Retail foot traffic is one of the key factors to measure success for a retail store. Getting more people to visit your physical store ultimately means more sales and personal connections with prospects.
With today’s e-commerce convenience, it’s getting harder by the day to attract customers to the stores. Factors such as demographic characteristics, competitive analysis, and location data play a huge role in the number of customer visits. As a result, you’ll need more than a gut feeling to increase traffic. You’ll need retail foot traffic data.
In this guide, we’ll help you understand what retail foot traffic is and how to measure and increase it for optimal results. Let’s get to it!
What is retail foot traffic?
Foot traffic in retail refers to the number of customers who enter your store. As a general rule of thumb, the higher the foot traffic in retail, the more the sales and revenue. You can either use counters or digital means such as cameras or customer tracking software to measure foot traffic.
Monitoring retail foot traffic is essential to determine decisions you’ll need to take for your store. For example, you can schedule your staff based on busy days with high foot traffic and sales. In addition, you can get insights into how your marketing campaigns impact foot traffic and what external factors determine customer visits, such as seasonality and weather.
The more influential factors you can track for retail foot traffic, the more you’ll be able to spot repeated patterns in customer behavior and make the most out of your staff and marketing efforts. Most importantly, you’ll be able to measure how many prospects convert after visiting your store and therefore truck the efficiency of your sales staff.
What factors determine foot traffic in retail?
Different external factors determine retail foot traffic. Here are the most important ones:
- Weather – If you live in a city with constant snow and cold, it’ll ultimately affect your retail store visits. Mother nature has a saying in retail success, and especially apparel, beauty, and footwear stores are affected.
- Location – Although with today’s rise of e-commerce, a store can be transferred wherever your phone is, the location of physical stores still matter. To choose an ideal spot for your store, you’ll need to access location demographics and competitive dynamics, as well as know your ideal customers and what solutions they are searching for. The most efficient way to do that is with location intelligence software.
- Economy – Although the economy seems like a novel concept, it’s very much real for retail foot traffic. During periods with reduced economic activities, door traffic is seriously affected, as well as the capacity of your business. Usually, the immediate strategy businesses follow is cutting down on the workforce, which eventually affects the business’s long-term growth.
- Type of business – Depending on your business type, you’ll find that customers are easier or harder to set foot in your physical stores. For example, in the case of a food chain like McDonald’s, there are thousands of stores accessible within the ratio of the neighborhood with affordable food as a fast solution.
- Seasonality – The holiday season is usually the time of the year when customers spend more than their necessities and businesses have the most profits. Before picking a location for your business and according to its type, you’ll need to take into account the location as well to determine busy days, local events, and high seasons.
- Marketing efforts – Last but not least, marketing plays a huge role in retail foot traffic analysis as it encourages users to engage with your store in real-time. For example, a newsletter campaign that shares store coupons will ultimately generate more physical visits for your store.
How to increase foot traffic in a retail store
Today businesses use a combination of physical and digital strategies to increase foot traffic. Here are some of their methods:
1. Improve store merchandising
Visual merchandising and product displays play a huge role in generating door traffic. Consider placing best-selling products at the front of your store to attract customers and use compelling displays to make the in-store experience unique.
2. Leverage online presence
Marketing tactics such as local SEO, local advertising, and local search listings can help prospects find your business when looking for solutions on the go. Additionally, don’t underestimate the power of social media in building awareness and an active community around your brand.
3. Host physical events
By holding in-store events for new product launches, demos, anniversaries, holidays, or customer loyalty, you increase awareness and retail foot traffic. Plus, you’ll get to build more personal relationships with local consumers and spread the word about your business.
4. Encourage in-store pickup
Turning online shopping into offline experiences is a stellar way of creating more sales points for your customers. Patterns such as “buy online, pickup in-store” can increase upsells and cross-sells while also generating leads.
5. Differentiate products
Opening a retail store in high-traffic popular areas will increase competition for your business. Suppose you find your store very close to other similar ones. In that case, you’ll need to differentiate your products to avoid the risk of losing customers to competitors with an already established clientele.
Increasing retail foot traffic with the right location data
Now that you understand the value of retail foot traffic statistics in increasing in-store visits, it’s time to prioritize factors such as location data. Location data will help you expand your business by uncovering the markets with the most potential.
Use location intelligence software like Dotlas to get instant insights into the biggest competitors in your category, where they are located, what their pricing is, and other data points. This will help you make optimal decisions for your business strategies. Sign up today for free!