Foot Traffic
Jan 23, 2022
Before a business even decides to set up shop in an area, the company's research team will study the foot
traffic in the area during different times of the day and the week. Companies that are chain stores or
franchises study traffic patterns in an area as well as median income, crime rates, and local foot traffic. If it's
a larger business and is interested in the area, it might contract out the work. Consultants are often used to
conduct surveys and analyze foot traffic patterns at different times of the year.
Street-level retail establishments, naturally, depend heavily on foot traffic, but businesses on a second or
third floor of a building also need foot traffic to get noticed. On the street level might be a retail store, such
as a coffee shop. However, on the upper floors might be professional service stores, such as law firms,
financial advisers, and accountants.
Welcome message from author
Foot traffic—or customer traffic—is an important metric because higher foot traffic tends to lead to
higher sales and revenue numbers. However, foot traffic alone is not enough to generate new sales.
Companies must offer a desirable product or service and follow through with delivering a positive
experience to the customer.
Transcript
Overview
Before a business even decides to set up shop in an area, the company's research team will study the foot
traffic in the area during different times of the day and the week. Companies that are chain stores or
franchises study traffic patterns in an area as well as median income, crime rates, and local foot traffic. If it's
a larger business and is interested in the area, it might contract out the work. Consultants are often used to
conduct surveys and analyze foot traffic patterns at different times of the year.
Street-level retail establishments, naturally, depend heavily on foot traffic, but businesses on a second or
third floor of a building also need foot traffic to get noticed. On the street level might be a retail store, such
as a coffee shop. However, on the upper floors might be professional service stores, such as law firms,
financial advisers, and accountants. The signage and marketing at the street level is a crucial element in
boosting foot traffic for the businesses located on the second and third floors.
What is foot traffic?
companies, especially retailers, depend on foot
traffic to attract customers. It's an important metric
because more pedestrians can lead to increased
sales and higher revenues for a business. It can be an
important factor when considering whether a
business can succeed in a specific geographic area.
What are the benefits of measuring
foot traffic?
provide valuable observations about customers,
such as how much time they typically spend in a
store or what times of day they're most likely to
visit. Understanding customer patterns and
behavior can help professionals like salespeople
or marketers design promotions or campaigns
to attract new customers and sell products or
services.
to understand the impact of their
marketing efforts or campaigns. For
example, if foot traffic increases after
marketers use targeted online advertising,
they may consider that strategy to be
effective.
data to plan employees' schedules. This data
helps them make sure they have enough staff
scheduled to handle surges during peak hours.
• Planning inventory: Foot traffic can help
professionals manage inventory according to
customer activity. For example, if customers buy a
specific product consistently, even during non-
peak hours, the inventory manager knows to keep
it in stock at all times.
• Accounting for external factors: Measuring
foot traffic regularly can help businesses
understand how external factors, such as
nearby events or weather conditions, can affect
the number of people coming to the location.
For example, managers may decide to decrease
staffing during a snowstorm because customers
are less likely to visit.
How to measure foot traffic
1. Set a goal
determine the goal of gathering this data. For
example, you may want to know how many people
come into the store during a specific time frame or
how many walk past the business without entering.
Setting a goal for this data can help you decide how
to gather it effectively.
Some companies choose to hire consultants to
help them decide how to gather foot traffic data
and how to implement those methods. However,
it's possible to collect foot traffic data yourself. You
can install surveillance cameras at the front of the
store and watch the footage to learn how many
people are coming in each day. You could also use
outdoor sensors to track people's movements. If
you're gathering data during a short time frame, it
may be easier to track the foot traffic manually by
watching the entrance and counting people who
enter.
traffic data. It's helpful to measure foot traffic at
different times of the day and week to understand
when people are going to your store or walking in
the area. If you're using electronic equipment, such
as cameras or sensors, check them regularly to
make sure they're providing accurate information.
If you're collecting data manually, make sure to
position yourself in an area where you can track
the foot traffic clearly without obstructions.
4. Analyze the numbers
numbers. It's helpful to use a basic computer
program to create a chart or graph that visually
shows the results. You can also create a
spreadsheet that contains all the data. These
methods can help you interpret the data and
determine trends. For example, you may find that
traffic is highest during weekday evenings and
weekend afternoons. Because of this, you may
determine that most of your customers have free
time during those hours.
5. Consider other factors
factors—things outside of your control—that may
affect this metric. For example, rush-hour traffic
can limit the number of people who can reach the
store. Taking these external factors into account
can help you better understand your location's
foot traffic.
that information to help guide decisions about the
business. Foot traffic can be an important metric
for understanding customer patterns, but it's how
you use that data that can help you encourage
more customers to visit the business. For
example, if you know that traffic peaks after 5
p.m. on weekdays, you may decide to host in-
store events on Thursday evenings to attract
more people to the store.
Tips for increasing foot traffic
Keep your storefront well-maintained
Here are some quick ways you can boost the appeal of your store and get people through your front
door:
• Invest in signage: Signage is often the first thing people will see. Don’t be afraid to get creative and help
your brand stand out from the rest.
• Cleanliness: One sure-fire way to get people to leave without buying a single thing is any sign of dirt.
Before you open your shop, mop your floors, dust your shelves and put any wayward products back in
their right place.
• Be attention-grabbing: Spend time curating a storefront that showcases the best your shop has to offer.
Use colour to make your display pop or intrigue people with unusual items, or funny decorations that
fit your brand.
Add curbside “extras”
You don’t need to only rely on your storefront to
stop shoppers in their tracks. You can take your
business to the next level with curbside marketing!
For example, if you own a cafe, you can put a board
on the sidewalk that has a witty message or calls
attention to a special offer.
If your shop is in an area that’s popular with
freelancers, you can use the board to advertise your
free and fast WiFi facilities.
Make sure your sales staff look busy
You can have the most beautiful eye-catching
storefront in the world, but if the energy inside
your shop is a low vibe, your potential customers
will leave.
starts with your associates.
friendly and happy. Sales staff that look bored or
unapproachable will quickly stop people from
spending their money in your shop.
Invest in employee training
The quickest way to kill the growth of any business is bad customer service.
You don’t want to invest time and money in figuring out how to get foot traffic to your store and then
losing the business because your staff have zero customer skills.
According to a study by American Express, 33% of Americans say that poor customer service will make
them switch brands immediately.
To avoid this, business owners need to invest in their employees. If you don’t have the budget to bring in a
professional customer service expert, you can start small.
Here are some things you can start doing right now:
• Ban cellphones on the shop floor
• Show appreciation by saying “Thank you for shopping with us”
• Always treat the customer with respect and politeness
• Don’t let your bad mood impact the service you’re providing
Build your online presence
ever. When someone types in “pet store near me”,
you need to make sure that your business pops up in
Google’s Places box.
It’s an easy way to increase foot traffic to your
storefront and your website with zero marketing
budget.
effective way to make sure people can easily find you
(and become a customer).
and-collect
Kick it up a notch by offering in-store collections of
purchases.
It’s an excellent way to get people into your store,
and hopefully, pick up a thing or two while grabbing
their previous purchase.
selected in-store pick-up, and of those consumers,
45% bought something else in store.
Get listed online to increase foot traffic
If you’re relying on people to find you the ol’
fashioned way (the Yellow Pages, or people
accidentally turning down the wrong road), you’re
playing a game of dodge ball with your potential
income.
If you do one thing today for your business, get
your online listings up as soon as possible! Make
sure you have all the important details (business
hours, address, contact details) and add a few
photos that sell your business.
Explore social media opportunities
If you’ve got a marketing budget, it’s time to dip
your toes into running social media ads.
One of the best platforms is Facebook. You can set
up a campaign to boost your FB page, drive click-
throughs to your website or incentivise store
traffic with a Facebook Offer.
These offers can be a discount code or a freebie
that people can claim in-store.
Use email marketing
counts and getting the elusive 10K on Instagram,
smart business owners know that the real power
lies in email marketing.
One day, we could all wake up to the news that
Instagram is shutting down. When that happens,
you’ll instantly lose access to that community
you’ve spent hours building.
The best way to avoid such a catastrophe is to
build your email list consistently. You’ll always have
access to those people and if someone has signed
up for your newsletter, you know they are a raving
fan.
Repeat business is how you boost sales with little
effort. Once you’re on a customer’s radar, you
want them to keep coming back – preferably with
their friends and family in tow.
Just increasing your customer retention rates by
5% can lead to a 25% increase in profit!
Offer in-store services
If you sell a product that requires maintenance, you can use that as a service to attract people to your
store.
Here are some ideas to increase sales in retail stores:
• If you run a camera store, you can offer a free in-store sensor cleaning to customers. While they are
waiting around for their device, the customer can browse around and see if there’s anything else
they need.
• If you notice something wrong with the camera, you can offer to repair it.
Both scenarios show you how to increase foot traffic and boost your bottom line.
Employ experts to help your customers
Depending on the type of store you own, you can
use experts to help educate your customers on
your products.
beautiful, but the make-up artists have equipped
them with knowledge and the best products for
their skin type.
Host classes your customers will love
Don’t be afraid to use your store as a space to hold classes.
No matter what type of products your selling, there are tons of creative classes you can offer to get
people off their couches and into your store.
Here are some ways on how to get customers in the door:
• A cosmetics shop can hold a make-up masterclass by a popular beauty influencer to increase store
traffic.
• A health and fitness store can advertise a free pilates class where customers can try the latest
resistance bands.
• A music store can hold a class teaching kids how to play the guitar.
Work with influencers and brand
ambassadors
Influencer marketing is incredibly powerful when
it’s done correctly. It gets your brand in front of
your ideal customer, and you have someone the
audience trusts promoting your products.
Not sure how to get customers in the door with
influencers?
can create an affiliate/referral program.
Hold in-store events
customers a one-of-a-kind in-store experience!
Do you own a book store? Great! Invite your
customers to attend a special reading by a famous
author.
Or you can create a weekly book club event. It’s an
easy way to encourage people to buy your products
and a way to connect people who others that share
the same hobby.
Conclusion
Foot traffic—or customer traffic—is an important metric because higher foot traffic tends to lead to
higher sales and revenue numbers. However, foot traffic alone is not enough to generate new sales.
Companies must offer a desirable product or service and follow through with delivering a positive
experience to the customer.
Before a business even decides to set up shop in an area, the company's research team will study the foot
traffic in the area during different times of the day and the week. Companies that are chain stores or
franchises study traffic patterns in an area as well as median income, crime rates, and local foot traffic. If it's
a larger business and is interested in the area, it might contract out the work. Consultants are often used to
conduct surveys and analyze foot traffic patterns at different times of the year.
Street-level retail establishments, naturally, depend heavily on foot traffic, but businesses on a second or
third floor of a building also need foot traffic to get noticed. On the street level might be a retail store, such
as a coffee shop. However, on the upper floors might be professional service stores, such as law firms,
financial advisers, and accountants. The signage and marketing at the street level is a crucial element in
boosting foot traffic for the businesses located on the second and third floors.
What is foot traffic?
companies, especially retailers, depend on foot
traffic to attract customers. It's an important metric
because more pedestrians can lead to increased
sales and higher revenues for a business. It can be an
important factor when considering whether a
business can succeed in a specific geographic area.
What are the benefits of measuring
foot traffic?
provide valuable observations about customers,
such as how much time they typically spend in a
store or what times of day they're most likely to
visit. Understanding customer patterns and
behavior can help professionals like salespeople
or marketers design promotions or campaigns
to attract new customers and sell products or
services.
to understand the impact of their
marketing efforts or campaigns. For
example, if foot traffic increases after
marketers use targeted online advertising,
they may consider that strategy to be
effective.
data to plan employees' schedules. This data
helps them make sure they have enough staff
scheduled to handle surges during peak hours.
• Planning inventory: Foot traffic can help
professionals manage inventory according to
customer activity. For example, if customers buy a
specific product consistently, even during non-
peak hours, the inventory manager knows to keep
it in stock at all times.
• Accounting for external factors: Measuring
foot traffic regularly can help businesses
understand how external factors, such as
nearby events or weather conditions, can affect
the number of people coming to the location.
For example, managers may decide to decrease
staffing during a snowstorm because customers
are less likely to visit.
How to measure foot traffic
1. Set a goal
determine the goal of gathering this data. For
example, you may want to know how many people
come into the store during a specific time frame or
how many walk past the business without entering.
Setting a goal for this data can help you decide how
to gather it effectively.
Some companies choose to hire consultants to
help them decide how to gather foot traffic data
and how to implement those methods. However,
it's possible to collect foot traffic data yourself. You
can install surveillance cameras at the front of the
store and watch the footage to learn how many
people are coming in each day. You could also use
outdoor sensors to track people's movements. If
you're gathering data during a short time frame, it
may be easier to track the foot traffic manually by
watching the entrance and counting people who
enter.
traffic data. It's helpful to measure foot traffic at
different times of the day and week to understand
when people are going to your store or walking in
the area. If you're using electronic equipment, such
as cameras or sensors, check them regularly to
make sure they're providing accurate information.
If you're collecting data manually, make sure to
position yourself in an area where you can track
the foot traffic clearly without obstructions.
4. Analyze the numbers
numbers. It's helpful to use a basic computer
program to create a chart or graph that visually
shows the results. You can also create a
spreadsheet that contains all the data. These
methods can help you interpret the data and
determine trends. For example, you may find that
traffic is highest during weekday evenings and
weekend afternoons. Because of this, you may
determine that most of your customers have free
time during those hours.
5. Consider other factors
factors—things outside of your control—that may
affect this metric. For example, rush-hour traffic
can limit the number of people who can reach the
store. Taking these external factors into account
can help you better understand your location's
foot traffic.
that information to help guide decisions about the
business. Foot traffic can be an important metric
for understanding customer patterns, but it's how
you use that data that can help you encourage
more customers to visit the business. For
example, if you know that traffic peaks after 5
p.m. on weekdays, you may decide to host in-
store events on Thursday evenings to attract
more people to the store.
Tips for increasing foot traffic
Keep your storefront well-maintained
Here are some quick ways you can boost the appeal of your store and get people through your front
door:
• Invest in signage: Signage is often the first thing people will see. Don’t be afraid to get creative and help
your brand stand out from the rest.
• Cleanliness: One sure-fire way to get people to leave without buying a single thing is any sign of dirt.
Before you open your shop, mop your floors, dust your shelves and put any wayward products back in
their right place.
• Be attention-grabbing: Spend time curating a storefront that showcases the best your shop has to offer.
Use colour to make your display pop or intrigue people with unusual items, or funny decorations that
fit your brand.
Add curbside “extras”
You don’t need to only rely on your storefront to
stop shoppers in their tracks. You can take your
business to the next level with curbside marketing!
For example, if you own a cafe, you can put a board
on the sidewalk that has a witty message or calls
attention to a special offer.
If your shop is in an area that’s popular with
freelancers, you can use the board to advertise your
free and fast WiFi facilities.
Make sure your sales staff look busy
You can have the most beautiful eye-catching
storefront in the world, but if the energy inside
your shop is a low vibe, your potential customers
will leave.
starts with your associates.
friendly and happy. Sales staff that look bored or
unapproachable will quickly stop people from
spending their money in your shop.
Invest in employee training
The quickest way to kill the growth of any business is bad customer service.
You don’t want to invest time and money in figuring out how to get foot traffic to your store and then
losing the business because your staff have zero customer skills.
According to a study by American Express, 33% of Americans say that poor customer service will make
them switch brands immediately.
To avoid this, business owners need to invest in their employees. If you don’t have the budget to bring in a
professional customer service expert, you can start small.
Here are some things you can start doing right now:
• Ban cellphones on the shop floor
• Show appreciation by saying “Thank you for shopping with us”
• Always treat the customer with respect and politeness
• Don’t let your bad mood impact the service you’re providing
Build your online presence
ever. When someone types in “pet store near me”,
you need to make sure that your business pops up in
Google’s Places box.
It’s an easy way to increase foot traffic to your
storefront and your website with zero marketing
budget.
effective way to make sure people can easily find you
(and become a customer).
and-collect
Kick it up a notch by offering in-store collections of
purchases.
It’s an excellent way to get people into your store,
and hopefully, pick up a thing or two while grabbing
their previous purchase.
selected in-store pick-up, and of those consumers,
45% bought something else in store.
Get listed online to increase foot traffic
If you’re relying on people to find you the ol’
fashioned way (the Yellow Pages, or people
accidentally turning down the wrong road), you’re
playing a game of dodge ball with your potential
income.
If you do one thing today for your business, get
your online listings up as soon as possible! Make
sure you have all the important details (business
hours, address, contact details) and add a few
photos that sell your business.
Explore social media opportunities
If you’ve got a marketing budget, it’s time to dip
your toes into running social media ads.
One of the best platforms is Facebook. You can set
up a campaign to boost your FB page, drive click-
throughs to your website or incentivise store
traffic with a Facebook Offer.
These offers can be a discount code or a freebie
that people can claim in-store.
Use email marketing
counts and getting the elusive 10K on Instagram,
smart business owners know that the real power
lies in email marketing.
One day, we could all wake up to the news that
Instagram is shutting down. When that happens,
you’ll instantly lose access to that community
you’ve spent hours building.
The best way to avoid such a catastrophe is to
build your email list consistently. You’ll always have
access to those people and if someone has signed
up for your newsletter, you know they are a raving
fan.
Repeat business is how you boost sales with little
effort. Once you’re on a customer’s radar, you
want them to keep coming back – preferably with
their friends and family in tow.
Just increasing your customer retention rates by
5% can lead to a 25% increase in profit!
Offer in-store services
If you sell a product that requires maintenance, you can use that as a service to attract people to your
store.
Here are some ideas to increase sales in retail stores:
• If you run a camera store, you can offer a free in-store sensor cleaning to customers. While they are
waiting around for their device, the customer can browse around and see if there’s anything else
they need.
• If you notice something wrong with the camera, you can offer to repair it.
Both scenarios show you how to increase foot traffic and boost your bottom line.
Employ experts to help your customers
Depending on the type of store you own, you can
use experts to help educate your customers on
your products.
beautiful, but the make-up artists have equipped
them with knowledge and the best products for
their skin type.
Host classes your customers will love
Don’t be afraid to use your store as a space to hold classes.
No matter what type of products your selling, there are tons of creative classes you can offer to get
people off their couches and into your store.
Here are some ways on how to get customers in the door:
• A cosmetics shop can hold a make-up masterclass by a popular beauty influencer to increase store
traffic.
• A health and fitness store can advertise a free pilates class where customers can try the latest
resistance bands.
• A music store can hold a class teaching kids how to play the guitar.
Work with influencers and brand
ambassadors
Influencer marketing is incredibly powerful when
it’s done correctly. It gets your brand in front of
your ideal customer, and you have someone the
audience trusts promoting your products.
Not sure how to get customers in the door with
influencers?
can create an affiliate/referral program.
Hold in-store events
customers a one-of-a-kind in-store experience!
Do you own a book store? Great! Invite your
customers to attend a special reading by a famous
author.
Or you can create a weekly book club event. It’s an
easy way to encourage people to buy your products
and a way to connect people who others that share
the same hobby.
Conclusion
Foot traffic—or customer traffic—is an important metric because higher foot traffic tends to lead to
higher sales and revenue numbers. However, foot traffic alone is not enough to generate new sales.
Companies must offer a desirable product or service and follow through with delivering a positive
experience to the customer.
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