rating and reviews of each store and counts per 10,000 residents and per km². 3. Compare sitesOne to five candidate addresses simulated against the stores already there: the residents’ spending each would capture, and from whom. Click a store on the map and its card shows the band of estimated annual sales with its confidence, high, medium or low, and where the estimate comes from. Services such as gyms, clinics and hairdressers never have one. [Try it in the app](https://www.k-stra.com/a/?src=solutions-competitor-analysis) Video ## What does a competitor analysis look like in the app? [Download the video (0:27)](https://www.k-stra.com/_astro/kstra-v2-competitor-sector.DCRyBPaE.mp4) Video · 0:27, no sound. The Geelong example in motion: the competition map, the density against Australia, the list sorted by estimated annual sales and the card of one store with its band and confidence. On-screen text Markets & Brands · Whole sector. Know who you’re up against, store by store. Liquor stores within a 15-minute drive of Moorabool Street, Geelong. 64 liquor stores within the catchment. The pull existing stores exert on each point. 3.99 stores per 10,000 residents · Australia 2.76. Every store, sorted by estimated annual sales. Always a band, never a single figure. Each store’s card: the band and its confidence. Know the market before you open. Estimated annual sales are estimates, not reported figures: bands of annual sales excluding GST. Example ## What does a competitor analysis show? Liquor stores within 15 minutes by car of 150 Moorabool Street, Geelong VIC: 64 stores for 160,556 residents. Of those stores, 19 have a visible estimate of annual sales — 3 in the A$10–20M band, all large-format chain stores, and 16 in the A$2–5M band — while the other 45, mostly independents, have none. The thinnest competition relative to spending is near 12 Church Street, Breakwater, with a market gap of 259. Liquor stores per 10,000 residents within 15 minutes of 150 Moorabool Street, Geelong VIC, compared with the council, the state and Australia Area Stores Residents Per 10,000 residents Catchment 64 160,556 3.99 Greater Geelong (council) 94 295,052 3.19 Victoria 1,944 7,073,859 2.75 Australia 7,628 27,613,654 2.76 Sources: K-Stra analysis of 1 November 2026: liquor stores within a 15-minute drive in average traffic of 150 Moorabool Street, Geelong. Stores: K-Stra places catalogue, 2026. Residents: ABS population estimates at 30 June 2025. Estimated annual sales: estimates, not reported figures, from chain annual accounts, ABS Retail Trade 2024–25 totals and store size. Reading the numbers ## Is a crowded area a bad place to open? Not necessarily. Around Moorabool Street there are 3.99 liquor stores per 10,000 residents, about 45% more than the Australian 2.76. Much of that sits in central Geelong, where stores also serve people who work, visit or pass through, and residents alone understate the market. A dense area tells you competition is strong, not that spending has run out. That is why the market gap matters more than the count: it puts the spending within reach next to the pressure of the stores already there, point by point, and shows where the balance is still open. Cost ## How much does a competitor analysis cost? A whole sector costs the same on a small catchment or a whole city: you pay for the question, not the size of the area. Named brands cost 5 credits each instead, up to ten in one analysis. Comparing candidate sites against the competitors is a separate step, priced per site, and only when you run it. [How credits work](https://www.k-stra.com/pricing/how-credits-work/) - Markets & Brands, whole sectorper sector, any area 40 credits - Estimated annual sales of the storesFree for now Free - Maps, tables and exports of the results Free - Total\= 40 credits - ≈ A$61 at the Single report pack rate of A$1.53 a credit; less with larger packs and monthly plans. A new free account’s 40 welcome credits cover it. Optional, not in the total - Compare candidate sitesper candidate site \+ 20 credits The estimate appears before the run starts, and a run that fails costs nothing. FAQ ## What else do people ask about competitor analysis? ### What does “estimated annual sales” mean for a competitor? It is an estimate of the yearly sales of an existing store, shown as a band such as A$ 2–5 million and with its confidence. It is built from chain annual accounts, ABS retail totals for 2024–25 and the size of the store. It is not a figure reported by the business. ### Why do some stores have no estimated sales? Because some groups of stores do not pass the model’s checks, and services never have an estimate. Independents in the groups that pass do have one, at low confidence: a rough estimate from the typical size of their type of store, from reviews or from ABS counts of businesses by turnover band. In the Geelong example, run on 1 November 2026, when only high and medium estimates were shown, 45 of 64 stores had none. ### What does K-Stra tell me about a store I have not opened yet? Estimated annual sales describe existing stores only. For a new site, K-Stra models how much of the catchment residents’ spending it could capture and from whom: a figure for comparing sites of the same sector and area, whose absolute value is an order of magnitude. Workers, commuters, tourists and passing trade are not in it, so CBD, tourist and station sites come out underestimated. See [retail site selection](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/retail-site-selection/) . ### What is the difference between competition and market gap? Competition is an index of how strongly existing stores pull each point on the map: 0 means nobody reaches it. Market gap divides the spending within reach by that competition, with 100 for the typical spot in the analysis; above 200 there is a market and few competitors. ### Can I analyse specific brands instead of a whole sector? Yes. Choose up to ten brands, at 5 credits each, and K-Stra lists their stores with distance, travel time, rating and reviews, and counts them per 10,000 residents and per square kilometre. It suits a franchisor watching two or three named rivals. ### Can a business ask not to have its sales estimated? Yes. A business that writes to K-Stra about its listing or its estimate gets a reply within 30 days, and on request the estimate stops appearing in new analyses. The privacy policy explains how. Related pages - [Automotive and fuel](https://www.k-stra.com/industries/automotive-and-fuel/) - [Supermarkets and grocery](https://www.k-stra.com/industries/supermarkets-and-grocery/) - [Industries](https://www.k-stra.com/industries/) - [Retail site selection](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/retail-site-selection/) - [Market potential analysis](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/market-potential-analysis/) - [How to choose a store location](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/how-to-choose-a-store-location/) - [Catchment area analysis](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/catchment-area-analysis/) - [Cannibalisation analysis](https://www.k-stra.com/solutions/cannibalisation-analysis/) - [What is geomarketing?](https://www.k-stra.com/geomarketing/what-is-geomarketing/) - [The data in K-Stra](https://www.k-stra.com/product/data/) - [Australian business database](https://www.k-stra.com/product/data/markets/) Your turn ## See who you are really up against. Type your address, pick your sector and read the competition, the density and the gaps on one map. [Open the app — free to explore](https://www.k-stra.com/a/?src=solutions-competitor-analysis) Estimated sales of the stores are free for now