What is Footfall in Retail?

We define footfall also referred to People Counting, Shopper Counting or traffic as the measure of the amount of people who visit a store or mall.

If we can count how many customers come into your store and determining other important metrics that are essential to survive in the current retail environment like conversion rates and the ATV (Average Value Transaction). For additional definitions of the terms in the retail industry check out the Retail Analytics Dictionary.

What is the reason I should track my steps?

The calculation of footfall is an essential measure for store and upper managers looking to increase sales and increase profits. By counting footfall, stores can determine at any point of the day what shopping opportunities they are able to offer in their stores and most importantly, by combining this data with sales data – the number they’re missing.

Knowing your weekly, daily, and hourly retail footfalls gives retailers an edge in focusing on peak times and convert visitors into customers and optimize the performance of their stores.

The best way to measure footfall

The number of customers that visit your store will tell you how many purchasing opportunities you’ve had in the store on a particular day. By dividing the total sales by the number of footfalls during the same time period and determining how many customers were enticed to open their pockets and buy something: i.e. the conversion rates.

When you measure the number of customers who visit your store and determining your percentage of conversion, you will be able to concentrate on the areas that need improvement to boost store performance. Some of the data you can gain from measuring, are:

Most inefficient hours
Staff scheduling
Effect on sales volumes
The percentage of shoppers who buy
Underperforming stores
Marketing effectiveness
Real time footfall traffic

Footfall Counting

After your retail footfall is being measured and tracked, (footfall analytics) We can call in our experts who will examine your data to find patterns in customer behaviour and discover the reasons behind what’s happening and the reasons behind it. With these valuable customer behavior data:

How to increase footfall to a the store:

Know what is driving the sales of your store.
Make sure you match your staffing pattern
Use budgets better
Find out your most difficult days to convert regarding conversions
Review and identify low performing hours to increase conversion rates

Based on footfall information area Managers can:

Find out if your marketing efforts brought more customers to retailers.
Find out which stores offer the most growth potential
Determine the impact that of new training programs for service professionals on boosting conversion rates
Examine loyalty card events to determine if they do they generate more traffic? If you use them, and are they selling or enjoying the event?

By analyzing footfall, the head office may:

Have faith in the future
Learn about trends in the customer
Evaluate the true effect of a brand new concept for a store or a redesign
Use the information to facilitate discussions during lease discussions
Assess and improve the store layout’s performance
Assess the effectiveness of changes that are made to your marketing strategy
Be aware of the effects of promotions in stores
Assess the efficacy of marketing expenditure
Find out how you’re doing against your competition with our RTIs
Find your brand’s strength. Do your stores have the same patterns of footfall as your competition?