How to prepare your data to be uploaded

Before uploading your site data into Sloc Local, here’s everything you need to know to get your file ready. Following these guidelines helps ensure your upload runs smoothly and sets your project up for accurate local merger analysis.

File requirements

• Accepted file types: .csv, .xls, or .xlsx

• Maximum file size: 5MB

• Maximum number of rows: 25,000

• Only include the table in the file, on a single sheet

• The table should start in the top-left cell (A1)

• Include column headers in the first row

✅ Do’s

• Table starts in cell A1

• Column headers in row 1

• Just one sheet in the file

• No other tables, titles or comments

🚫 Don’ts

• Multiple sheets

• Extra tables included

• Table doesn't start in cell A1

• Table titles and comments throughout

Table format

• Each row should represent one site (highlighted in red)

• Each column should represent a field of information about that site (store name field highlighted in blue)

Fields to include

Fascia / Owner (Required)

Used to group sites under common ownership when modelling mergers.

• Required for ownership-level analysis

• Ideally aligned with your internal fascia classifications

• Should be consistently typed across rows

💡 Don’t worry — Sloc Local can help standardise this later on

Site name or ID (Required)

Essential for referencing individual sites clearly throughout the workflow.

• Should be clear and easy to understand

• Ideally unique to avoid confusion

💡 Sloc Local will also assist in cleaning and resolving duplicates if needed

Address information

Precise location data is essential for local merger analysis.

Best case: You already have latitude and longitude in separate columns.

If coordinates aren’t available, Sloc Local supports batch geocoding on standard location data. As such, please include any address information you have.

This address information might take the form of:

• A full address column. Sloc Local is able to geocode off a single full address field.

  

  
  

• But separate address fields (e.g. street, town, postcode) allow for more robust and flexible geocoding approaches - including 100% matches on postcode.

  

It is always best to include any address information you have in the data - but it can help to ensure address fields are dissected where possible.

Additional information (Optional)

You may also include other site-level data such as:

• Site size

• Revenue

• Store type

These fields aren’t used in the core analysis but are useful for filtering and reviewing site data within the app.

💡Pro tips

• Use clear column names - this helps Sloc Local detect fields automatically

• Ensure numeric fields (like latitude/longitude) don’t include non-numeric characters

• No need to perfect your data - Sloc Local has built-in tools for cleaning and formatting

• That said, tidying your data beforehand can help reduce upload size and improve performance