Points of interest data go beyond a pin on Google Maps with an accompanying list of local landmarks like restaurants, grocery stores, and metro stations. While consumers rely on mapping technology and GPS to navigate life on our mobile devices, businesses are using POI data just as extensively to make operational, marketing, and investment decisions.
This guide explores point of interest (POI) data, how they are generated and integrate with location data, and how every industry uses POI data for strategic decision-making.
What Are Points of Interest (POI) Data?
A point of interest (POI) is a landscape or geographic feature displayed digitally on a map, such as a restaurant, school, hospital, neighborhood, park, or transportation hub. POI data are most recognizable for their use with geographic information systems (GIS), mapping tools, and GPS navigation systems.
For example, if you’re traveling by car, you might use your GPS to locate restaurants within a 20-mile radius. The restaurants displayed are your POIs. Your GPS, however, will not only display the restaurants on a map, it may also display the address, website, trading hours, even a “Yelp” rating. That information is POI data, and the application of such data is as ubiquitous as mobile phone use in today’s business world.
Beyond navigation apps, POI data play a vital role in marketing, urban planning, retail analysis, even financial services, and other fields where location-based insights are valuable.
How Are POI Data Created?
A POI is assigned a category (for example, restaurant, bank, gas station) for search purposes. Then, a process called geocoding converts text addresses into geographic coordinates so that the addresses can be displayed on a map. In a GPS restaurant search, for instance, the navigation app will display each restaurant on the map using geocode data.
The POI data set composed of various attributes for each POI (restaurant, gas station) are collected from various data sources and linked to the geocode. These sources include:
- company websites
- government databases
- social media platforms
- user-generated data like user reviews
- mobile app data
Types of POI Data
Different types of POI data serve different purposes depending on the user needs.
Geographic POI Data
This is the most basic form of POI data, such as address, geocode, latitude and longitude coordinates, and the specific location of a point on a map. These data are most relevant for navigation apps, logistics and transportation, and urban planning.
Operational POI Data
Examples of these data include business hours, website, contact information, and the services or goods provided by a POI. These data are used by consumers and other users who want to general operational data about POIs.
Contextual POI Data
Contextual data go deeper and show demographics for the surrounding area, local events, and even historical significance of a POI or location. Contextual POI data are used by real estate, urban planning, and marketing industries.
Behavioral POI Data
Behavioral data provides insights into consumer activity. For example, foot traffic data for retailers are an integral metric used for growth, location, and marketing strategies.
Example Use Cases of POI Data
Consumers use POI data daily for navigation, but businesses apply POI data to their analytics to measure their performance against competitors, for market research, and for marketing strategy and business decisions. Some industry-specific use cases include:
Retailers
Retailers use POI data to compare their store performance against competitors. Companies like SafeGraph, Google Places API, and Factual provide comprehensive POI datasets for retailers including business types, addresses, and customer foot traffic data, which can be integrated with a retailer’s sales data for analysis.
Relevant POI data points for retailers are foot traffic, store visits, competitor locations, and local demographic data. Retailers can change their inventory, create targeted marketing campaigns, or change their pricing to be more competitive using POI data.
Service Industries
Service industries use POI data to find the best locations for growth. For example, a home security firm could use POI data to find out where new home sales are increasing and where homeowners might be looking for home security services.
A commercial office cleaning company might use POI data to locate urban areas with a high density of office buildings and an area ripe for scaling.
A food delivery service might use POI data to analyze the surrounding market of a location to find the area with high customer density and to assess the level of competition.
Banking and Financial Services
Financial businesses can use POI data to make decisions on brick-and-mortar locations. Banks can use POI data for optimal ATM placement, assess the demand for mortgage loan services, monitor unusual transactions and trigger fraud alerts.
Insurance
Insurers use POI data for risk assessment. POI data on climate and hazard risks (flood zones, extreme weather, and pollution) are critical factors for underwriting. These data are also increased used by appraisers and automated valuation models (AVMs).
Real Estate
Most real estate portals incorporate POI data to provide property buyers insights into local amenities. Automated valuation models (AVMs) found on real estate portals incorporate POI data into their algorithms for accurate property valuations. Investors looking for real estate or rental investments can make decisions based on the proximity of POIs, such as
- Schools
- Parks
- Shopping facilities
- Amenities
- Local attractions
- Hospitals
What Are the Best Sources of POI Data?
POI data are offered by data platforms. These providers collect, organize, and verify POI data. Data companies license their data to other users who can then use it build their own location-based products and services. The best sources depend on the industry and what the data will be used for:
For Retailers
Smappen: combines its demographic data with Google Maps.
Mastercard Places: provides data on retailers, consumer spending patterns, and payment transactions.
For Service Industries
Google Places API, OpenStreetMap, and SafeGraph provide geographic, operational, and demographic data.
Foursquare offers building footprint data, foot traffic data, and social media analytics.
For Banking
Datarade, Quadrant.IO, and SafeGraph all provide critical data for ATM placement, market expansion and fraud detection.
For Insurance
SafeGraph Places offers data for risk assessment, including co-tenancy information.
ATTOM supplies extensive property data and environmental risk data, such as climate change impacts and hazard risk data (flooding, extreme weather events, and pollution.)
For Real Estate
ATTOM is a leading source of property data, neighborhood data, and POI data, particularly for real estate and property analytics.
Google Places API, Zillow, and CoStar Group also offer real estate-related POI data for market analysis.
Digital POI data and navigating tools guide us to shops and restaurants, desirable neighborhoods, and transportation hubs. But POI data are also ubiquitous in boardrooms where they are driving business expansion and strategy decisions. Where will POI locational data take us next?
Contact an ATTOM data expert and learn how POI data can serve your business.
Written by: ATTOM Team