Traffic Intelligence: The Science Of Shopper Conversion

February 2013 Integrated Solutions For Retailers

By Nancy Chisholm, vice president and general manager, Tyco Retail Solutions

To truly understand what is going on in the store, you need more than just a traffic counter, you need to know who is coming in, and why they are, or are not, buying.

Few retailers actually measure how many people are in their stores. Without direct knowledge of store traffic, advertising and promotion performance, and weather and seasonality effects, conversion of shoppers to buyers is guesswork at best. Retailers rely instead on informal or intermittent measures, and attempts at analysis often end in argument.

The good news is that there is a variety of traffic intelligence solutions available for retailers of all sizes to capture this invaluable data and use it to refine their advertising, merchandising, and operations. This information enables retailers to compete more effectively with both physical and online competitors — based on factual data, not opinions.