Evaluate the geographic and market overlap between proposed territories and understand potential points of conflict.
Territory conflict usually surfaces late — after an agreement is signed and two franchisees discover they were both promised the same neighbourhood. This calculator measures the overlap before that happens, either by comparing two lists of geographic identifiers or by intersecting two radius territories geometrically.
Use the code list mode for ZIP-code, census-tract or custom boundary territories. Use the radius mode when territories are defined as a distance around a fixed site.
Code list mode treats each territory as a set. It reports the count of shared identifiers, what share of each territory those represent, and a combined figure — the shared units as a proportion of all units across both territories. Those three numbers answer different questions: a territory can lose eighty percent of itself to an overlap that represents only twenty percent of the combined footprint, and the asymmetry matters when one party is far more exposed than the other.
Radius mode computes the exact area of the lens where two circles intersect, handling the cases where one circle sits entirely inside the other and where they do not touch at all. The combined figure is the shared area over the union of both circles, not over either one.
Geometric overlap is not market overlap. Two territories can share a substantial land area containing almost no customers, or share a single ZIP code that happens to hold most of the demand in both. Roads, rivers and municipal boundaries shape where customers actually go far more than distance does. And none of this speaks to contractual rights — whether an overlap is a problem depends on what the franchise agreement grants, which channels are reserved, and what exceptions were negotiated.
Overlap exists when two assigned, protected, reserved, or proposed territories share geographic coverage. The legal and operational significance depends on the agreements and the rights associated with each territory.
There is no universal acceptable percentage. A small overlap may be material when it contains the primary customer base, while a larger overlap may have limited impact if it covers water, industrial land, or an area outside the operating model.
No. Use identifiers from the same geographic layer. A ZIP Code Tabulation Area and census tract are different geographic units, so matching their identifiers would not measure actual overlap.
No. Circular area overlap is geometric. Customer distribution, road networks, travel patterns, competition, natural barriers, and contractual restrictions may create a very different practical result.
Create, analyze, present, and manage franchise territories with demographic intelligence and franchise workflows built into Zors.
