Syllabus: Pearson Edexcel GCSE Business
Module: Making the Business Effective
Lesson: 1.4.2 Business Location

Introduction

This article supports teachers, SLT, careers leads, and headteachers in delivering and embedding Topic 1.4.2 Business Location from the Pearson Edexcel GCSE Business specification (Component 1: Investigating Small Business). It explores how location choices affect business success and aligns with key curriculum goals, including business decision-making and market understanding. Location isn’t just a tick-box concept; it’s one of the earliest real-world decisions a business makes and a chance for students to think practically, critically, and commercially.

Key Concepts

According to the Edexcel specification, learners must understand the following:

• The factors influencing business location, including:

  • Proximity to:

    • Market

    • Labour

    • Materials

    • Competitors

  • Nature of the business activity

  • The impact of the internet on location decisions, including e-commerce and fixed premises

• The idea that not all businesses require a physical shop front

• Trade-offs and interdependencies between factors (e.g. cheaper rent vs footfall)

This topic is a springboard for exploring how different business models (retail, manufacturing, online services) require different spatial strategies.

Real-World Relevance

Choosing the right location can make or break a business. Consider:

• Greggs’ expansion strategy, often favouring high-street and transport hub locations with heavy footfall, suited to grab-and-go convenience.

• ASOS and Gymshark, which grew as digital-first brands, showing that location can be more about server infrastructure and warehousing than storefronts.

• The impact of business rates, regeneration zones, and local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) in drawing startups to places like Birmingham, Manchester, or Sheffield.

• Post-pandemic changes, with some firms ditching high rents in city centres for remote-first setups or smaller regional hubs.

These examples offer rich discussion around how location strategy flexes in response to customer needs, tech, and cost control.

How It’s Assessed

Location decisions are typically assessed through:

• Multiple-choice questions testing understanding of location factors.

• Short-answer questions applying knowledge to given scenarios (e.g. “Give one reason why a café might locate near a university.”).

• Data response or case study questions where students justify a location decision based on a mix of data (footfall, costs, demographics).

• Extended writing questions (6–9 marks) requiring reasoned judgement: “Justify the most suitable location for a new bike repair business.”

Command words include explain, analyse, and justify, so students must move beyond naming factors to applying them in context and weighing trade-offs.

Enterprise Skills Integration

This topic embeds key enterprise skills, particularly:

• Decision-making: Students weigh up competing factors and justify location choices with limited information.

• Problem-solving: Given a scenario (e.g. a bakery with low footfall), they explore possible moves or adaptations.

• Commercial awareness: Students link location decisions to customer access, costs, and long-term viability.

• Adaptability: Exploring how online businesses operate with different spatial needs builds flexibility in thinking.

Suggested activity: Use our MarketScope AI tool to analyse location data and trends. Students can explore what types of businesses succeed in different localities or even test their business ideas virtually.

Careers Links

This topic links directly with:

• Retail managers, property agents, urban planners, and logistics coordinators who consider location daily.

• Roles in site selection, commercial property, and location analytics.

• Gatsby Benchmark 4 (linking curriculum learning to careers): students learn how geography, transport, and infrastructure intersect with business strategy.

• Gatsby Benchmark 5: Invite a local business owner or franchisee to discuss how they chose their location and what challenges they faced.

Use this topic to broaden students’ awareness of non-university routes such as apprenticeships in property services, supply chain, and retail leadership.

Teaching Notes

Common pitfalls:

• Students often oversimplify location to “cheap rent” or “near people” without linking back to type of business.

• Many assume all businesses need a shopfront – use online businesses as counterexamples.

Suggested strategies:

• Compare two business models side by side (e.g. a café vs an e-commerce brand).

• Use local maps or Google Street View for real-world location analysis tasks.

• Encourage use of structured decision-making frameworks (e.g. pros and cons table, decision matrix).

Stretch and challenge:

• Have students research a brownfield redevelopment project or a LEP initiative and assess its potential for a new business.

• Extension activity: explore how remote working and hybrid models are changing the meaning of “business location”.