Customer journey as a strategic compass: what location data reveals about entry, loyalty and switching
Retail performance is often assessed at a single point in time: how many visitors came in during a campaign or promotional period? But just as important is where those visitors came from — and where they go next.
By analysing the customer journey using location intelligence, retailers gain insight into market entry, loyalty, acquisition, switching behaviour and post-campaign effects. Even a single customer journey view can already unlock a wide range of strategic insights, depending on how it is analysed.
Below, we outline the key insights retailers can already derive from customer journey analysis.
1. Understanding market entry and exit
A first essential insight is market entry: the percentage of visitors who entered the market through your brand during a given period.
This metric goes beyond brand performance and reflects how consumers behave across the entire category.
Comparing market entry across different periods can reveal structural shifts in behaviour. For example, if electronics retailers observe a lower share of market entrants during Black Friday 2025 compared to 2024, this may indicate that consumers are no longer postponing purchases until Black Friday. Earlier promotions or a more continuous discount strategy may be pulling demand forward.
Market entry helps retailers understand not only who they attract, but also when consumers choose to enter the market.
2. Insights into loyalty: who comes back?
A second core insight relates to loyalty, often measured as the share of visitors whose previous visit was also to your brand. These visitors are your returners.
Tracking how this percentage evolves over time helps answer key questions:
- Does loyalty increase during promotional periods?
- Does it remain stable when competitors increase pressure?
- Are certain periods structurally stronger in retaining customers?
When compared with competitors, this insight becomes even more valuable. Some brands consistently show higher returner rates, pointing to differences in pricing strategy, communication cadence or overall shopping experience.
Loyalty becomes a measurable competitive advantage rather than an abstract concept.
3. Insights into acquisition: winning visitors from competitors
Customer journey analysis also provides clear insight into acquisition dynamics:
how many of your visitors previously visited a competing brand.
This allows retailers to assess whether campaigns are genuinely attracting customers from competitors, rather than merely stimulating existing demand.
Key questions answered include:
- Does the share of visitors coming from competitors increase during campaigns?
- Is acquisition lower in periods without promotional activity?
- Which competitors are most affected?
Comparing acquisition rates across brands highlights who is most effective at attracting switchers — and under which conditions.
4. Switching behaviour: mapping movement between brands
Beyond acquisition lies a more nuanced insight: switching behaviour.
Switchers are customers who:
- visit your brand
- then visit a competitor
- and later return to your brand
This behaviour indicates that the customer is still in an active consideration phase. Mapping switching patterns reveals:
- which competitors most often sit between visits
- where hesitation occurs in the customer journey
- whether customers are temporarily lost or permanently converted elsewhere
Switching behaviour exposes competitive dynamics that traditional market share metrics often fail to capture.
5. Understanding post-campaign behaviour
Customer journey analysis does not end when a campaign finishes. By extending the analysis window beyond the campaign period, retailers can already assess what happens after promotional activity ends.
By analysing visitor behaviour in the 90 days following a campaign, clear patterns emerge:
- a share of newly acquired visitors returns organically
- others disappear once incentives are removed
- some brands successfully convert campaign-driven traffic into repeat visits, while others do not
This insight makes it possible to distinguish short-term uplift from sustainable growth and to evaluate the true long-term impact of campaigns.
Bonus insight: one insight, many perspectives
One of the key strengths of customer journey analysis is that each insight can be viewed from multiple perspectives.
The same metrics — market entry, loyalty, acquisition, switching and post-campaign behaviour — can be analysed:
- from your own brand’s perspective
- from each competitor’s perspective
- across different periods or campaigns
With multiple competitors in a market, this quickly results in dozens of meaningful analytical views. A single customer journey visual can therefore tell many strategic stories, depending on whose lens is applied.
Conclusion
Customer journey insights elevate retail analysis beyond simple visit counts. They explain not only how many visitors a brand attracts, but also where they come from, where they go next and whether they stay.
By combining market entry, loyalty, acquisition, switching and post-campaign behaviour, retailers gain a holistic and dynamic view of their competitive position — not as a static snapshot, but as a continuously evolving system.
In an increasingly complex retail landscape, understanding the customer journey is no longer optional. It is a strategic necessity.