To shore up your brick and mortar retailing, reading our new eBook is a must.

How to incorporate retail traffic data into your strategy for growth [download] explores the many ways in which traffic counting and analytics can give stores the edge in today’s competitive and fast-evolving market. Labor optimization, store layout, operations planning, and data-driven marketing activities are all key benefits of retail traffic analytics, widely used today.

The eBook also looks ahead at the ways retailers are starting to use traffic counting for more diverse business wins, harnessing the latest technology. Stores in a digital leadership position — with the latest traffic counting hardware, and analytics software in place — are a step away from using artificial intelligence techniques, and incoming retail technology, to streamline the store experience further. Most would agree that it’s essential to future-proof stores today, in readiness for new shopper needs as they emerge over time.

Here are three new tech developments that can work in harmony with retail footfall analytics:

Forward-looking retailers such as Zara, Macy’s and Lululemon have been piloting RFID-based supply chain solutions for inventory tracking in recent years, and mainstream use of this technology at item level, is on the horizon. By combining RFID product journey insight with instore traffic data, retailers can learn in real-time how shoppers are interacting with inventory.

There is the potential to understand which items are tried on but abandoned at the fitting room, for instance, and make decisions on replenishment across all channels, based on the movement of RFID tagged items around the store. Watch this space for other innovations around streamlined fitting room management, smart mirrors, and the latest low energy ibeacons – all of which could give rich insights into how shoppers use stores and interact with product.

With access to a wealth of data around shopper and product movements in stores, retailers will be in a much stronger position in the battle to control stock loss. Weaknesses in store security will be far easier to pinpoint when patterns of behavior are tracked and fully understood, giving retailers a chance to retain valuable stock and better control their costs.

Interior analytics is emerging as a means of gathering insight into store performance. People counting technology within a retail space can read how traffic is flowing, and which areas of the store are uncomfortably busy, or too quiet. It can spot where queues are building, causing shoppers to abandon purchases. Merchandise hits and misses can be measured too, and the value of shop floor features such as fitting rooms or product demo areas can be calculated.

The newest technology on the scene uses Wi-Fi and customer mobile devices to count visitors into the store and track movements anonymously. This provides additional intelligence when working in conjunction with traditional counting cameras, offering additional insights such as dwell time and visit frequency. By recognizing a phone’s MAC address, a store can discover whether a shopper is a repeat visitor or a new customer, and which customer type is likely to remain in store the longest. This is all prized information if used to commercial advantage.

Our eBook shows retailers the power of winning buy-in for data-driven best practices across a retail organization. Doing so can deliver rich results and lead to positive effects on employee attitudes and business performance. Being ready to embrace technological advances will also put retailers in a strong competitive position. They will be able to understand their businesses fully, and meet the needs of customers and stakeholders.

Seeking expert help to design, execute and cascade a data-driven strategy can be the best place to start for many organizations, and ongoing consultancy support can ensure data is continually powering results.

Contact us today for a demonstration on how traffic data can improve leasing models, and boost profitability in your shopping centres.

Download How to incorporate retail traffic data into your strategy for growth for further insight and advice on how traffic data can future-proof stores.