3 Practical Ways to Increase Store Walk-in Rate
Want to understand the implications of your data to formulate effective strategies? In this article, we will break down the meanings behind numbers and give you suggestions on how to boost, specifically, the walk-in rate with concrete examples.
Let’s start with understanding the important terms and indicators that will appear in the article frequently.
Passerby gives you the number of people who passed by a defined line from all directions outside of your store. It helps you understand the flow of people around your store and identify peak hours to capture business opportunities.
On the other hand, footfall represents the number of people that entered your store passing through an entrance line. It is an important indicator of how successful your company’s strategies are at drawing the attention of prospective customers, ultimately driving sales.
However, many external factors can affect the flow of people around your store, and simply looking at the two numbers might not be the best way to evaluate your business. Instead, by dividing the footfall by the sum of footfall and passerby, we can get the walk-in rate, which is the percentage of passersby who entered your store. This meaningful indicator brings you beyond basic headcounts. It allows you to compare and understand the effectiveness of your strategies across different times and locations, excluding those uncontrollable factors.
Now that you understand what these indicators mean, what are some strategies for you to boost your walk-in rate?
Here, we’re going to provide a simple 3 steps you can use to increase the walk-in rate.
The first step is to draw the attention of passersby to your store. This can easily be achieved by changing your entrance’s conventional signage to digital signage. Simple and static signage can be easily ignored by passersby, but dynamic and vibrant digital displays are eye-catching and will definitely grab people’s attention. In addition, you can also put on brighter lighting in the entrance to elevate the attention captured.
We have already come through a great improvement by attracting shopper’s attention. However, only by grabbing the attention is not enough to boost your walk in rate. Shoppers noticing the store doesn’t mean that they want to walk into the store. Thus, the important next step is to raise their interest.
One strategy is to arrange the window displays or place promotional signboards. The first impression consumers have with brands will be the information displayed outside of the store. A well-designed window display and signboard can visually present your brand and latest products, which can spark the interests of your target customers.
Another strategy is to station staff at the entrance to talk to customers, hand out informative leaflets and offer free samples and promotional discounts. These interactive strategies can engage passersby better and make them want to know more about your store.
After gaining the attention and interest of passersby, the last step is to encourage shoppers to walk into the store. The key is to give passersby an incentive, providing them something that they cannot get elsewhere.
One way of doing this is by hosting events and providing entertainment in physical stores. The events can take on many forms such as offering free classes, expert talks and interactive tours. These activities emphasizing on amazing offline shopping experience and building a sense of community will very likely bring in the customers.
Another way to encourage participation is by adjusting the shop ambiance. With soft lighting, cheerful music, and some demo products, you can create a welcoming environment that attracts passersby to enter the store.
Now, let’s take a closer look into how these strategies are implemented with real examples.
The unmanned shop at Hong Kong Science Park has a daily passerby of 2500 to 3500 and daily footfall of 50 to 90. The daily walk-in rate ranges from 2% to 3.6%. In order to boost that number, the shop took the following actions.
To capture the attention of passersby, the shop introduced a digital display of popular anime at the shop entrance, since many people that work there and visit the park are anime fans.
Besides that, to further raise passersby’s interests, the shop put out 2 sets of promotional boards that target passersby on weekdays and weekends respectively. On weekdays, the display board offers 15% off with every purchase, and on weekends, the discount offer was altered for visiting families and children. These actions all significantly helped the unmanned shop to drive in more shoppers.
Besides Unmanned shop, the popular brand Lululemon also serves as a successful example. The brand’s retail stores regularly hosts yoga classes and mindfulness sessions, which attracts many customers to enter the stores, and eventually creates great business potential for the brand.
As different retail stores serve different kinds of customers, the best actions for each store to would be slightly different too. However, with the principled 3 steps in mind, you will sure be able to come up with strategies that helps you gain passersby’s attention, raise their interests, and drive them into your store. Start now with these tips to increase your walk-in rate and release more business potential!
Cyclops is a retail analytics solution that can connect any surveillance camera to acquire, evaluate and interpret in-store data, including footfall and passerby count. To learn more about Cyclops can help you gain insights into your store, visit our website and blog:
