Reporting on your Foot Traffic Analytics
Data is useless if it isn’t clean and compiled in a way that’s easy to read and digest.
If you’ve invested in technology track foot traffic analytics in your space, you’re probably receiving some type of CSV export or rough dashboard of your data.
While this raw data can be helpful, making the most of the improvements and changes you’re making in your space requires something a little more robust. And even if you’re tracking tech isn’t as innovative as cameras or smart flooring, you can still do much more with standard entry data.
Metrics
Again, with more technologically robust like cameras or smart flooring, there are a number of different physical space metrics you probably can or want to track. It may seem like the more the better, but sometimes you just want to get more people in the door. Align your metric selection with your current goals, and adjust your reporting accordingly. Here are a few metrics you can report on -
Entries - visitors who came into your space
Passers-by - those who passed by your space, but didn’t enter
Engagements or dwells - visitors who spent a designated amount of time in a certain zones, like a product display
Conversions - Purchases made, business cards obtained, sign-ups - must be tied to a PoS or other outside system
Paths - visitors who spent time in multiple engagement zones
Time Horizons
Depending if your space is temporary (like a trade show booth) or permanent (like a retail shop), your time horizon will vary by default. Still, it’s up to you to determine how long your reporting will run between analysis, as well as how granular your data points will be in that reporting. Will you segment your metrics every hour, or just per day? In the case of a three-day trade show, it could make sense to analyze hourly engagements in your booth, but for a retail shop, it could make more sense to analyze your data by day to get a better look at the variables you’ve introduced.
Variables and Events
Your reporting threshold can also take into consideration different man-made variables. These can be sales, holidays, and new marketing initiatives in your retail shop, or new displays or email communications for your trade show booth. These variables give you a chance to test different offerings in an attempt to improve traffic and operational efficiency in your space. It’s important to identify how long these events will last, and account for them in your reporting to see what’s really working.
Insights and Comparatives
With your horizons set and variables identified, you’ll be able to determine how and when you can compare days, weeks, events, and more, and if the changes you’re making in your space are delivering a positive outcome. How aggressively you’ll make these comparisons and how in-depth your insights will be will depend on your space and granularity of your reporting. Still, even with basic reporting and a commitment to taking action, you’ll be able to uncover insights about your space that you might not have noticed without a commitment to reporting.