You already have the rundown on using NAICS in your searches via the Company Finders, so let’s continue and dive into the NAICS tiles in Gazelle: Local and Traded businesses. These buttons, located at the top right of the NAICS drop-down tile, allow you to select Traded industries, companies which do business outside of where they are located, and Local industries, in which business is done primarily within their community. 

So far, so good. What does that mean in practice? Simply: businesses like retailers, restaurants, and the hair salon down the street are local industries. This is true even if they are part of a larger chain; an Apple store or big-box retailer is also, technically, local industries for our purposes. The key element tying them together is that their location is essential. You wouldn’t (I assume) make a hair appointment with someone who lives three states over. From an economic development perspective, you might want to make a local-only search if you were interested in expanding existing companies that already serve your community. 

Traded industries, by contrast, primarily deal with areas other than where they are located. They can be constrained by geography insofar as they need resources, but their primary market lies further afield. A good example of this is mining. You can only place the mine where the minerals are, so unless your community has a bafflingly high demand for bauxite, most of the goods produced are outward bound. Economic development that is looking to attract new business to an area would most likely make a traded-only search.

Now let’s bring it all back to Gazelle. If you want to narrow down your searches to include (or exclude) companies that do business primarily in the area in which they reside or trade with other areas, you can use our Traded and Local Industry feature, which can be found in the top-right-hand corner of the NAICS tile.

Try toggling the buttons back and forth and you’ll notice that the list of NAICS codes changes. Selecting “Local,” for instance, removes NAICS 11 (Agriculture, Forestry, Fishing, and Hunting) as well as NAICS 21 (Mining, Quarrying, and Oil and Gas Extraction). “Traded” by contrast, excludes NAICS 44 (Retail Trade). This helps you get more mileage out of your searches with a single click.

Note that many companies fall under both categories. Just like a company may fall under multiple NAICS codes, it can also be considered partially traded and partially local. The Home Depot, for instance, falls under both a local code (Home and Garden Equipment Repair and Maintenance) and a traded one (Industrial Supplies Merchant Wholesalers). 

As always, if you have any questions or comments, please reach out to us through our live chat feature or by emailing gazellehelp@lightcast.io.
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Happy Gazelle-ing!