From real estate to meeting the demand for solar eclipse supplies, leaders are investing in location intelligence because 'where' matters more than ever in business today
When Americans planned to watch the solar eclipse last year, Walmart analyzed spatial data from the 2017 eclipse. The company stocked supplies, such as viewers, based on geography and predicted purchasing patterns.
Just a few years ago, the new era of big data was in danger of drowning us. We could know everything, and it was hard to know anything. Now, none of us need to drown in our data — we can map it, and that changes everything. We can see the big picture — the context of our supply chains or our market expansion plans or the weather. We can drill down to individual facilities or cargo containers or shipments. We can map out potential new markets. We can discover more insights about customers. In all cases, asking “where” unlocks the intelligence needed for smarter, faster, more confident decision-making.: Deploy resources based on real-time geographic demand patternsRisk Management: Assess location-based threats and optimize asset protection strategies Organizations globally are harnessing the power of spatial analysis enriched with AI to elevate their analytical and predictive capabilities and accelerate actionable insights. In our increasingly volatile world — marked by geopolitical shifts, economic uncertainty, extreme weather disruption — “where” is the key to making almost every critical decision with both speed and confidence.“Where” matters not just because place is important, it matters because “where” shapes every other decision you need to make — in a day or to stay competitive. WHEN MILLIONS OF AMERICANS planned their April 8, 2024, solar eclipse viewing, Walmart saw an opportunity. With 500 stores within 70 miles of the 1,894-mile path of totality, the retailer knew it would become the go-to stop for eclipse supplies. But which products would surge at which locations? Walmart did what it does best: analyzed spatial data from the 2017 eclipse to predict purchasing patterns, then stocked accordingly. It was pure business geography — spatial analytics that turned location data into competitive advantage.Vail Resorts is one of the most premier mountain resort companies in the world and a leader in luxury, destination-based travel at iconic locations. At its Steamboat Ski Resort in Colorado, here’s how where matters: The slope maintenance staff uses, drones, and GPS to monitor snow depth across 182 trails, on 3,700 acres. Although Steamboat gets 300 inches of snow each winter, it needs to make snow overnight to give skiers the best experience. It doesn’t want to make too little snow, and because of cost, energy use, and climate impact, it doesn’t want to make more snow than it needs to. Where the snow is, and where more snow is needed — that’s a question Steamboat assesses every day, in real time, to maximize operational efficiency. One of the largest drugstore retailers in the U.S. uses “where” to track the severity and outbreaks of the U.S. flu season in real time — and produces a map, really a dashboard, that is available to health care officials, and the public, and that often flags deadly flu spikes before even the U.S. Center for Disease Control can issue alerts. The retailer has several thousand pharmacies in all 50 states — so it aggregates prescriptions for anti-viral flu medications, then maps the trends in those prescriptions, based on where they’re being filled. The company uses the same kind of spatial intelligence to manage operations and supply chain for its own stores, using an inhouse map-based tool.. If you use where as the lever to understand your operations, your supply chain, your performance, your customers, you can see things your competitors can’t see. You can optimize for both efficiency and quality. You can mitigate risk, while maximizing opportunity. The transformation is fundamental. Every critical business decision – where to build facilities, hire talent, store emergency assets, shift supply chains, or prospect for new markets – depends on understanding location-specific variables. In the $20 trillion commercial real estate market, mapping and analytics has become the ultimate differentiator. One of the world's largest real estate brokerages has transformed how it serves clients by using the power of location-based insights. Gone are the days of the company making decisions based on intuition alone. The company now equips thousands of professionals with sophisticated mapping technology that reveals the hidden stories behind every address. When a Fortune 1000 company considers expansion, the company delivers interactive dashboards displaying population trends, labor pools, wage levels, and competitor locations in a single, compelling view. This isn't just about aesthetically pleasing presentations. As clients grow increasingly sophisticated, they demand evidence-backed recommendations. The company's dual approach — offering both self-serve tools for quick analyses and full-service teams for complex projects — ensures every decision is grounded in geographic reality. The result? Real estate strategies that transform complex location data into enriched business intelligence. SEEING THE WORLD through geography not only allows you to make better decisions, it also lets you see things coming over the horizon that others don’t see coming. The latest geospatial AI technologies allow you not just to understand in the finest grain what’s happening now, they allow you to. Build a model of your business, give the model two or three or four scenarios — and it will show you what could happen next. Here’s the impact this marketing campaign might have on demand. Here’s the impact this new factory could have on prices. Here’s how this competitor might respond. Here’s how this change in tariffs will change costs and logistics. The world creates not a sea of data but a tapestry — and “where” is the thread connecting every business insight. Companies that weave this thread skillfully will define the next era of competitive success. Learn more about how Esri helps global organizations make better, more data-driven decisions by using
GIS Geospatial Solar Eclipse Eclipse Spatial Location Prediction
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