Foot Traffic: How to Measure and Increase Store Visits

Almost every retailer is faced with the difficulty of growing foot traffic. And, in today’s highly competitive world, where consumers have a plethora of options, it’s more crucial than ever to find new strategies to attract customers.

What’s the good news? There are plenty of ways to increase foot traffic at your organization.

Why track foot traffic?

Foot traffic tracking provides you with more data to help you make better decisions in your store. For example, based on total sales and foot traffic, you can predict your store’s busiest days and adjust your staff schedule accordingly. You can also learn more about how external elements (such as seasonality or weather) and your most recent marketing activations and promotions affect foot traffic.

Most importantly, you can compare foot traffic to the total number of orders processed to evaluate if your employees are converting prospects into revenues.

The more data you have, the better positioned you are to discover patterns, analyze your store’s performance, and plan labor and marketing more cost-effectively.

What method do you use to track foot traffic?

People counts are the simplest way to measure this, but more complex techniques such as mobile tracking devices, thermal sensors, and video surveillance are also available. These systems can track customer behavior, dwell time, and other metrics in addition to counting the number of people in your store.

How do you increase foot traffic to your retail store?

• Keep your storefront in great shape.

A freshly painted storefront can dramatically improve your curb appeal. Stay on top of these maintenance activities since no one wants to walk into a store with dirty windows or flaking paint.

Certain duties, like sweeping your storefront and cleaning your windows, should be completed daily, but others should be completed every few months or years. For example, a good paint job can last for years.

• Include “extras” at the curb

Outside your store, have additional items to go beyond normal window displays. You could, for example, place a sandwich board with a humorous greeting on it. Why not put up a banner announcing something special happening inside your store?

• Make sure your employees appear busy.

If you have a huge window that customers can look into, how associates act in the store could influence their decision to enter. Bored-looking salespeople, for example, can put off potential customers who are considering shopping at your store.

Prevent this by ensuring that your store personnel is aware of their appearance and behaviour even when there are no customers present. Make sure they appear busy and friendly at all times so that passers-by are encouraged to enter.

• Invest in employee training.

When it comes to employees, you can have the prettiest shop, the newest gimmicks, and the most intriguing discounts, but if your employees provide bad customer service, you’ll struggle to attract customers. This is why it is important that you invest in employee training.