Location IQ Partners with Orbital Insight to Help Retailers Understand Shifting Demand

Australian economics advisory firm will enable clients to monitor activities and patterns using Orbital Insight’s geospatial analytics

Location IQ, a leading Australian economic consultancy firm specializing in location, property, mapping and data solutions, today announced that it is expanding its partnership with Orbital Insight, the geospatial analytics company.

Location IQ provides property clients with geospatial analysis powered by Orbital Insight to help inform strategic business decisions. Location IQ first partnered with Orbital Insight in March 2020 to analyze 40 shopping centers in New South Wales, amid growing uncertainty at the start of the pandemic. 

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Location IQ will use the Orbital Insight GO platform to monitor the shifting patterns of activity at over 1,000 shopping centers across Australia. By applying artificial intelligence to anonymized location data, the GO platform will provide a better understanding of the travel patterns in and around shopping centers, including how activity levels have fluctuated due to the pandemic and the impact of restrictions put in place to minimize the spread of COVID-19.

“The uncertainty of the pandemic has made it incredibly difficult to predict the scale and duration of the impact on the Australian economy, and especially on the property market,” said Gavin Duane, Managing Director at Location IQ. “Our partnership with Orbital Insight has created a timely and cost-effective approach to analyze the movement of people on a significant scale. This new technology provides us and our clients with invaluable insights that eliminate guesswork during this unpredictable time.”

Location IQ works with clients including AMP Capital, Lendlease, The GPT Group, Woolworths, Stockland and Dexus, among other leading brands in Australia and New Zealand. Using Orbital Insight data analysis, Location IQ’s clients can monitor trends in dwell times, cross-visitation, impact by center type (e.g. city, neighborhood), differentiations between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas, and the overall rate of recovery. Empowered with this information, property management and retail customers can make informed data-driven business decisions about property locations.

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“New technologies are helping businesses worldwide weather the storm of COVID-19, including the vacuum of information on changing trends,” said Mark Russell, Commercial Counselor, U.S. Embassy in Sydney. “Partnerships between Silicon Valley innovators like Orbital Insight and domestic and industry experts like Location IQ can make a huge positive impact on local economies in Australia as we navigate the pandemic together.”

The Orbital Insight GO platform uses AI to process geospatial data—including satellite images, anonymized mobile location and additional IoT data—and answer questions about supply chains, global commodities, specific sites, aggregate activity trends and more. Since the pandemic began, the platform has seen a large uptick in interest from companies needing to remotely monitor areas in the face of COVID-19 restrictions.

“Near real-time data helps property management leaders make more confident business decisions, but AI and data science are crucial to make sense of all the information,” said Kevin O’Brien, CEO at Orbital Insight. “Location IQ is harnessing our technology to deliver actionable and impactful insights for their clients during a time when they need it more than ever. We look forward to continuing this partnership with Location IQ.”