Today the customer traffic counters allow to get the extended information on store traffic, but not all the retailers know how to use it to maximum effect. Most often it is connected with the fact, that company’s management team wants to install a customer traffic counting system, but doesn’t set the goals to be reached after the system is installed. So, the new equipment is set up and is supposed to count visitors, but, in fact, one doesn’t benefit greatly from it.

ROI (Return on Investment) is one of the most significant indicators in the retail business. It is a financial coefficient, reflecting the business return level, resulting from the investments into this business. ROI is the amount of return (loss) on an investment relative to the investment cost and is measured as a percentage. ROI is a very important performance measure, demonstrating efficiency of the investments, whether it is a new advertising campaign or personnel training at special courses.

An ability to measure ROI, using a customer counting system, guarantees successful and well targeted investments for modern retailers. Integration of traffic data with other business metrics (cash desk data mostly) will allow to get the analysis of company’s efficiency in general:

1. Conversion rate
2. Customer traffic peaks (hot and cold activity periods)
3. Efficiency of promotional events

Conversion Rate

Sales figures show the amount of goods sold. Besides, they demonstrate the time, when the transactions are made. Many company leaders consider this data to be exhaustive, however, it is impossible to track the conversion rate accurately, if you don’t know the exact number of potential buyers – visitors, that haven’t made a purchase. Using the customer traffic analysis system, that tracks the number of visitors at any specific time, and combining the obtained information with sales figures, the retailers can find out, how good the sellers are at turning the visitors into buyers.

The conversion rate plays a major role in company efficiency assessment. It makes it possible for the retailers to learn about the changes in demand and customer activity in dynamics, and become aware of the seasonal dependence of sales and the way the marketing campaigns influence the demand. Therewith, the conversion rate provides the means to estimate the work of every store in the retail network.

Shopper Traffic Peaks

In addition to conversion rate measuring, the extended report from customer traffic counting system can provide data on store’s peak periods. This data is critical, when finding out what the personnel time sheet is and plays a great role, when making a schedule of personnel work. Finding a good balance in terms of the number of employees involved is one of the main tasks in retail business. Customers don’t like wasting time in lines, but so called chair warmers can come too expensive. The dynamic report with 10 minute intervals will help find a way to recruit the right personnel to provide the service of high quality.

Marketing Productivity

The modern retailers spend a significant part of their budgets on sales promotion and promotional campaigns, and such investments grow as the new ways of customer attraction emerge. It means, that it is important to choose the most effective strategy. How can the companies track the efficiency of marketing campaigns except for the sales level measuring? Counting visitors before, after and during the promotional campaign will provide data on its productivity and remnant effect. However one shouldn’t forget about the sales in this period, so the customer attraction indicators and conversion rate are to be estimated as a whole.

Besides, the structured data representation offers the following advantage: a network company can compare the results of promotional campaigns in each of its stores and figure out the factors, that influence the marketing success most of all (geography, audience, personnel etc.).

We have talked only about a few ways to maximize ROI of customer traffic counting system. Every company can find a method to fit it best, meaning that the customer counters are general-purpose systems, that can be used in a wide range of fields.