Godiva – Best Practices of Using Retail Traffic Counting

ShopperTrak’s people counting technology was already being used in Godiva’s stores across the US, all of which had found it a very effective way of analysing data trends and mapping traffic to conversion rates. The European stores chose the same solution, both to ensure a highly accurate traffic count and to maintain a consistent standard across the group. The technology was rolled out to company-owned stores in Europe and began delivering results within three months, completely exceeding expectations.

Godiva is now promoting the solution to its franchisees so that they can benefit from a fully integrated, holistic and consistent approach to people counting and analysis.

In Regent Street, one of the first things the ShopperTrak solution revealed was that three-quarters of Godiva’s visitors were not actually making a purchase. Reports also revealed that more people bought products between 2pm and 3pm, not during the traditional lunchtime rush as the staff had always assumed. These insights enabled the store to make significant changes to staffing levels in order to improve customer service and conversion rates.

The European stores were effectively starting from scratch; staff were unable to benchmark their conversion rates as there was no hard-and-fast rule for measurement. In retail, average conversion rates differ across sectors, locations and high-end versus value brands. Rates also varied considerably across the Godiva store network. Due to their diverse locations – some in high-density tourist areas and others in business and financial districts – peak traffic flows and conversion rates were not consistent.

ShopperTrak advised Godiva that it is more accurate to analyse trends for each individual store rather than trying to measure each store against the entire network. Another challenge was acceptance. Godiva’s employees were unaccustomed to the concept of traffic counting. Many of the staff and managers were suspicious that the technology was not working properly, or were not convinced that it could improve performance. However, training and education transformed the store managers into ambassadors for the technology. The store managers then worked with their staff teams to ensure the whole store would benefit from the solution. Once they started to see their overall sales increasing as a result, store managers embraced the traffic counting data as a valuable tool.

After installing traffic counting technology, Godiva’s Regent Street store was able to take immediate action, seeing in-store transaction numbers increase by 10% and conversion rates climb from 24% to 26.5% in just six weeks. Store managers are now able to plan staffing so as to ensure that there is always a healthy shopper-to-assistant ratio and to place the best staff on the shop floor during peak traffic times. They are also able to use the data to identify which members of staff need more training, depending on when conversion rates are dropping, and can now plan to carry out stock replenishments during low traffic periods.

Traffic trends and conversion rates are now used to plan financial targets for the year: what sales are predicted, when to run promotions and how to aim for incremental increases in conversions. The solution has also brought unexpected benefits. For example, window merchandising is particularly important to Godiva as a premium, luxury brand. Window displays are changed monthly and their impact on foot traffic is now closely analysed using ShopperTrak data.

At Johnson Controls (NYSE:JCI), we transform the environments where people live, work, learn and play. As the global leader in smart, healthy and sustainable buildings, our mission is to reimagine the performance of buildings to serve people, places and the planet.

Building on a proud history of 140 years of innovation, we deliver the blueprint of the future for industries such as healthcare, schools, data centres, airports, stadiums, manufacturing and beyond through OpenBlue, our comprehensive digital offering.

Today, with a global team of 100,000 experts in more than 150 countries, Johnson Controls offers the world`s largest portfolio of building technology and software as well as service solutions from some of the most trusted names in the industry.

Visit www.johnsoncontrols.com for more information and follow @johnsoncontrols on social platforms.

Sensormatic Solutions, the leading global retail solutions portfolio of Johnson Controls, powers safe, secure and seamless retail experiences. For more than 50 years, the brand has been at the forefront of the industry’s fast-moving technology adoption, redefining retail operations on a global scale and turning insights into actions. Sensormatic Solutions delivers an interconnected ecosystem of loss prevention, inventory intelligence and traffic insight solutions, along with our services and partners to enable retailers worldwide to innovate and elevate with precision, connecting data-driven outcomes that shape retail’s future. Please visit Sensormatic Solutions or follow us on LinkedIn, X, and our YouTube channel.