The consumer is driving the speed of change and challenge in our industry. As a result of changing consumer behaviors, one of the top issues retailers and suppliers face is the change in retail store traffic.
Retail store traffic is affected by consumers’ ability to research information that, previously, they received by visiting the store. In the past, consumers went to the retail store to see the product, learn information about the product and get pricing in order to consider purchasing the product. Now, customers can do almost the same thing from the comfort of their home without spending time or using gas to travel to their local store. In fact, there might be a compelling reason not to visit the retail store! It might not have the product in stock and the sales associates will know less about the product than the customer can learn by watching online instructional videos or by reading customer reviews from real users who will tell them all they need to know about the quality and usefulness of the product. They certainly need a better reason today than in the past to get in their cars and use up $4 per gallon gasoline to visit their local retailer. I am suggesting we need to analyze our “customer experience” to find the answer. Your store environment now needs to be entertaining and a step up from the online experience.
Solutions to consider might include the following:
A Door Counter: It is important to have a baseline on traffic walking into your retail store to understand exactly what is happening to your store traffic. It is also necessary to use the door counter to measure the results of your actions to enhance your store traffic. Door counters are a first step to eliminating the guesswork of what is happening to store traffic, and they’ll allow you to measure the…
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