The Benefits of a People Counting Device for Your Business 

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Businesses of all sizes encounter hundreds of customers every day. People counting devices effectively keep track of anyone who enters the store. These systems collect vital information you and your staff can use to guide your decision-making, increasing revenue and enhancing your relationship with customers. But, how can a people-counting device help your business or organization? Here are just a few of the ways you can benefit. 

benefits of a people counting device infographic

4 Ways People Counting Devices Can Enhance Your Operations

People counting devices are used within offices, retail locations and large corporations worldwide. But what benefits do these innovative technologies offer their users? Let’s take a look. 

1. Driving Sales

People counting devices allow you to dive deep into how many people enter your store and whether they make a purchase. The resulting number is known as the conversion rate, providing valuable insights into what’s working for your company and what can be improved. Most stores only see a 20% conversion rate on average. 

It’s vital to understand aspects like the impact of staff interactions or the configuration of your checkout lines. As a result of using people counting devices, you can achieve a 1% increase in your conversion rate, and even this small change can help your business tremendously. 

2. Cutting Costs

Data collection for online sales is quick and cost-effective, with websites effortlessly providing visitor estimations and allowing for instantaneous analysis. Automatic counters operate similarly to online website sale trackers, with hourly and daily customer information offering 95% to 97% accuracy ratings. This hands-free solution utilizes horizontal and overhead sensors to track in-store happenings and allows you to analyze conversion rates in real-time using intuitive software. 

Manual counting may save on upfront costs, but you’ll spend more on labor expenses and risk human error in your data collection. Instead of your staff watching the door during even the slowest periods, they can focus on crucial, value-added activities to optimize your business in other areas. In the long run, people counting devices will save on labor costs, optimize your productivity and even reduce risks of theft.

3. Reducing Stress on Staff

Workplace happiness is at an all-time low, with many businesses experiencing staffing shortages nationwide. Half of all workers report their companies being understaffed, and 45% of these understaffed employees say morale is poor where they work. Consequently, employees are more likely to quit, be less productive and display a negative attitude toward fellow staff and customers. 

Technology can be used throughout a business to reduce the stress felt by the staff, which is even more valuable in understaffed organizations. While people counting devices eliminate the need for staff to participate in such a monotonous task, they also help everyone stay on the same page. These devices provide information you can use to create clear business objectives and expectations, avoiding any confusion and ensuring your team is working toward the same goal.

4. Improving Visitor Experience

As technology continues to innovate, the techniques businesses use to optimize their services and best satisfy customers’ needs will skyrocket. And the people agree — 90% of customers believe retail technology is key to improving their shopping experience. People counting devices can help businesses enhance the visitor experience by collecting useful data. 

Monitoring footpaths, analyzing busier times of day and identifying the most popular areas of your building will allow you to customize your strategy to enhance customer experience. You’ll ensure promotions are in the ideal locations and your best-performing staff are on the floor during high-traffic periods. 

Work With Traf-Sys for Your People Counting Devices

People counting devices hold a wealth of untapped potential for your business to grab onto. Our products can help you create an informed strategy and tailor the customer experience to drive sales and save money. When you use our Traf-Sys people counting systems, you can rest assured that your business will live up to its full potential! Contact our team to learn more, or request your free quote today! 

How to Increase Foot Traffic in a Mall

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The customer experience that you provide in your store is the bedrock of your success as a retailer. People counting solutions can provide valuable insights that reveal opportunities to improve customer service, optimize staffing, and boost your sales.

Customer service is one of the top factors people consider when they decide whether or not to visit your store. The RightNow Customer Experience Impact Report notes that “89% of consumers have stopped doing business with a company after experiencing poor customer service.” A second statistic, from Parature, says that “it takes 12 positive customer experiences to make up for one negative experience.”

Across America the traditional mall experience is morphing. Major U.S. mall owner’s like Simon Property Group, Westfield America, and GGP, faced with flagging mall traffic and unused space, are thinking outside of the box to attract shoppers and non-traditional tenants. The attempt to reinvigorate and revive the mall is resulting in a shopping, eating and entertainment mall model for the modern retail era.

Read the full article or skip to a specific section:

  • 5 Ways to Boost Mall Traffic
  • How to Increase Sales with People Counters
  • Understanding Shopper Counting Can Improve Customer Experience
  • Ready to start boosting your mall traffic? Request a quote for a people counting device today! 

    mall

    5 Ways to Boost Shopping Mall Foot Traffic

    If you are looking for ways to boost your mall traffic and get shoppers through your doors, here are five creative ideas that can give your mall foot traffic a renewed boost.

    Turn your mall into an entertainment hub

    You need an incentive to attract customers into your mall and to spend time there. Consumers want more than a place to eat and shop—they want experiences. To increase mall traffic, dedicate spaces and hold events that offer forms of entertainment. Turn customer apathy into excitement with a variety of venues that entice them to visit your mall and stay longer.

    Hold community events

    Your current, unused mall space has the advantage of being large enough to serve as an event venue. This opens up opportunities to invite community groups and non-profit organizations to hold events year round and increase foot traffic.

    Wi-Fi hot spots

    Create a Wi-Fi café or multiple hot spots that promote a quiet haven for the growing work-from-home workforce or constantly connected mall visitor. You could offer snacks and drink choices that can be purchased while they check their email or reply to messages.

    Rent space to unconventional tenants

    Mall traffic can be increased dramatically by offering empty spaces to non-traditional types of tenants that offer entertainment options rather than retail shopping. How about a laser tag, indoor skate park or trampoline venue for the kids? Fitness centers, consignment shops, and specialty shops can also increase foot traffic.

    Mixed-use malls

    If entertainment options don’t necessarily work for your property, you may want to consider a mixed-use scenario to increase mall traffic. Many mall complexes around the country have adapted their empty areas to incorporate hotels or apartments, offices or play space. Target the people using those facilities by making them aware of the convenience of shopping nearby.

    Measure mall foot traffic

    Having a people counting solution in place before initiating these traffic-boosting strategies is important to measure the effectiveness of your efforts. Strategically place people counters in entrance points, parking garages, and entrances to specific venues spaces to track where your visitors are going. Over time, the data collected will help give you an idea of successful mall traffic trends and also areas that need improvement.

    Keep in mind that your investment in these solutions will provide a return long-term with increased traffic and an upswing in revenues. The data you collect will help you adapt your vision of mall spaces and choose the most profitable options for your business.

    Buy Online, Pickup In-Store (BOPSIS) 

    One smart way to get shoppers through your doors is to offer customer-friendly services such as “Buy Online, Pickup In-Store” (BOPIS). This smart strategy is the best of both worlds in a sense; it gives shoppers the convenience of purchasing online and the speed of retrieving their purchases at no additional charge and more quickly than waiting for a package in the mail.

    What’s more, BOPIS is a retail customer experience that drives additional sales beyond the products your customer purchased online. A Forrester report revealed that 46 percent of shoppers are enticed to spend above and beyond the original BOPIS purchase if they receive a personalized discount or deal when retrieving their purchases in store.

    How to Increase Sales with People Counters

    how to increase sales with people counters

    One of the biggest challenges for small to medium-sized retail business (SMB) owners is attracting customers to your store. To increase sales, you need to get people in the door, keep them coming back, and inspire them to tell their friends about the great shopping experiences you provide. Tools such as a people counting solution will help you work toward these goals and determine the success of your efforts as well.

    1. Understand Your Business. Consider the things that make you stand out from your competition. Formalize your unique value proposition (UVP) into a statement you can share with your management team and employees. Examine your processes (such as hours of operation, staffing, products, and marketing) as they relate to your UVP and make an honest assessment of your strengths and the areas where you could improve. Looking at these things from your customers’ perspective will help you figure out how to improve the customer experiences you provide.
    2. Know Your Target Audience. Trying to attract “the general public” is too vague and ineffective. Create a detailed profile of your typical customer so you can craft marketing messages that will appeal to those demographics. Compile and update a database of customer information, including addresses, order histories, and loyalty rewards. This data can help you shape personalized email invitations to attract customers. Foot traffic statistics from your people counter will provide insights into peak times for typical buyers and the areas of the store that draw the most attention, to complete your customer profile.
    3. Set Yourself Apart with Outstanding Service. One thing that will always attract customers is exceptional service. People counting solutions can help you deliver great experiences. For example, with foot traffic data, you can ensure adequate staffing during the busiest times of the day, week, month, or year, to avoid lengthy checkout lines. You can also tell which parts of the store are visited most, so you can adequately staff them with associates to assist shoppers with queries or make upselling suggestions. Great service from knowledgeable and attentive employees can lead to customer loyalty.  
    4. Keep in Contact. In today’s retail environment, shoppers expect to interact with retailers in stores and online through social media, texts, and email. Make sure your customer engagement strategy includes appealing to them on all channels. Send emails and texts to thank loyal shoppers and offer coupons or information about upcoming sales or other in-store events such as new product demos. Never underestimate the power of social media. Engage with customers who reach out to you or mention you on social media.
    5. Offer Promotions. A common strategy to attract customers is to offer promotions both in stores and online. These could include not only special deals such as “buy one, get one free” but also codes that people can share with friends to earn rewards. To tell whether an in-store campaign is successful, check your people counter to see if foot traffic increases during and after the promotional period.

    Start increasing sales at your mall today with a Traf-Sys people counting device. Request a free quote! 

    Understanding Shopper Counting Can Improve Customer Experience 

    Giving your shoppers a high-quality and highly enjoyable shopping experience is the key to ensuring that they visit your business again. Shopper counting and understanding how foot traffic moves and flows through your store can help you drastically improve your customers’ experience.

    • Display Promotions: Using people counters in separate sections of your store allows you to count how many people visit each area per day and, on a larger scale, per week, per month, and per year. This data can very easily help you to identify peak times of the year, month, week, and day for each section of your store.
    • Create Timed Promotions for Peak Visitor Times: You will also be able to identify which times of the year, month, week, and day your promotions would be the most successful. With your shopper counting data in mind, plan out your promotions ahead of time. 
    • Increase Staffing During Peak Times: It’s easy to predict these peak times and schedule more efficiently when you understand shopper counting. With people counters installed, you will be able to determine the peak times during the week and day during which may need to schedule a few more staff members. 

    Get Your Retail Traffic Counter From Traf-Sys

    Retail traffic counters help keep eyes on nearly every aspect of your retail store. Gathering these analytics can help you make the changes for a better, faster and more pleasant customer experience at your business.

    Contact Traf-Sys or request a quote to inquire about our services and how we can measure your mall traffic for a brighter and more successful future.

Benefits of Tracking Customer Demographics

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If you’re a retail store owner looking to deliver a more personalized experience, attract new customers or build your company’s image, it’s important to know how to track customer demographic information to understand your customers better. In marketing, customer demographic analysis allows you to categorize different segments of your clientele according to shared characteristics. By understanding your customers’ wants and needs, you can build your branding and marketing around them.

Here’s an in-depth look at the advantages of using customer demographics analysis for your business.

Devise Personalized Marketing Campaigns

Before you start any marketing campaign, you first have to know your audience. By analyzing customer demographics, you can advertise to the right audiences with personalized advertising. These marketing campaigns reach specific, targeted users based on their demographic characteristics, interests, and values. This approach is rooted in the user’s intent — what they want to do and how they can use your company to achieve their goal. 

A recent study from Yahoo shows that personalized ads are 54% more engaging to consumers. However, marketers frequently assume that their ads are more relevant than they actually are — more than 70% of marketers think their ads are relevant to their targeted audience, but only 27% of consumers think the ads they see online are relevant. 

To make your ads more relevant to your target customers, use marketing segmentation based on customer demographic information. This strategy categorizes customers based on particular demographic characteristics. Because you can’t market to all of your customers in a uniform way, it’s best to have separate campaigns for different demographic groups.

Furthermore, personalized marketing relies on customer segmentation to market to different demographics and convert leads. To segment your clients, you might want to create buyer personas. A buyer persona is a character that represents a potential buyer in a particular demographic. When creating your buyer personas, you should consider client demographics such as:

  • Age 
  • Location
  • Gender 
  • Income level 
  • Education level 
  • Occupation 
  • Ethnic or linguistic background

Offer Personalized Products to Customers

For a company to be memorable enough to convert leads, it must form an emotional connection with new and existing customers. Utilizing personalization is one way for companies to make a strong enough impression on customers to increase sales and customer satisfaction rates. That said, to effectively cater to specific buyers, you’ll need to use customer demographic information. 

According to Deloitte, over half of all surveyed consumers will pay more to receive a personalized product or service. For physical stores, footfall analytic hardware and people counters can help you cater to particular customers in your store, measuring how many people are entering your store. Using modern footfall analytic technology, you’ll be able to track how users move through your store.

In the past, staff would stand by a store’s entryway and use a clicker to count the number of people who entered. This clicker system wasn’t completely accurate, mostly due to human error. Today, footfall analytic software and hardware such as people counters have improved alongside technology. Thanks to video sensors, thermal imaging sensors, Wi-Fi and door people counting sensors, you can analyze how customers navigate your store, which sections get the most traffic and how long people spend in a particular section. 

This software for demographic analysis can help you determine your customers’ interests. As a result, you can utilize your store’s space to direct particular demographics to certain sections of your store, offering customers a more personalized experience. When used correctly, your efforts will lead to more sales and repeat customers.

Target New Customers Through Remarketing 

Did you know that tracking customer demographics can help you target even those who aren’t currently entering your business? When trying to expand your customer base, the goal isn’t to push away your current clientele. Instead, you should rely on demographic information from your current customer base to understand your target audience. This way, you can reach them more quickly and consistently.

Also called retargeting, remarketing shifts a marketing campaign’s focus to a more relevant target audience. This strategy helps save you time by ensuring your ads are only shown to customers whose demographics already suggest they’ll be interested in your company. Typically, users will see these ads several times, which helps build loyalty and familiarity with your brand. 

Understanding your current clientele and how they shop can help you uncover the right strategies for attracting a wider target audience. On the flip side, by analyzing customer demographic information, you might realize that your current customer base is different from what you anticipated and that you need to reevaluate your remarketing campaign. That’s helpful to know sooner rather than later.

Additionally, footfall analytics can help attract new customers at physical retail stores by allowing you to track who doesn’t enter your store and who’s a repeat customer. By tracking who chooses to enter your store, you can gain valuable demographic information about your current and potential customers in particular demographic groups you’d like to target.

Build Your Company’s Image 

By analyzing your customer’s demographic information, you can help build and develop your company’s brand and image. It’s important to build your brand around the needs, desires and demographics of your company’s customer base. When creating your brand strategy, consider what you’re really selling. In other words, which of your customers’ needs does your company satisfy with its product or services? For example, a makeup company doesn’t simply sell makeup — rather, the company sells the idea of beauty and glamour.

To grow your brand around your customer’s needs, you first have to understand them. Analyzing your customers’ demographics can help you recognize their motivations. As a result, you can shape your marketing efforts around those needs. This approach creates a brand that puts its customers first.

Furthermore, you can use the user personas you’d previously developed when building your brand, as they help you market to real people instead of statistics. Additionally, you can grow your brand voice if you pretend your brand is a person based on your current or target clientele. Because users feel more affinity toward companies that reflect their identities, you’re more likely to attract your target demographics by building your image around your customers’ identities. 

For example, when creating marketing materials, you should try to connect with your target audience by including imagery, fonts and logos that trigger an emotion. Because users are most loyal to companies that share characteristics of their own identities, you’ll want to rely on your customers’ demographic information to best understand their wants, needs and thoughts.

Contact Traf-Sys for a Free Quote

Contact our team today to learn more about the benefits of tracking information about your customers with demographic analysis software and hardware from Traf-Sys. We offer a free quote to help you discover how footfall analytics hardware and software can track your customers’ demographic information so you can better serve your customers.

Smart Building Trends

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The past few years have made everyone from business owners to employees and consumers rethink the role of physical stores and office buildings. Online shopping and working from home rose in popularity during the pandemic, and business owners can learn a lot from the technology that made those areas thrive. 

With many offices and stores open for in-person business again, it’s time to consider how technology can make these spaces even better for workflow and generating foot traffic. “Smart” isn’t just a title. Technology actually makes a difference in how employees work and how consumers appreciate their shopping experiences.

Innovations in Smart Offices 

With more people heading back to the office after over a year of unexpectedly working from home, it’s important to consider how to re-optimize office spaces for better productivity. Now it’s up to you to recreate the comfort many employees experienced when working from home, while also increasing efficiency to boost your company’s performance. Smart offices use technology to improve everything from company sustainability to responses to employee needs. 

Creating an energy-efficient workspace is one of many ways to use the intelligence of technology to your advantage. When you automate your lighting and HVAC systems, you can save money on your electric bill and reduce your environmental impact. Automated systems can track when people are most likely to be in certain rooms and use less lighting or HVAC when rooms aren’t in use, meaning you won’t be paying for energy you don’t use. 

Heating and cooling levels customized to the number of people in the room can make employees feel more comfortable, which can lead to better work efficiency. Consumers will also appreciate that your company is dedicated to sustainable solutions. 

You can use smart building trends to better understand the opportunities for floor plan use in your office. Occupancy sensors can track how many people are in a room at one time. You’ll also know where your employees are and who they interact with throughout the day.

Automated room management services can help employees save time by tracking when rooms are open or full, so people never have to spend time searching for available workspaces. You’ll also get information about whether you can use a different floor plan to make better use of your space, whether you have enough desks and equipment per person and whether you have the office space to hire more employees. 

AI Powers the Future of Smart Retail

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a software program that is able to learn and think similarly to the ways humans do. It collects and processes data to make decisions and help people and companies perform tasks. As AI gathers more information over time, it becomes smarter and increasingly useful for the specific responsibilities of your business. 

Machine-learning technology is woven into the fabric of our daily shopping lives. AI is present in self-checkouts, store displays and smart shelf tags. Over the past few years, consumer behavior has actually changed due to what people now expect from AI capabilities. To get the most out of your store’s advertising efforts and consumer research, consider adapting your approach to bring shoppers what they want when they want it based on AI data. Satisfied customers will be excited to keep coming back. 

AI can do more than directly relate to customers. It’s also integral to internal business operations such as staff scheduling, managing inventory and keeping up-to-date with facilities maintenance via tracking and alerts. These factors contribute to a more helpful, organized in-store experience for consumers.

People counters can gather additional information to help your business’s AI calculate the success of promotions and sales and determine how you can improve in the future. 

Smart Industry Trends in Technology

Other technological innovations can also help your business make smart decisions in the coming year. The Internet of Things (IoT) works together to communicate and create a successful environment for working, advertising and converting customers. 

Sensors in people-counting systems can give you more information about how many shoppers visit your stores and what they do there. You can use this information to respond to the needs of real customers by acting in real-time to adjust marketing strategies and learn how to better attract customer attention in the future.

Beacons give promotions and coupons to shoppers through your store’s app based on their in-store location. Bluetooth tracks customers’ locations to send them promotions based on what section of the store they’re in. Shoppers can also receive reminders about products they may have shown previous interest in online. Customers are more likely to buy items when they’re already in the store looking at those options. 

Smart technology can help you maximize your supply chain efforts. By knowing more about customer demand, you can strategize your inventory. You can save money by only making the number of products customers will buy, and you can also increase revenue by making more of the products that you continuously sell out of. All of this will improve customer experience by providing just what shoppers want when they want it. 

Consumer Personalization Is Key

AI, beacons and people-counting technology all contribute to a better customer experience. Your business’s job is to make stores enticing for consumers, and that means creating environments that customers feel connected to. Shoppers want to feel known and valued by your stores, and they’ll remember those positive experiences when deciding where to make future purchases. 

Smart building industry trends such as tracking footfall analytics can help you create a shopping experience that customers will feel personally connected to. Knowing how many customers enter your store, where they go and what they look at tells you valuable information about their interests and needs. You can study this data for trends such as what products are often bought together, and use this knowledge to your advantage when developing future marketing strategies. 

Request a Quote From Traf-Sys Today!

The future of smart buildings is here, and taking advantage of helpful technology has never been easier. From smart offices to AI, people counting systems help make consumer and employee satisfaction possible. Take your business to the next level with reliable, accurate people counting services from Traf-Sys.

How Jewelry Stores Can Utilize Foot Traffic Data

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Most jewelry stores tend to have peak seasons. It’s no surprise that the time between November and January accounts for plenty of jewelry sales, as people purchase gifts for family and friends — in fact, 40% of all engagements happen around the holiday season, too. These peak seasons present a valuable opportunity for retail stores to track customer data, helping inform them of behaviors and practices that can drive sales.

Take a look at how you can measure your jewelry store traffic using a foot traffic counter.

The Benefits of Customer Counting

With foot traffic trackers, you can measure several key indicators to help improve store performance.

First, you can more easily identify the customers’ behaviors. Insight on when and how often a customer comes into the store can help prioritization regarding the store’s organization. Additionally, traffic flow can signal the right amount of staff members you need to schedule, which helps the store provide customers with a high-quality level of service.

Counting traffic can estimate your store’s daily sales. This information can tell you how significant your sales are on a daily basis and whether your employees are going above and beyond to maximize the experience for the customer.

Additionally, you can measure overall conversion rates. Having a count of how many customers come into your store is beneficial, as you can measure that figure against how many of them are making purchases. As a result, you can look at which factors are deterring people from buying your jewelry, such as customer service or pricing. Configuring your store’s layout in certain ways also plays a role in customer behavior.

Here’s a closer look at how you can use customer counting to improve your business in two areas — marketing and staff scheduling:

Measure the Effectiveness of New Ad Campaigns

A retail store traffic counter provides an opportunity to measure and grow marketing efforts. No matter the marketing campaign focus you pursue, you can see how it influences customers. For larger jewelry stores, you can see how effective your marketing is at bringing customers into your store. Alternatively, smaller businesses can measure the impact of digital marketing ad campaigns like those on Facebook.

If you just released new ad campaigns, you can tell whether they were able to reach new customers and gauge their level of success. This information can help you identify whether your store needs to change its marketing efforts to be more successful. A business that sees an influx of customers after releasing a certain ad campaign can better understand what types of advertising their audiences prefers.

Optimize Staff Scheduling

Depending on the location of the store, the current season, and demand for the product, the number of customers entering your store can vary. Using store traffic counters to record the footfall of entrances and exits can ensure you have enough staff members in the store. As a result, overstaffing and understaffing are less of a problem.

Thanks to optimized staff scheduling, you can ensure your customers get the best customer service possible — and that your employees aren’t overwhelmed when the store is filled with customers. It also helps avoid downtime, where workers can feel bored or unproductive during working hours. Therefore, your staff will be just busy enough without feeling overworked.

When customers know that a store has a dedicated staff ready to answer their questions, they’re more likely to return. Prioritizing staff scheduling ultimately creates customer loyalty. That’s a significant benefit, as customer retention is incredibly important for your store’s profit and growth. It makes more financial sense to retain the customers you already have than spend money trying to attract new ones, and foot traffic data helps with that.

How This Data Can Increase Jewelry Store Sales and Conversions

To boost sales and conversions, your customer experience, customer service and marketing efforts all need to be effective. Through tracking the customers who come into your store, you can grow in these areas.

Customer Experience

By being able to track the customer’s gender, age, past purchases and interests, you gain more insight into how to make their shopping experience meet all of their expectations. If your customers are satisfied with their experience, they’re likely to return and make more purchases in the future. Additionally, they’ll often engage in word-of-mouth marketing to spread the word about your business.

Employee Schedules

Counting store traffic in a jewelry store helps correct employee scheduling, which becomes beneficial for building relationships with customers during their customer journey. If there aren’t enough employees during peak times, you can’t create more personalized shopping experiences, build customer relationships or make enough sales. When you schedule the right amount of employees, customers have a one-on-one shopping experience, allowing sales employees to maximize conversions.

Store Layout

Using foot traffic counters also helps optimize store layout. For example, you can measure the effectiveness of highlighting pieces of jewelry that are on sale or are new in the store. Certain signs or display cases can focus on urging customers to check out the pieces and encourage them to make a purchase. Using heatmap data of the store can show which areas of the store customers visit most and which ones you could improve.

If customers are coming into your store and not making any purchases, further testing on the store layout can happen to see if there are areas to improve the shopping experience. As a result, you have a chance to design the perfect store layout that encourages customers to browse all of your products and make a purchase. A confusing, staggered store layout can prevent customers from even entering the store. Therefore, prioritizing an accessible, streamlined layout is crucial for sales.

Work With Traf-Sys to Measure Your Jewelry Store Traffic

For your jewelry business to maximize sales and conversions and get the right insight on areas of improvement, using a people counting system is essential. Traf-Sys provides accurate and reliable people counters for more than 17,000 locations. No matter the size of your jewelry business, we offer foot traffic solutions to benefit your store.

To start measuring the performance of your business, request a quote today!

Space Utilization

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Every organization places great value on its working space. The area or environment dedicated to operating a facility comes with a significant cost, including the real estate value, the operating expenses and the effectiveness of people working in that space.

It’s difficult to achieve maximum efficiency and produce a proper return on investment without utilizing space to its fullest advantage. Whether it’s retail space, casino space, library space, museum space or university campus space, the facility’s area needs to maximize its space utilization. This is best done by measuring key performance indicators (KPIs) like the number of people using the allowable space.

These KPI measurements are commonly called metrics. They provide realistic data that can be analyzed and used to identify where space is ineffectively utilized. Space utilization metrics can also show what’s really working inside a workspace, which can add significant value to a facility’s operation.

Today’s technology allows facility managers to calculate their space utilization rate easily. Understanding factors like traffic trends and person-to-space occupancy ratios allow managers to improve business performance, secure funding and optimize labor by making better-informed decisions. One of the best technologies available for space utilization calculation and achieving maximum cost-effectiveness is a people counting system.

What Is Space Utilization?

Simply put, space utilization is measuring how and whether allowable space is being used. It’s commonly expressed as a function of occupancy rate and frequency rate. The occupancy looks at how full the space is compared to its capacity, and the frequency rate measures the amount of time the space is used compared to its availability.

Space utilization rates are assessed by the actual use of a facility’s space experiences and the predicted use expected from a particular space. Private office space utilization is no different from public space use when it comes to examining metrics and calculating peak use and low-occupancy times. Whether it’s a corporate boardroom or a library reading area, effective managers must know how their space is truly utilized.

Space utilization is as much about managing people as it is about measuring space. Every facility has its high and low occupancy periods. The trick for managers is knowing how to measure those metrics accurately and move them into a matrix where meaningful data presents a true picture of how their space is used.

Calculating Space Utilization

Another way of viewing space utilization is by dividing a facility’s occupancy by its capacity. For instance, if a facility has the capacity to handle 300 employees but only has 200 on staff, the space utilization ratio is 3:2 or 67 percent utilized. That ratio indicates a lot of unused space, which is expensive real estate.

There is no magic or optimal formula for calculating peak space utilization because each facility has its own specific requirements for the people-to-place formula. For instance, a museum may require extra floor-to-visitor space because of exhibit requirements, while a casino environment will tolerate a much more packed feeling.

A retail outlet, such as a shopping mall location, depends on drop-in traffic. Retail managers have to analyze foot traffic flow trends and compare them with times and promotions so as to maximize their shop space. Education facilities like campuses and universities also have to measure occupancies to schedule staff to meet service needs.

To accurately monitor traffic and understand ultimate space utilization, it’s necessary to measure key factors that balance the people-and-place equation. One true indicator of traffic measurement is a people counting system. These are hardware and software components that provide accurate information on who’s coming, staying and going. People counting systems give a great picture of space utilization metrics.

Contact us with any questions!

Space Utilization Metrics

Metrics are an all-encompassing term for measurement units. There’s no precise metric list because there are so many variables in calculating which parts of a facility are being utilized efficiently and which are being under-utilized. Developing metrics is a matter of examining what key performance factors occur within a particular space.

Another way to look at space utilization metrics is by viewing them as data collection points. Getting meaningful data requires an accurate measurement of what people are doing within a particular place. Some common metrics applicable to calculating space use are:

  • Overall square footage: The first metric to establish is a facility’s size. In most American sites, like offices and retail outlets, this measurement is normally calculated by the square footage of floor area, rather than the cubic footage, which is a common warehouse metric. The total square footage is then defined by specific usage areas like meeting rooms and dedicated spots for displays.
  • Overall staff occupancy: An equally important metric for analyzing space utilization is identifying staff numbers and their functions. It’s a rare for a facility to employ all staff members at the same time, so allowance has to be made for high and low employee presence. Many facilities utilize the same space for multiple staff members, such as desk-sharing and common work stations.
  • Overall visitor trafficFor businesses open to the public, visitor traffic is a key performance issue. Monitoring visitor traffic provides a crucial metric that indicates the additional person-load impacting a workspace. It’s important that visitors have ample space to feel welcome and not repelled by crowded conditions.
  • Average peak usage: Both staff and visitors will have peak space-use periods. Some businesses experience periodic rushes, while others have a moderate traffic flow. Monitoring the average peak use in a facility is an important part of calculating the best use of available space.
  • Average peak frequency: Peak use times can vary in frequency. For example, a retail outlet can have an up-and-down scale of visits during the day while a learning institute will have longer fluctuations according to the season. It’s important to establish accurate metrics of how frequent peak capacities occur.
  • Ratio of visits to staff: This is a very important metric that affects staff scheduling. To manage customer interests, there have to be sufficient staff members present to handle their needs. Monitoring metrics like overall traffic and peak periods give managers a significant advantage to make sure resources match the demand, while allowing the space for them to interact.
  • Specific usage areas: Some facility areas are utilized more frequently than others. Both employees and customers move fluidly from one area to another, however, they tend to gravitate to certain spots more than others. Monitoring people’s movements within a facility gives managers a solid metric for what space is a highly utilized region and what’s not.

One of the best data-gathering tools for establishing space utilization metrics is a people counting system. Monitoring people through technology gives real-time data about accurate movements within a facility. People monitoring identifies peak usage in all areas like meeting spaces, individual workspaces and common spaces within any facility. Installing a people counting system will truly benefit space utilization management.

7 Benefits of Space Utilization Metrics

Facility space is one of the top costs of operating any business. To be cost-effective and deliver the best return on investment, facility operators have to manage their space as best as possible.

There are many ways that prudent managers benefit from wisely utilizing their space. By developing realistic metrics and applying data generated through people counting, every facility has the opportunity to increase performance and use their allowable space to its advantage. Here are seven benefits gained from space utilization metrics:

  1. Maximizing space use: Knowing the rate of people-flow through a facility is a crucial metric to establish. By having accurate counts of low and high usage periods, a facility manager knows what space is highly utilized and what can be considered a waste of space. Developing metrics from counting people builds a solid foundation for assessing and achieving maximum space use.
  2. Minimizing space costs: Wasted space can really impact a facility’s operating costs. Analyzing metrics developed from people counting gives a true picture of how space is used to its best efficiency. Eliminating unused space significantly saves operating costs and adds to profitability.
  3. Improving employee relations: It’s well-known that employees function best when they have sufficient space to work. However, some suggest that they can’t prosper in excessive space either, as it doesn’t contribute to a satisfying work environment. Clearly defined space metrics will result in building a workplace with optimum space utilization for best employee performance.
  4. Enhancing customer experience: Customers might not be able to recognize maximum space utilization, but they can certainly experience it. They intrinsically know when a private business or public facility is well managed, and they feel the effects of a well laid-out space. Metrics gained from people counting technology can have a positive impact on increasing customer experiences when properly implemented.
  5. Promoting agile environments: There’s an increasing trend to design optimum workspaces that promote agile environments, meaning a working space that seamlessly integrates with multiple activities. One of the principles around agile designs is having unassigned seating where workers have the freedom to use what space serves them best for their assignment.
  6. Conserving energy expenses: It stands to reason that maximized spaces make the best use of energy resources. This goes beyond conserving utility expenses and involves human energy that’s needlessly expended through inefficient environments. A people counting system provides excellent metrics for knowing how to improve space utilization and conserve energy expenses.
  7. Optimizing internal services: Communication between workers and outward to their management team is optimized by having efficient services integrated with excellent use of space. People counting is a support tool for establishing internal service efficiency, and is one more benefit a facility gains through space utilization metrics.

Every company that employs space utilization metrics and implements positive changes can expect a positive impact. Investing in technology support like people counting systems shows up as more than an improved bottom line. The return on investment also comes through as customer satisfaction, employee efficiency and organizational safety.

Technology That Can Improve Space Utilization

People counting systems are fascinating technological tools. They work on a straightforward principle of monitoring human movements in and out of a facility. Technology-based counters also track people as they move about the place.

People counters serve two main purposes. The first is acting as a customer relationship management tool. The second is acting as an internal data-gathering device that builds metrics to monitor employee patterns. In both roles, people counting systems provide excellent benefits that help make the best use of space in every application.

As with all technology, people counting systems continue to evolve. These systems are now highly sensitive compared to early models that simply clicked as people passed by. Many of today’s people counters are complex integrations of hardware and software. Here is a brief view of current people counting technology:

  • Density counting uses depth data and computer vision, mixed with machine learning, to anonymously track human movement.
  • Optical sensors are smart cameras that use real-time images to detect movement and identify people.
  • Break-beams are active infrared monitors that emit and receive light-wave interruption signals.
  • Thermal imagers detect body heat and register people’s moves on a software platform that builds metric patterns.
  • Wi-Fi trackers follow cell and smartphone signals to recognize individuals and know if they’ve seen them before.
  • Seat sensors detect human presence at work stations, on transportation systems and even in movie theaters.
  • Ultrasonic sensors use sound waves that bounce off people as they pass, and then use the information to supply movement metrics.

Investing in people counting systems is a must for progressive facility managers who want to make the most of their space utilization. There is a wide range of components used for counting people, and they vary in sophistication. These are the common components found in most people counter systems:

  • Overhead beam counters detect movement from above.
  • Horizontal beam counters identify sideways motion.
  • Uni-directional counters follow one-way traffic.
  • Bi-directional counters track two-way motion.
  • Wired counters use hard-wired components.
  • Wireless counters rely on wi-fi or radio signal communication.

Integrated software is an important technological support to integrated people counting systems. Compatible software takes data sent from counting sensors and transmits it into meaningful metrics. Information generated in software reports lets a management team clearly view what human activity takes place inside their premises. From this valuable content, managers make serious decisions about utilizing space.

Traf-Sys People Counting Systems Help Utilize Space

Traf-Sys provided top technological solutions where facilities want to maximize their use of space. Traf-Sys people counting systems provide component and software support for traffic monitoring challenges that mine raw data and turn it into meaningful metrics. From this information, business owners and operators have an excellent base on which to plan their optimal space use.

Over 17,000 locations depend on Traf-Sys people counters to inform them of patterns that affect business decisions and bottom lines. These include facilities like universities, retail stores, shopping malls, casinos, libraries and museums. Each one has benefitted by profiling their human movements, and they’ve made better use of their space from it as well as improving their bottom line.

Learn more about how people counter systems can improve your space utilization by contacting Traf-Sys today. Call us at 1-888-815-6568 or contact us online.

How To Measure Foot Traffic

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Many types of businesses, including for- and non-profits, rely on people patronizing them. Without adfoot equate pedestrian traffic near your business, you may not hit the numbers you need. But getting people into the door is not the only reason you will want to evaluate foot traffic data.

Identifying pedestrian cycles gives you the information you need to optimize your operations. Whatever your sector, you will find a use for measuring traffic in the area. If you want a people counting software and hardware solution for your business, learn the best way to set it up for assessing the habits of those walking in your building.

Read the full guide or jump to a specific section:

Why Collecting Foot Traffic Analytics Matters Across Industries

While most associate people counting with retail, this information is vital in multiple fields, including:

  • Non-Profits: Non-profit institutes can gather information about their popularity to best schedule staff and volunteers, making the most of these limited resources.
  • Warehouses: Identifying the most commonly used routes through doors of a warehouse can help you rearrange the design to prevent traffic jams that can slow the process of moving products.
  • Libraries: Instead of hiring a person to count patrons, having an automated system gives you more accurate data about people entering the library.
  • Malls: Foot traffic into a mall drastically impacts the profits of businesses inside. Identifying foot traffic trends can help improve security and advertising.
  • Retailers: You can gauge your marketing success by counting how many patrons enter your stores.
  • Restaurants: Identify trends in times and patrons and see whether they relate to special occasions, deals or other events. Foot traffic data can help you make server schedules, plan promotions and find ways to increase profits.
  • Urban Planning: Creating walkable neighborhoods requires urban planners to find out where people walk. Planners must know how to count pedestrians to decide how to lay out city areas.
  • Utility Managers: Determining times of peak occupancy at various points during the week and year can help you set more accurate HVAC schedules to maximize efficiency and comfort.
  • Casinos: Casino managers can change the layout of their gaming areas by inserting games or ATMs where people congregate. Also, staffing and security personnel schedules can adapt to more popular times.

Ready to get a people counter for your business? Ge a free quote today!

How to Measure Foot Traffic

1. Create Goals for Measuring Foot Traffic
2. Identify Entry and Exit Points For Data Collection
3. Select Traffic Counting Sensors
4. Choose How You Will Store or Transmit Data
5. Install Counting Sensors
6. Set Up Foot Traffic Data Collection Procedures
7. Begin Collecting Information on Foot Traffic
8. Analyze Foot Traffic Data
9. Make Decisions

How you measure pedestrian traffic depends on what you will do with the data. Setting up hardware and software for the counting process automates things so you can save your workers’ time while gathering necessary information about foot traffic. Following these steps ensures you have a setup that will accurately count people.

1. Create Goals for Measuring Foot Traffic

If you want to know how to collect foot traffic data, you need to determine your goals before creating a data-gathering strategy. What you intend to do with the information will help you choose the best hardware for counting people. Will you be:

  • Entering People: Use a self-contained door counter to find out how many people pass the door during a given time.
  • Passing Pedestrians: Employ an outdoor counting sensor if you want to measure the number of pedestrians walking through a point.
  • Find Peak Traffic: Identifying peak traffic times or average length of visits requires you to install sensors that connect to people counting software.
how to measure foot traffic

These goals only account for some of the ends you could achieve through using sensors and software. If you have a different purpose for your business, decide what information you want to collect and use the data type and business entry points to determine the sensors you need — outdoor, thermal, video or bidirectional.

2. Identify Entry and Exit Points For Data Collection

Where do you want to count people? While this question seems straightforward, where you install the sensor will help you choose the right model for your project. Ask yourself these questions:

  • Do you need to know how often workers pass between buildings?
  • Is your goal to count the number of customers entering your business?
  • Does the number of people who leave an area matter?
  • Will the time of day affect your counting goals?
  • Do people move past the monitoring point in groups or individually?

Measure the entry and exit points where you want to install the sensors. Opening height and width determine how many sensors and the type you will need. The dimensions of the entryways, as well as the type of information you want to collect, will help you choose the best sensors for your people counting needs.

3. Select Traffic Counting Sensors

Consider how many entrances and exits you need to monitor to plan the number of people counting monitoring devices you need. Look at the entrance designs. Whether you have doors or an open walkway will make a difference in the sensors you use for that location.

You have two main choices for sensor position and two options for how they count. Horizontal sensors send a beam across an opening and count how many times it breaks. These may come in wireless or wired options. Overhead designs install in the ceiling and require wired network connections. These can be unidirectional or bidirectional counters. The former only counts the number of people passing through, regardless of direction. However, the latter distinguishes whether people enter or exit.

If you have a swinging door that opens outward, you can use a horizontal counter. Swinging doors that open inward can block the detection beam across people’s legs. The door funnels people through the entryway in single file, making the horizontal sensor more accurate. Ideally, only use horizontal beam devices across doorways of 15-feet wide or narrower.

For open entrances or extra-wide entry points where people can move in groups or stand in the opening, overhead sensors will give you a more accurate count. Depending on how high the ceiling is, you should plan to install at least one overhead sensor for every 11 feet of entrance width. Make sure you can get network cables and power to the overhead door sensors if you select a wired design. If your model requires a wired connection or power supply, factor that into the installation costs and time when planning.

4. Choose How You Will Store or Transmit Data

Again, ask yourself some questions:

  • How will the sensors store the data, or will they transmit it to a server?
  • Do you want someone to read the data and reset the counter manually?
  • Would you prefer the sensors send data to your people counting software over the network or via a data controller? The latter option gives you the flexibility to automate the data collection process.

Additionally, you can buy server space, so you don’t need to use your servers to host the information collected by the sensors. Using a hosting service for your data will help you keep the data organized, especially if you have multiple sensors around your facility or numerous buildings with sensors installed. For instance, our Traf-Sys hosting service combines information storage and reporting into a single solution to free you from managing the database or updating software.

how to measure foot traffic

5. Install Counting Sensors

To ensure accurate counts, you must install the sensors correctly. The type of sensor will dictate where you must set up the device. Guard the spacing between sensors, especially overhead models, to avoid double counting or missing people who pass through the entrance.

Horizontal counters fit inside a doorframe. Install these so the door opening does not interfere with the readings. You want to count people only, not how many times the door opens. Select a site in the doorframe, so the door opens away from the sensor and does not cross the path of the counting beam. These counters have two parts that must sit directly across from each other for the laser to work. Most horizontal sensors work on batteries, but if you want a wired model, verify that you have an electrical outlet near the installation site first.

Overhead people counters install inside the upper portion of the doorframe or in the ceiling. These devices typically require hardwiring into the network to get power and transmit data. Read the instructions to see if you must set the height in the sensor or install the device at a particular level. Also, review from the instructions whether you need to set the counter to measure unidirectionally or bidirectionally.

6. Set Up Foot Traffic Data Collection Procedures

Collecting data from your sensors depends on the type of monitors you have installed. If you have display-only counters, you will need to have one of your workers record the number each day and reset the total.

Should you prefer to have the data delivered from the sensors to your computer, you may need to add data controllers. These devices gather data from multiple sensors and can store it until you need to send it to your computer or upload to the network.

Other sensors have direct connections to the network and will upload the data to your server or a hosted server. If you choose this option, you will need network-connected sensors and a server set up to receive the data.

7. Begin Collecting Information on Foot Traffic

To collect information from base models of sensors, you will need to schedule checks of the devices to record the data and reset the counters. Checking your sensors throughout the day will help you break down the people counting data to shorter periods for more thorough information than once daily checks. Looking at these devices, especially soon after installation, gives you peace of mind that you put them into place correctly and they provide accurate information.

Even if you have a sensor that automatically uploads its data to a server, you still should check them regularly to ensure network connection and accurate people counting.

8. Analyze Foot Traffic Data

Raw data is challenging to use. You need analytical software to make sense of the information, especially if you have your sensors consistently collecting and transmitting the data.

how to measure foot traffic

Software, such as VisiCount, analyzes the information from your sensors and generates easy-to-understand reports. With flexible import and export options, you can give the software the information you need to read. Look over the information in a variety of formats — tables, graphs and drill down — to spot trends. See whether the day or time affected business. You can even examine if weather played a role in a rise or fall in foot traffic.

Scaling the data gives your business room to grow because you can increase the number of branches you monitor easily. Being able to examine various departments of your business can help you make decisions about:

  • Worker schedules
  • Facility layout
  • Logistics

Reports can aggregate data from multiple locations while still allowing you to access information from a particular branch or entrance. For instance, if you have a graph showing trends across all your sites, you can drill down through the data to get details for each facility. If you want to analyze the data from a single store, you can see information from each monitored entrance.

The software creates conversions, which tie the traffic information gathered into percentages to indicate the success of your business. For retailers, this means how many people entering purchased something. In libraries, it could correlate to how many people check out books. By looking over the data in terms of your business’s operations, you get a real-world means of seeing how the number of people entering affects your company.

Incorporating data hosting gives you a secure server for storing your sensor data and generating reports. With such a system, you never need to install software on a single computer. You have access to the information from anywhere, a boon to managers who travel or run multiple facilities. You also don’t have to worry about keeping your servers or managing databases to host your sensors’ information.

9. Make Decisions

Once you’ve reviewed the data analytics, you need to use them effectively. Without making changes based on the data gathered, you will not use the sensors to their fullest potential.

The data you collect will help you make decisions about worker schedules, facility layouts, marketing success and more. Foot traffic data will be valuable when determining the success of your operations. Look at conversions and how changes in your advertising or selling methods influence the numbers.

After making changes based on the people counting information you collected, continue using the sensors and software to determine if your changes create the desired results. The information you gather and review will only help you as much as you use it to improve operations.

how to measure foot traffic

A Complete People Counting System

Regardless of your business sector, you cannot forego gathering information about foot traffic. People counting software and hardware are now vital tools for any company. However, setting one of these systems up from scratch poses multiple problems with hardware compatibility and accuracy of data collection. Don’t try to piece together your counting system by cobbling hardware and software on your own.

Get professional help for your people counting needs from Traf-Sys. Speak to one of our trained experts in people counting systems to get the ideal solution for your facility’s needs. Our team of experts can work with you to create a system that will help meet your data goals. Contact our experts for a customized approach to evaluating pedestrian traffic flow for your business.

How To Calculate Retail Conversion Rate

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If you own or manage a retail shop, then it’s essential to know your analytics. Numbers answer nearly all your questions. Should you change your store layout, or is a new layout working effectively? Do you need more or fewer staff? Do you need to order more stock? Was a recent promotion or campaign successful?

When your business doesn’t rely on metrics and analytics, you’re just taking shots in the dark, hoping for the best and relying on instinct when it comes to measuring success.

Well, it seemed busier this week, and our sales were up, so we must be doing something right. Right?

But without metrics, it’s difficult to know where you should attribute your growth or your decline.

One vital question you should be asking that can help you better understand and answer all these questions is, What is my retail conversion rate?

To answer any analytical questions you might have about your business, you must have numbers to compare to, so the sooner you start tracking your retail conversion rate, the sooner you can begin digging into your metrics and start making more informed – and numbers-backed – business decisions.

This step-by-step guide will get you started. But first, let’s discuss retail conversion rates and why they are important.

How to Calculate Retail Conversion Rate

So how do you go about calculating your retail conversion rate? It’s pretty simple when you have accurate foot traffic and sales numbers.

First, determine the timeframe you want to examine. Then, take the number of sales made and divide it by the number of customers who visited your store during your designated period, which will give you a decimal. To convert this decimal to a whole number, multiply it by 100. This will give you your conversion rate. Below is the conversion rate formula written out:

retail conversion rate = (number of sales / number of customers) x 100

Pretty easy, right? And the data you receive will be invaluable to your business.

What is Retail Conversion Rate?

Your store conversion rate is the proportion of the number of visitors to your store to the number of visitors who made a purchase. This tells you how well you’re doing at turning browsers into buyers. Your retail conversion rate gives you critical insight into what’s happening in your store. Again, without measuring data such as this, your business decisions are basically based on guesswork.

Calculating your retail conversion rate is one of the best ways to measure the success of your business. Focusing on driving foot traffic into your store and increasing the number of transactions based purely on more bodies is one simple strategy you can employ to boost sales, but more bodies won’t necessarily equate to more money. We’ll explain why in the next couple sections.

Instead, measuring your conversion rate — as opposed to looking only at transactions — paints a much more accurate picture of how well your store is doing.

Calculating retail conversion will tell you how many leads are converting into actual sales — meaning more money for your business — as well as help you analyze other factors. And if you decide to revise any strategies, such as the goods you stock, your window displays or your store layout, or if you try out a new advertising approach, your retail conversion rate will tell you if these things are helping or hindering your bottom line.

calculate conversion rate

 

Why Is It Important to Count People and Customers?

It’s tempting to make all your business decisions based simply on transaction metrics. If you’re making sales, and you can track how many sales you make and your average transaction value, many business owners will call that a day and think of that data as “good enough.”

That’s because it’s easy to calculate your transaction data. However, when you begin to count the number of people entering your store, and whether they make a purchase, you’ll get a lot more details about how you’re genuinely doing.

Let’s look at an example.

Say that your store made $6,000 in week 1. You had 150 transactions, so your average transaction value was $40. In the following week, week 2, you made $7,200 and had 160 transactions, so your average transaction value went up to $45. Seems like things improved in week 2, right?

Maybe not. Let’s use the retail conversion formula instead.

First, we need to know your store traffic so we can calculate your conversion rate. In week 1, you had 1,200 people enter your store. Of those, 150 made a purchase, so your conversion rate was 12.5 percent.

In week 2, you had 2,000 people enter your store. That’s a lot more foot traffic. During week 2, you made 160 sales. This equates to a conversion rate of only 8 percent. So even though your average transaction value increased, and even though you made more money in week 2 over week 1, you converted fewer sales per visitor.

Your conversion rate dropped by more than one-third.

If you had maintained that 12.5 percent conversion rate, even at the lower $40 average transaction value you had in week 1, you would have pulled in $10,000. That’s a big difference!

To accurately calculate your conversion rate, you must know how many customers enter your store. Inaccurate store traffic numbers will skew conversion results, so it’s critical to have an accurate people counting system.

Consider the helpful experts at Traf-Sys for your people counting needs. Our thermal imaging people counting systems are up to 98 percent accurate, so you know you’re getting the right numbers to calculate your conversion rate — and all other foot traffic metrics — every time.

calculate conversion rate

What Is the Average Retail Conversion Rate for a Retail Store?

Now that you know how to calculate your store conversion rate accurately, you may be wondering, What is a typical conversion rate for a shop?

These numbers can be a bit difficult to nail down as businesses are often reluctant to share this data — and fewer than 25 percent of retailers even engage in people counting — but industry average conversion rates for brick-and-mortar stores is around 20 percent.

One thing is certain — every industry is different, which makes it even more important to start measuring your own conversion rate and begin tracking it for comparisons, week-over-week, month-over-month and year-over-year.

And once you start calculating your foot traffic — using an accurate people counting system — you’ll be ahead of your competition and well on your way to making better business decisions.

calculate conversion rate

What Factors Impact Your Store’s Retail Conversion Rate?

As a retail shop owner, the worst thing that you can imagine is this scenario — a customer walks into your store, takes one look around and immediately walks out. That’s a lead that didn’t convert — a sale that wasn’t made. But this scenario is avoidable.

Many factors will influence your ability to convert.

  1. Strategically position your displays. The way you position your displays is important in determining conversions. Make sure you have attractive window displays since this is something that every customer will see. Most customers will likely enter your store, scan the area and move in a clockwise rotation, so make sure that you put your newest, most attractive and highest margin items to the left of your entrance. Make aisles shorter and angle displays to remove the grocery store-like monotony that comes from long aisles. And position low-priced, impulse buys near the register and checkout area.
  2. Place retail sales associates on the floor. Are your team members greeting customers and guiding them through the purchasing process? If not, then you’re missing sales opportunities. With the high amount of e-commerce that has taken over the retail industry, many customers shop in-store because they want to ask your sales associates questions and learn more about your products. So make sure your employees are available, greeting and engaging with customers, and knowledgable about the items they’re selling. Also, be sure you’re staffing according to traffic, so you have more associates available when traffic is highest.
  3. Manage your inventory. Make sure you have what people want in stock by performing spot-checks and physical audits. And though you want to be certain you have enough inventory in the stockroom, placing fewer items on the floor will give shoppers the feeling of scarcity — which makes the items feel unique to the customer and will increase their perceived value, boosting conversions.
  4. Re-evaluate your checkout line. People hate waiting, and many customers are scared off and may abandon a sale if the line is too long. Consider putting your registers in the back of the store to hide the line. Or even better, think about getting rid of registers altogether by implementing mobile checkout that allows your employees to ring up customers wherever they are on the floor.

Increasing conversion can be a matter of simply making a few tweaks. Continue tracking your conversion rates as you make changes so you can know what’s working and what isn’t.

calculate conversion rate

Questions This Data Will Answer

Once you begin tracking your retail conversion rate, you can start to answer some questions based on your store traffic and revenue, which will give you new insight into your business that will help you make staffing and inventory decisions.

  1. Is there a time of the day when the conversion rate is highest?
  2. Is there a time of the day when the conversion rate is lowest?
  3. Is there a day of the week where rates are highest?
  4. Is there a day of the week where rates are lowest?
  5. Does your conversion rate change when you are understaffed?
  6. Do conversion rates increase when sales associates are encouraged to promote a specific item or promotion?

When you have reliable data and numbers to back it up, you can begin digging into these questions, and many more.

calculate conversion rate

Other Retail Key Performance Indicators You Should Be Measuring

Once you start analyzing your data and digging into the hard-and-fast metrics that prove your company’s mettle, you’ll be hooked! You’ll want to look at all your key performance indicators (KPIs) to know how you’re doing in every aspect of your business.

Let’s dive into other important retail KPIs your store should be tracking:

  • Revenue per visitor: Revenue per visitor tracks the amount of money generated each time someone walks into your store. This is important to measure because it shows you whether efforts to increase traffic are working. A positive trend in your revenue per visitor metric proves that more people are visiting and buying, while a negative trend can indicate that though you’re receiving more traffic, you’re still not converting.

    revenue per visitor = total revenue / total number of visitors

  • Average transaction value: This metric shows you the average value generated from each transaction. This number lets you know how much customers spend on average when they come into your shop. A higher amount means that either people are buying bigger ticket items or purchasing larger quantities. You can use this number to determine if you’re pricing items appropriately.

    average transaction value = total revenue / total number of sales

  • Sales per employee: Sales per employee can help you with scheduling and incentivizing your employees. It can also help you make decisions in regards to hiring and compensation. You can also drill down even more and measure this number based on each employee to determine how each of your staff members is performing individually.

    sales per employee = net sales / number of employees

  • Year-over-year growth: How is your business doing? Are you improving every year? For the answer, you need to determine your year-over-year growth. As a business owner, you should strive for continuous development. This number helps you know if you’re getting better or worse each year.

    year-over-year growth = (current period revenue – previous period revenue) / previous period revenue x 100

  • Net profit: Net profit tells you how much you’ve earned minus the cost of goods and all other business expenses, like administrative costs, employee payroll, rent and more. This determines if you’re putting money in your pocket or if your overhead is too high to make any money. The equation is simple.

    net profit = all revenues – all expenses

  • Sell-through rate: This is the percentage of items sold compared to the total number of items available. It lets you know how your inventory is performing so you can make better purchasing decisions.

    sell-through = number of items sold / beginning inventory x 100

  • Shop rate calculation: How much should you be charging on retail items? There isn’t necessarily a hard-and-fast calculation that you can use to determine this number. Consider the market rate and be sure to cover your labor and overhead costs. A simple rule of thumb is to double the wholesale price.

    retail price = wholesale price x 2

  • Foot traffic: Foot traffic refers to the number of people who come into your store. It’s pretty straightforward! This metric can help you evaluate whether your marketing efforts are working effectively. It’s calculated by simply counting the number of people coming through your door.

    calculated using accurate people counting systems

Go ahead and embrace your inner math geek. When it comes to business, KPIs are king. The more you’re calculating, the more you know about how your business is performing, and the more you can do to enhance your performance, improve your marketing and convert more leads into customers.

calculate conversion rate

Choose Traf-Sys Inc. for Your People Counting Needs

When you’re ready to take more control of your business metrics, contact Traf-Sys today to find out how we can help you measure traffic coming into your retail establishment.

Our people counting systems are highly accurate and provide a range of benefits for your business. People counting and traffic analysis will allow you to calculate your conversion rates as well as allow you to:

  • Evaluate the effectiveness of your advertising and promotional strategies in real time.
  • Optimize your staffing based on traffic and determine where your customers are going within your store, so you know where staff is needed most.
  • Implement effective marketing and operations strategies based on best practices for your niche.

Call us at 888-815-6568 to talk to our experts and learn more about our people counting system and request a free quote for services.