location_sales_volume is available on the majority of the records that have a location employment figure. Because verifiable sales volume figures are virtually impossible to obtain from private businesses, Data Axle has developed, and continually improves, a model that estimates the sales volume for the company.
The Annual Sales Volume Estimate model is built upon data from the U.S. Department of Commerce where sales per employee is provided for each 6-digit NAICS code at the county level, where available, and indexed to this level where current data at that specificity is not available. Data Axle then leverages data from it’s own Business Database including number of employees at the location, industry codes (4-digit SIC and 6-digit NAICS), and the county and state in which the business resides to calculate the estimated annual sales volume. Bureau of Economic Analysis data is used to account for price changes within industry since the Census survey date, bringing our estimates into current dollar values. Finally, extreme values are normalized within chains and franchise to ensure all individual location estimates have reasonable values. The Economic Census is performed every five years and our model is refreshed after each release.
Though applied on Canadian records, this model’s primary source is the U.S. Department of Commerce supplied data on sales per employee for each 6-digit NAICS code. Assignment on Canadian records is the same as it is on US records. However, a monetary exchange rate and a slight inflation calculation is applied to obtain final results in Canadian Dollars.
Some lines of business (e.g., educational institutions, government offices, associations and organizations) are not assigned a sales volume modeled because companies within these industries generally do not generate sales.