What is footfall? In business, this term refers to the number of people that enter your store, stall, event venue, exhibition space, or any other physical location that highlights your product and services.
In basic terms, it’s the amount of people that walk in or past what you have to offer.
This is a key performance indicator used to measure the amount of potential customer traffic a business attracts, and the conceivable sales opportunities that arise from it.
Footfall is important because it helps you understand customer behaviour and the effectiveness of your marketing strategies. With this information you can make more informed decisions about staffing, layout, and product placement.
Why footfall matters in business
What is footfall in business if you don’t take advantage of the opportunities to measure and improve it? Nothing but a wasted metric. Footfall isn’t just about counting people for the sake of it. It’s what you do with the data that matters.
For instance, it’s handy to know how many people attended your previous live events, but it’s even handier to know how you can improve on those numbers for your next event. The list below goes into more detail than explaining just what is footfall, and answers why measuring and improving footfall matters in business so much.
- Sales opportunities: Higher footfall generally leads to more potential customers, which in turns leads to increased sales and revenue.
- Layout optimisation: You can use footfall data to compare and improve the performance of different areas of your store, or different exhibition stands at an event.
- Customer behaviour insights: Footfall analytics can show peak times, how long visitors stick around and the most popular features of your store, stall or exhibition stand.
- Resource allocation: Understanding your footfall patterns will allow you to better manage your staffing and stock levels.
- Marketing effectiveness: Track footfall before, during, and after any event marketing campaigns to gauge the success of your promotions.
How can you measure footfall?
Manual counting
You can manually count the number of people entering your store or visiting your event stand by using handheld clickers. This is only really suitable for small stores or events. You may also consider turnstiles that automatically count each person as they enter.
CCTV and video analytics
This can track and count the number of people entering or moving through your space. It provides more detailed data than manual counting and may even offer demographic insights in some advanced systems. However, data protection laws must always be followed when using this technology.
Wi-Fi tracking
Many event venues use Wi-Fi footfall analytics to measure traffic, much like our EX Sensor. Smartphones can be tracked anonymously (meaning yours and their data is protected) as they enter the venue or connect to the event’s Wi-Fi network. This provides insights into unique visits, return visitors, dwell time, and movement within the area.
Bluetooth and beacon technology
This is very similar to the above, but makes use of Bluetooth technology instead. Bluetooth beacons track customers with Bluetooth-enabled devices. It’s actually more precise than Wi-Fi tracking and often used to measure both footfall and proximity-based marketing engagement.
Radio Frequency Identification (RFID)
RFID tags can be used in larger venues or events, such as conferences, trade shows, and festivals. These are placed in RFID-enabled badges, wristbands, or tickets. This allows the system to track visitor entry and movement through your space.
Facial recognition technology
Some systems use facial recognition to measure footfall. This technology doesn’t only count visitors but also gathers demographic information, like age and gender. However, the ethical and legal use of this technology must be strictly observed at all times.
Exposure Analytics’ Solutions for Measuring and Improving Footfall
Here at Exposure Analytics we have our own specialised and proven method of measuring and improving footfall for your business. This includes the introduction of 3 specific sensors, used to help gather data driven insights and measure your event’s performance.
Apex Monitor
The Apex Monitor automatically counts individuals in a defined space. Not only this, but it can also monitor your exit and entry points. This single stereoscopic 3D sensor accurately registers footfall and tracks occupancy. It also doesn’t record live images, making it fully GDPR compliant.
EX Sensor
The EX Sensor detects devices instead of detecting people, much like the Wi-Fi tracking technology mentioned in the previous paragraphs. This little sensor can tell you the total number of visitors, how many of them were engaged and how many of them return. It can also let you know the average dwell time.
People Coordinates
People Coordinates analyses the movements of your attendees and how they interact with your space, providing live data driven insights you can act on immediately. Each visitor is allocated an ID that you can track throughout the event. A full report generated after your event will highlight what went well any adjustments that may need to be made.
Dashboard
Log into your Dashboard anywhere in the world to access your data-driven insights. This interface allows you to compare multiple different events to help improve your offering in the future.
Other insights you can track at your next event
Aside from thinking about what is footfall n business, there are other key insights you could start tracking as part of your event marketing strategy.
This includes:
- Attendee demographics
- Engagement time
- Conversion metrics
- Session attendance
- Social media interactions
- Visitor feedback
- Point-of-Sale performance
- Queue times
- Capacity use
Understand footfall to improve it
We hope we’ve shed some light on the question what is footfall in business, and given you some pointers on how to improve your footfall too. If you’d like to know more, or enquire about how we can help increase your footfall and sales potential, we’d be more than happy to have a chat.
The team here at Exposure Analytics have been revolutionising marketing strategies with data driven insights since 2014. In that time we’ve provided accurate data to countless companies across more than 6,000 global events. We can use this experience and our skillset to turn your footfall into profitable return on investment at your next marketing event.
Visit our FAQ page for more information or contact us by calling 0203 982 0997 today.