Using geographical information systems for exploring demand on retail centers at Jeddah city

The aim of this paper is to identify the possibilities of using geographical information systems (GIS) in retail planning field. The paper is divided into three main parts. The first part deals with defining the relationship between GIS and retail planning. This is covered by presenting several worldwide cases adopting GIS in retailing. The second part of this paper illustrates the process that were covered for building the spatial data base of the selected retail center which is Oases mall at Jeddah city, Saudi Arabia. This part describes data collection methods and data editing techniques. The third part presents the outputs that are resulted from this GIS based study. These are called proximity to retail center, retail demand characteristics and spatial interaction between retail demand and supply.