Use Traffic Counters for Understanding Your Potential Consumers
Business owners generally position a traffic counter at the entrance or exit of their facility. This enables them to study the flow of traffic easily. They realize the value of each person visiting their store or business center. This is why places like airports, hospitals, corporate organizations, casinos, super markets etc. utilize these counters at optimal levels. Simply knowing your conversion ratio and gaining insights into customer behavior can give your business a significant advantage over the competition. Further, as a retailer, you can choose automated retail traffic counters or even manually operated ones, based on your convenience. Furthermore, you could even get them in power driven or battery operated varieties too. Regardless of the model you select, each counter will provide accurate data about the visitors to your store. A Retail People Counter uses high-end technology to monitor and count people. Examples of this technology would typically include: Synthetic Intelligence Infrared Beams or Rays CCTV Cameras that use computer vision for counting people and, Thermal Imaging Thermal imaging works using the body heat generated by people visiting the store. Smaller businesses could also use manual tally clicks. However, these would not be suitable for big places like shopping malls or retail stores. Retailers consider retail counters as mediums that:
 Provide insights to improvement areas, which lead to the implementation of various solutions  Result in the emergence and conception of solutions aimed at improving service levels and,  Boost sales and profits by giving customers what they need by addressing explicit and implicit needs Thus far, estimates suggest that about fifty percent of North American retailers have installed this traffic-monitoring device. The highly sophisticated nature of the people counter has helped them make the best use of the information provided by it. Not surprisingly, the result has been a significant increase in their sales. Simply having the counter and browsing through the information is insufficient. You also need to make the right use of the data. Some retailers believe that time is money. Hence, they focus on managing inventory levels and staffing, whilst ignoring the information generated by the people counter. Thus, they use marketing and advertising gimmicks to attract customers for boosting sales. This strategy might work on occasions. However, it will not work always. In order to ensure an increased level of shoppers to your store, you need to have a good balance of products aligned with high-quality service. You also need an innovative and reliable technology that can give you insights into customer behavior and inherent inefficiencies in your services. Many retailers opt for a technology having the most features. However, they fail to understand that even if their counters offer maximum features, they (as business owners) must know how to capitalize on the insights provided. To gain that competitive edge over your rivals, you must have a reliable people counter that generates accurate reports. Moreover, you must spend time over these reports and analyze them regularly. For example, you could analyze data on your staffing levels during peak and general hours. This would enable you to know the average waiting times for customers during peak and general hours. This would help you provide adequate levels of staffing at peak times. This would improve the efficiency levels of your business. It would also enhance the customer satisfaction levels. Additionally, it could make some of these customers return for repeated business. You can also use people counters for advertising and promotion. It can provide accurate estimations about the traffic in your store. It can even highlight sections in your store that customers frequent while throwing light on those areas that customers bypass completely. This can bolster you into taking necessary action.
Managing the layout of the retail store and experimenting with your services will always give you the ability to stay ahead of your competition.