Whenever a person decides to launch a new business, the business owner will be told that a good location is everything and will play a huge role in the business success and there are numerous factors to consider. In order to make that decision, the owner must take into consideration elements such as foot traffic, walkability, neighbourhood demographics, and community data.

Foot traffic is one of the most valuable and essential resources available to business owners, but accurate measurements are vital to the success of any retail industry, the more customers who come into your store, the more sales you can expect. Furthermore, meeting customers in person provides a unique opportunity to establish rapport and earn their loyalty.

The first step in increasing foot traffic is by measuring it. By counting and tracking foot traffic over time you can predict the success of your business marketing activities in influencing visitors. Increasing customer traffic is a constant challenge that you can easily keep up with by harnessing accurate customers and retail analytics.

What Is Foot Traffic?

Foot traffic is the number of people who walk into or around a specific area at a given time. It is a metric that retailers use to assess or measure their business KPIs.  

Before opening a shop or establishing a store, research groups assess the area’s foot traffic, using people counting methods to determine whether the location is promising or not. With the gathered Customer analytics data, they also measure foot traffic during peak hours to determine when the most foot traffic occurs during the day or week. This helps predict whether shoppers will be able to buy specific items and how much foot traffic affects sales.

Why is it important to measure retail stores foot traffic? 

When managing your store, foot traffic offers useful insights that help you make well-informed, rational decisions. For instance, you can structure better staff schedules based on sales and foot traffic statistics given the collected data that help determine your store’s busiest times and days. Additionally, you can learn more about how variables such as the weather and marketing campaigns influence foot traffic over time.

You can also calculate your retail store conversion rate by comparing foot traffic to total sales to see if your staff is converting opportunities into sales. The collected footfall data can be used to make critical business decisions, like when to change staffing levels, when to adjust opening hours, what products should be featured in the store, and how to orchestrate the next marketing campaign.

Analysing Foot Traffic Inside Your Retail Store

Measuring the foot traffic inside your retail physical store provides you with valuable customer analytics data that will refine the decision-making process, where you can understand your customer’s behaviour and take advantage of it.

Foot traffic in your store can be automatically detected and measured in real-time using people counters and footfall counting tools. Instead of having employees stand at the door and manually count incoming guests, setting up automated people counting hardware and software for the counting process has the advantage of collecting accurate statistics and conversion rates and frees up your team for more customer-centric responsibilities.

With automated people counting technologies, such as video cameras, heat sensors, and door sensors, you can obtain real-time customer analytics gathered around the clock inside your store. Based on that, you will, subsequently, be able to generate error retail analytics that will guide you to better data-driven business decisions.

The better people counting system you install, the better results you will have to perfect marketing and sales strategy for developing your retail business and succeeding in any environment. The collected customer analytics data of people counting and footfall counting can explain customer patterns and behaviours and how well your business is doing, as well as what needs to be improved.

How to increase foot traffic?

There are plenty of strategies to attract visitors to your establishment on foot. For example, creating eye-catching window displays or hosting in-store activities. Use retail analytics to understand your location, market, and audience to identify what works for you. With accurate retail analytics and customer analytics, you can create campaigns and initiatives to draw more people to your establishment:

  • Utilising people counting technology

Utilising the latest emerging technology for your business’s benefits is yet another point to remember. Remember that the internet and mobile devices are your friends. Employ the right strategies and you can increase foot traffic into the stores. Also, using resources like Google My Business, SMS marketing, and digital ads, which have been shown to be successful in generating foot traffic.

  • Hosting in-store events

An effective way to increase footfall in the short term is through special events. Hold in-store events to introduce new products or demos, as well as celebrate anniversaries, holidays, or customer loyalty to bring customers in for a day.

It can also increase engagement with your customers and improve loyalty rates, as it gives you the chance to interact with them face to face in a social setting. Through hosting events, people counting systems will have more data to be compared and analysed to measure customer trends and journey. 

  • Improve store design and layout.

The layout and design of your retail space, including how you arrange fixtures, product displays, and inventory, play a significant role in the amount of foot traffic you receive. Grid, free-flow, and loop layouts are just a handful of the many diverse retail shop layouts to take into account. Additionally, making the most of floor space to enhance customer flow can be accomplished by creating a retail merchandising strategy in unison with your plans for the layout of your business.

Additionally, it will aid in the planning of new product drops as well as the implementation of cross-merchandising tactics to boost cross-selling and upselling opportunities. It can ultimately result in better sales when performed correctly. The bottom line is people counting and footfall counting systems are important sources for both customer analytics and retail analytics, which are crucial for improving your retail business.

These systems can now track a lot of individuals with little chance of error thanks to digital tracking. It’s crucial to keep in mind that the changes in the numbers over time are more important than the numbers themselves. One can enhance their investment by carefully monitoring the footfall counting and the Foot traffic in the business location and making informed decisions about its layout, location, marketing, and customer service.