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\.. Trade rea Based on Customer Zip Codes While customer street addresses are advantageous, zip codes are a viable alternative. Although not as precise in pinpointing customer origins as street addresses, zip codes are easier to collect and work well in rural areas where geocoding accuracy often diminishes. You can categorize customer zip codes by the percentage of customers(patronizing a business district)originating from each zip code. These percentages can then be mapped to show the relative origins of customers. Doing so allows you to examine relationships among customers(areas of high and low percentage,directional nature of customers,contiguous vs.fractured origin patterns,etc.)The example of customer origins by zip code map below shows an example of a trade area defined for Tomah,Wisconsin. Notice how the customer origins are biased toward the east due to proximity to a major highway and the presence of the similar-sized community,Sparta,to the west. These are the types of relationships that would not be readily apparent in a table of customer zip codes. Example of Customer Origins by Zip Code(Tomah,Wisconsin) Tomah Customer Origins CuVomer Percent I .1%tot \._ ill' 116.... „,,,,,,,,,,,A, 11 � . .fr 10.1%to2� to, Y� 2p01%or e rip lif 'Wilk- 'airl 1. n� �rqr S. • iii t 410:4 .' - g'f"-..IP 2 1//ilikWW /111M1111- ' kiftia&f.* .,11-,--.- As noted,you can collect customer zip codes in a variety of ways. Some businesses,such as hotels and grocery stores already collect this information for their daily operations. Often,zip code collection can be built into point-of-sale machines(cash registers). A customer's zip code can be entered in a cash register and then downloaded into a ready-to-use spreadsheet program,such as Microsoft Excel. If this method is unavailable, a trade area definition data 18