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The Benefits of Foot Traffic Tracking & How to Choose The Right Solution

Learn how people counters provide insights to boost foot traffic, enhance customer engagement, and optimize your retail space....
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How do I persuade more people to visit my store or commercial space? This is a question many store owners ask themselves. The best way to grow foot traffic is to start by monitoring it by using a people counting system.

 

People counters produce valuable data that can help businesses make critical decisions especially when it comes to improving customer engagement and optimizing the use of retail store space.

 

For this reason, retail traffic counters are quickly emerging as an important tool used by private businesses and public institutions to get strategic and operational insights that help in streamlining their operations. 

How can a traffic counter for retail help my business?

Using a people counter is an effective way of gauging how customers behave towards a certain product or service. Unlike in a poll where people say what they feel about something, foot traffic data focuses on their actions and is a good way of identifying customer buying patterns.

 

Deploying a retail people counter can help your business in the following ways:

  • Understanding customer behavior in your store – when you track foot traffic you get a clearer picture of who your customers are and their buying preferences. 
  • Optimizing sales strategies – foot traffic data helps you pinpoint your retail store’s peak shopping hours or days, helping you plan and roll out special promotions on such occasions.
  • Gauging marketing performance – if you are running a promotion for an upcoming event, tracking foot traffic on the material day can help you know if your marketing methods were successful.
  • Enhancing your product offering and store layout – retail traffic counters provide useful insights on customer movement within your store, helping you improve your store layout while optimizing space usage.
  • Optimizing staff levels- people counting provides an effective way of ensuring you have adequate personnel on the shop floor during peak hours, helping keep running costs down.

How does traffic counting work?

Footfall numbers can be determined manually using counters, or electronically through cameras and specialized software. Although cheaper, manual counters can be time consuming, while more digitally advanced methods involve higher roll out costs. To obtain the best results, people counting methods should combine digital and manual approaches. 

Below are some of the methods used to measure foot traffic:

  • Video cameras – CCTV cameras are usually strategically positioned in locations such as the retail store’s main entrance or other important areas. At the simplest level, CCTV can be used to count how many customers visited the store on a certain date.  
  • Manual foot traffic counting – Manual counting involve positioning an employee at the store entrance or other strategic location to count each visitor that walks in. Although they are low cost, the data they generate can be compromised by human error. 
  • Opt-in location tracking app – this method requires visitors to first download your app in order to get information about their movement within the store.
  • Geofencing – a geofence is a virtual boundary that is created using GPS. When a smartphone or other GPS-enabled device crosses this boundary, this is recorded as a visit to your location. 
  • Beacons – these are hardware sensors positioned in various parts of a retail store or other site. They use Bluetooth technology to track visitor traffic.

Others methods that can be deployed for people counting include Wi-Fi foot traffic counters, Foot sensor pressure mats, and Infrared sensors.

How to choose the right people counter?

In order to gain maximum benefits from foot traffic data, businesses must carefully consider the best people counting solution to deploy for their organization. Below are some important considerations to keep in mind when choosing a people counting system.

 
  1. How accurate is the system?

A reliable foot traffic counter for retail should be highly accurate whether counting individuals or groups, irrespective of issues like lighting, traffic speed or how wide the entrance is.

  1. How scalable is the system?

The amount of footfall traffic changes as your organization grows. It is therefore imperative to select a foot traffic monitoring system that can scale seamlessly without generating errors in the face of increased data volume. 

  1. How suitable is the Technology for my business circumstances?

As previously indicated, various foot traffic counters use different technologies such as Wi-Fi tracking, infrared sensors, heat mapping and more to accomplish their objective. Each technology has its positives and negatives. By having an in-depth understanding of the system, a business can make an informed judgement on its suitability, while factoring any hurdles it might face.

  1. How friendly is the user interface?

A user-friendly interface that simplifies data access and analysis can positively impact the usability of the foot traffic counting system. Some systems can create alerts and build useful reports that help in speeding up management decisions.

  1. Can one get real-time data?

A good foot traffic tracker should be able to deliver data in real time. Real-time data regarding footfall traffic allows you to make crucial decisions on staffing levels, or sales strategies within a short time span.

  1. Can the system integrate with other technology?

When procuring a new people counting system be sure to ask how well it integrates with the current software in your organization such as your point-of-sale or CRM system. This will ensure you have a seamless data ecosystem that maximizes the value you get from the retail traffic counter system.

  1. Is customer support provided?

A respectable people counting system provider should always be on hand to troubleshoot any technical setbacks that may arise, or answer customer questions and concerns.

  1. Is data privacy guaranteed?

Consumers are growing more and more aware of their data privacy rights. When collecting, storing, and using sensitive customer data the system should comply with privacy laws by providing anonymized data that doesn’t carry any personal identifiers. 

To learn more about people counting hardware and software, and how people counting data applies to your type of business or institution, you can book a pressure-free demo with one of our experts. 
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