The Top 10 Reasons to Use People Counters to Measure Foot Traffic

There is a wide range of businesses and organizations including retailers, libraries, casinos and museums that can benefit by using people counters to measure foot traffic at their locations. Analyzing the data provided by strategically placed people counters is a good business decision that will improve your daily operations over time. Knowing your traffic counts not only saves money, but also helps with management planning for various areas of your business.

As a manager or marketer, you may not have considered all the benefits people counting technology can offer. Here are the top 10 ways using people counters to measure foot traffic can optimize and streamline your operations:

1. Budgeting
   Knowing the number of people who access your facility can help you plan your yearly budgets more effectively. Purchases of supplies for office management, marketing material, inventory and cleaning can be better managed once you know the facility usage data provided by your people counter system.
2. Staffing
   When you place people counters in specific areas of your facility, you can identify high and low foot traffic trends and better schedule staff by having the right number of people on hand to provide service where customers tend to dwell.  In addition, labor costs can be reduced when you know how to strategically schedule your staff to meet traffic flows.
3. Inventory
   People counters are a great way to take away the guesswork out of reordering inventory and supplies. The foot traffic data can give you a better idea of when customers enter your facility and the areas they tend to frequent. Knowing this information helps you save money by only restocking supplies that are most popular and in high demand by the consumer.
4. Security
   People counter technology can be used to help identify high-risk areas of your facility where inventory shrinkage or criminal activity is a concern. This information can assist in improved security staff placement at your facility and save money through decreased shrinkage and loss.
5. Floor Plan Optimization
   By placing people counters in various sections of your facility, you can gauge foot traffic data to help determine an optimal layout, which better meets the needs of your customers and increases revenue from increased sales.
6. Display Placement
   People counters can show where most customer foot traffic takes place, and also areas that are not visited frequently in your facility.  The data obtained can help you decide which locations are best suited for your displays that will get the most attention and customer traffic.
7. Measure Event/Promotion Success
   Foot traffic data can help answer questions of why a campaign was or wasn’t successful. Traffic information relating to time of day or month, location within the store, variables in inclement weather all can help you plan more successful promotions in the future.
8. Funding Requests
   If your business success depends on funding from outside sources, having solid traffic data collected from your people counters will help increase your chances of success by showing decision makers proof of performance. Your demonstration of smart planning and positive results will help your future funding needs down the road.
9. Programming Decisions
   People counting technology is crucial in determining return on investment (ROI) for programs, events and exhibits and promotional campaigns. This data can also help you plan for the future and adjust investment budgeting accordingly to reduce overspending and revenue loss.
10. Facility Maintenance
    Foot traffic monitoring can help managers and construction contractors schedule any major maintenance activities during less active traffic periods. This can save your business from lost sales due to the customers’ inability to access your business because of maintenance.