Managing city center footfall in order to increase activity in key retail and business sectors.

City center and high street UK retail is a vital element of any town & city economy but for years this sector has been in decline and under pressure. Local authorities are keen to generate more business opportunity through targeted initiatives and support retailers in these difficult times. They especially need to justify high rents and business rates.

Cities are incentivizing employers to establish new businesses and to create new jobs whilst encouraging citizens to live and work within the city or use greener transportation rather than commute in and out.

Making changes and embarking on big initiatives like this can be expensive and risky if the potential outcome and return on investment is unclear.

All of this requires a clear understanding of the movement and daily habits of citizens and visitors with careful planning of pedestrian areas to maximize footfall, flow and access.

Understanding the quantity, frequency and behavior of pedestrians within very specific locations can give invaluable insights for retailers, planners and businesses.

 IoT Footfall counting sensors can be deployed strategically around key city center location either at specific individual sites of interest or arrange in a ring around major retail centers or high streets in order to create a measurement zone.

The real time & time stamped, 24hr base data provided by Footfall Counters can provide invaluable data regarding the daily life and health of a City economy.

The solution is particularly effective for collecting baseline historical data to provide accurate business case support before any projects are undertaken.

The data can also be used as before / after impact analysis to demonstrate return on investment following the implementation of City zoning / pedestrian/ infrastructure initiatives.

Other benefits include the ability to:

• Test different configurations of street layouts, pedestrianised areas & major access / entry points around a given perimeter in order to eliminate congestion & improve flow.

• Manage / direct the flow of human traffic around the busiest areas within town and city centers and high streets

• Detect & record how long people spend in one place and how often that place was visited, for example: toilets, parks, information boards, public buildings / spaces.

• Monitor the impact of promotions, events & crowd management strategies

• Test the popularity of new facilities / features through before and after comparison.
• Measure frequency and volume of footfall at different times of day in order to more effectively plan & position related resources.

• Identify security / health & safety black spots.

• Measure usage & popularity of public services locations & transport hubs such as Park & ride / Stations / Bus stops.

• Improve scheduling at busy times of day and peak visitor / commuter periods

• Identify optimal opening / closing times and peak periods.

• Support the case for Business Rates and justify rents through accurate footfall data.
• Control and adhere to maximum capacity limitations around these outdoor areas and high streets.
• More traditional ‘clip board ‘surveys and interviews can be better targeted and designed using the highly accurate base data provided.

By establishing a structured and real time assessment of footfall numbers and behavior in city and town centers planners can begin to confidently work with retailers, event managers and other businesses in the City to increase footfall, revenues and drive expansion.

In store retail business development and customer tracking

Driving greater footfall passing the store window is just one aspect of the challenge. With increasing competition from online stores, pop-up stores and everything in between, Retailers and Mall owners need to take steps to attract as many customers as possible into their stores, ensure the customer experience is the best it can possibly be and then maximise the sales per visitor.

Sales Conversion:  Turning shoppers into buyers. By looking at the sales data alone, it is hard to say if the particular store is performing good or badly. Combining sales data with in store footfall provides you with the true measure of a store’s key performance indicator. Sales conversion is calculated by combining footfall data with sales data which will allow users to identify the missed opportunity of sales compared to their performance of sales.

Marketing Effectiveness: Measuring the impact of advertising and promotion evaluating and quantifying the impact of a marketing campaign based on metrics such as store footfall, number of new customers created, visit frequency of customers, and sales conversion rate. With the marketing effectiveness report, users will be able to determine the impact and return on investment of advertising efforts.

Staff Planning:  Having the right number of staff planning is not about reducing the number of staff in the sales floor at a specific time of day, but rather having the right number of staff at the right time in the right place. With the visibility on when there are the highest opportunities for sales conversion, users will be able to align the deployment of staff with customer traffic to optimise the budget of working hours.

People counter for shopping malls:  We have worked with countless contractors and technical consultants in delivering the most satisfying and suitable experience for our users. We are able to work to provide footfall data by predicting and planning the number of counters that will be required throughout the whole mall, the length and coverage area of each counter, and the placement of the counters. With the ability to measure footfall data for shopping malls, meeting the challenges of managing a large influx of shoppers is of no issue.

Zone Profiling: Users will be able to determine which area of the mall is underused and which is a populated area. From this distinction, users will be able to adjust the rental cost of tenant spaces accordingly.

Traffic Flow: Shopping centres are generally levelled. With the insight to determine which level of a shopping mall is more popular, users will be able to determine which level of a shopping mall is more popular. Understanding the popularity of a level of shopping mall will allow the developers to understand the consumer base as malls are generally sectioned by the department.

Heat Map: Provides visibility into a number of engaged customer and respective engaged time by colour spectrum. The higher the tendency of the colour towards red, the higher the customer engagement. This will allow users to determine the duration customer has been within one area.