Predicting retail shop number against roadside tree canopy shade: A national wide demonstration across 148 cities of China

Roadside tree canopies may obstruct storefront visibility and impair sales; however, the reverse is also argued to make sense. Disputation occurs because of the unclear relationship between retail shop number (RSN; units/km²) and tree canopy shade at sector-specific locations. In this study, 11.52 million points of interest were extracted from 148 Chinese cities to specify RSNs in food, shopping, life services, hotels, and entertainment sectors in neighborhoods where canopy shade was rated with a green view index (GVI) in 1.29 million streetscapes. Negative RSN-GVI relationships were plotted for shops distributed along expressways and alleys in the hotel and entertainment sectors. When GVI ranged from 10.01 to 11.42%, RSNs in the food and life service sectors were maximized along streets and roads. It was predicted high RSN in food retailing over 4.61 units/km² and low in entertainment sector (≤2.91 units/km²) against the most recent records of GVI. Our research deepens the managerial implications of verifying venue environment theory by predicting the suitability of newly planned locations for retail against canopy shade.