Why You Should Take Advantage of Retail Traffic Counting?

The importance of people counting in retail and grocery is indisputable today. For years people have been saying that the brick-and-mortar retail industry was soon to be nonexistent. It is now 2021 and that could not be further from the truth. Thanks to improvements in technology, retail stores have been able to increase profits and boost customer satisfaction. One such method used to improve the industry is the application of people counting technology.

Every retailer who owns a brick-and-mortar store knows very well that increasing in-store traffic is the first and most important step in increasing sales. Retail traffic counting indicates shopper behavior in relation to retail dwell time and busy periods. With this information, you can make the necessary adjustments to convert traffic into sales. Here are some reasons and advantages why you should leverage retail traffic counting.

What is a People Counter?

A people counter is an electronic device that measures the number of people that traverse a particular passage or entrance. The device itself can be a number of things, including infrared sensors, manual clickers, or thermal imaging systems. In recent years, businesses have been utilizing video and counting systems. People counting systems use a camera and complex software to count the number of people entering the store.

How Does People Counter Help?

Using the data collected by a people counting device, a store manager can determine the number of things. People counters are counting the number of people that walk by the store and another counting the number that walks in the store can tell the manager whether or not their store is attracting enough people from the outside. A low ratio may convince the manager to improve their store’s outside aesthetics, for example.

Advertisements paired with people counters can be powerful analytic tools. A store manager can compare the average number of people entering their store before and after a particular ad campaign to determine the effectiveness of that advertisement.

A people counter can determine which times of a day are the busiest, allowing a manager to adjust employee lunch breaks. Adjusted employee lunch breaks will lead to more employees on the floor helping customers during their busiest hours, leading to improved customer satisfaction.

These are just a few examples of how people counting technology can help boost a brick-and-mortar retail store. Advances in technology will continue to keep these businesses compete with online retailers.

Importance of People Counting in Retail and Grocery

Align Staffing with Traffic Patterns

Counting traffic is a sure way of understanding when your store receives the highest number of customers, and accordingly when you need to increase the number of workers to serve the customers more efficiently. Identifying the power hours and slow hours can ensure that you distribute your employees proportionately within the time you are open for business. In any case, you can only increase your average transaction size (ATS) if customers are served more swiftly.

Acquire Valuable Visitor Analytics

Placing traffic counting devices strategically in your store can allow you to collect vital information about your customers. This data can be interpreted to give a more informed idea about how the store is performing as well as the specific areas that need improvement. For instance, if your store receives more customers in the evening than it does in the morning, you can choose to open after 10 AM but close late, say 11 PM. As such, you can take advantage of the evening rush.

Improve In-Store

Making frequent adjustments is imperative if you want to increase sales in your store. With traffic counting technology, you can make improvements in areas such as product restocking, staffing, and customer service. One advantage of a brick-and-mortar store is you can study your customers to understand what they buy most and when they like to shop. With this information, you can make sure that everything is running smoothly during the traffic hours to minimize lost sales opportunities.

It is every retailer’s dream to increase traffic and boost sales in their stores. At Link Retail, we specialize in providing the right information to help you make sound decisions that can help in understanding, evaluating, and optimizing the opportunities you have to make your business grow.

Contact us to learn how we can help you become successful!