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White space analysis
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United Kingdom
White space analysis for UK retailers: find the gaps
See where your brand is missing from busy UK towns, shopping centres and retail parks, with weekly footfall, catchment and brand location data.
Get a free analysis of your locations
Up to 5 locations. No cost, no commitment.
We handle your details in line with UK GDPR.
White space analysis shows where your brand could trade in the UK but doesn't yet. Huq's White Space Analysis tool sits alongside the Explore map, so retail teams can compare footfall, catchments, competitor brand locations and industry layers for any town centre, shopping centre or retail park. Check each gap against your existing stores, rule out areas you already serve, and build a shortlist backed by validated data.
White space analysis in the Huq platform
The overview video shows the Huq platform in general; it is not a white space walkthrough. Keep an eye on the Explore map. You can draw any area or switch on catchment, travel-time, brand-location and industry layers. Read with weekly footfall, those layers are how you test a gap before it goes on your shortlist.
- Draw any UK area, or pick from shopping centre, retail centre and postcode layers.
- Switch on brand locations to see where you and your competitors already trade.
- Compare heat maps of visiting and passing traffic to judge real demand in each area.
Trusted by 300+ organisations · Data across 35 markets
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What is white space analysis in retail?
In sales and product strategy, white space means an untapped segment. In retail, white space analysis means finding places where demand exists but your brand has no store, or too few stores to serve it. White space mapping puts those gaps on a map so expansion and property teams can see them at a glance.
In the UK the question is rarely whether a town exists without you. It is which towns, shopping centres and retail parks draw strong footfall from catchments that barely overlap with your current estate, and where competitors or complementary brands already prove the demand.
Huq's White Space Analysis tool works with the Explore map layers for footfall, catchment, brand locations and industries. In the UK you can also profile each gap with demographics and with geo-spend by volume and category, via Experian.
What's in your UK white space analysis
01
Footfall in every candidate area
Weekly footfall, trends and visiting vs passing traffic for any UK area you draw or select.
02
Catchments by postcode
See which postcodes each area draws from and how much that overlaps with your current stores.
03
Brand and industry layers
Map your stores, competitors and complementary brands to see where demand is already proven.
04
Demographics and spend profiles
Add demographics and geo-spend by category, via Experian, to check that a gap fits your customer.
What a white space map shows
Three views that turn a long list of UK towns into a shortlist you can defend.
01
Gaps on the Explore map
Brand location layers show where you and competitors trade. Areas with strong footfall and no store of yours nearby stand out as candidates.
02
Catchment overlap with your estate
Compare an area's catchment with your nearest stores' catchments to see whether a new store would reach new customers or the ones you already serve.
03
Footfall trends for the shortlist
Weekly footfall and period-on-period change show whether a gap is growing or fading before you sign a lease.
White space analysis for any UK location
Huq covers any address in the UK: high streets, shopping centres, retail parks, competitors' stores and sites you haven't opened yet. No counters, sensors or cameras needed.
Huq manually validates more than 1,000 locations in each of its 35 markets twice a year, and data refreshes weekly.
How it works
Step 1
Tell us your locations
Add up to five addresses in the form. Your own stores, candidate sites or competitors.
Step 2
We run the analysis
Our team maps each location from observed visitor data.
Step 3
We walk you through it
A short call to take you through what the data shows and what it means for you.
Why UK retail teams use Huq for white space analysis
- Huq publishes its accuracy by country: an 18.7% median error in Great Britain against landlord-reported footfall.
- JD Sports, a UK retailer, got 25% more precise catchment analysis and 18% lower new-store location risk.
- Ripon BID saw footfall up 164% year on year.
- Trusted by 300+ organisations across 35 markets, including the global insights, research and location intelligence teams at Nike, Adidas, JD Sports and Samsung.
huq's platform gave us valuable data to support a key decision on potential new sites.
Dan Brogden
National Sales Manager, Puccinos
Who it's for
01
Retail chains of any size
From five-store retailers planning their next site to global brands: choose locations, track store performance and benchmark against competitors.
02
Retail property owners
Show centre performance, support leasing and get the tenant mix right, for landlords, asset managers and brokers.
03
Investors and private equity
Check how retail brands and assets actually perform before you buy, and monitor them after.
Everything Huq measures, in one platform
- Footfall: by week, month and year, with totals, average daily footfall, trends, period-on-period change, and visiting vs passing traffic.
- Residents and visitors.
- Catchment and travel time: catchment by postcodes, plus drive-time and travel-time analysis.
- Demographics and profiling: age, gender and purchasing power.
- Behaviour: visit frequency, dwell time, time of day and dayparts, cross-visitation between up to 10 location pairs, and international visitation for tourism.
- Footfall density and transportation mode.
- Places, brands and industries: points of interest, brand locations and brand analysis, industry performance, shopping centre and retail centre types.
- Geo-spend: spend by volume and category at any UK location, via Experian.
- Tools: the Explore map (draw any area or use layers for travel time, catchment, shopping centres, retail centres, brand locations, industries and postcodes), White Space Analysis, and Projects for monitoring many locations and reporting to stakeholders.
- Delivery: the platform, CSV or Excel exports, monthly PDF location reports, and data feeds as Parquet and CSV files into Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage buckets.
- Cadence: data refreshes weekly.
Frequently asked questions
What is white space analysis?
White space analysis is a way to find untapped opportunity. In sales it means products a customer doesn't buy yet. For a retailer it means places with demand for your stores where your brand doesn't trade, or doesn't trade enough. Location data turns that idea into a map of real candidate areas.
How do you do a white space analysis for stores?
Map your current stores and their catchments. Add competitors and complementary brands to see where demand is proven. Then look for areas with strong footfall and little overlap with your estate, and check their trends over time. Huq brings these layers together on the Explore map with its White Space Analysis tool.
What is white space mapping?
White space mapping is the visual side of white space analysis: your stores, competitors and candidate areas shown on one map, so gaps are easy to spot. On Huq's Explore map you can add catchment, travel-time, brand location, industry and postcode layers, plus heat maps of visiting and passing traffic.
Does location data actually lower the risk of a new store?
It can make the decision better informed. UK retailer JD Sports reported 25% more precise catchment analysis and 18% lower new-store location risk with Huq. Huq also publishes its accuracy by country: an 18.7% median error in Great Britain against landlord-reported footfall, under the 30% healthy threshold.
Which UK towns and centres does Huq cover, and how often is data updated?
Huq covers any address in the UK: high streets, town centres, shopping centres, retail parks, competitor stores and sites you haven't opened. No counters or sensors are needed. Data refreshes weekly, and Huq manually validates more than 1,000 locations in each of its 35 markets twice a year.
Can I get a free white space analysis?
Yes. Send us your current store list and a few towns, shopping centres or retail parks you think could be gaps. Huq will come back with footfall, catchment and nearby brand data for each, so you can see how the candidates compare with stores you already run before you commit.
Questions? Talk to us
Book a demoAbout Huq
Huq is a location intelligence company. We turn anonymised mobile location data into footfall, catchment and visitor insight for any place, so retailers, property owners and local authorities can make decisions on evidence.
See how your locations really perform
Up to 5 locations. No cost, no commitment.