Door counting sensor-4                                                                                                                wc blog 242
Retail traffic counting system-3
Get A Better Sense For When Your Customers Are Shopping; Invest In A Door Counting Sensor 
     It’s the middle of the afternoon; you have lines of people at your checkout counters and two cashiers to check them out.  Isn’t it wonderful to see this kind of business in your store?  Someone on the sales floor needs help but you can’t assist them just now, it’s too busy.  Get the checkout lines down a little bit and THEN you can see what the customer wanted assistance with.  The thought crosses your mind that you don’t recall ever seeing it this busy when it isn’t a holiday.  Is that really true or is it just your perception at the moment?  I suppose it doesn’t matter the store is hopping and there have to be a gazillion people in here shopping.  When things calm down a bit, did you notice the shopping cart filled with merchandise pushed to the side?  Did you question why there is so much stray merchandise just plopped down all over the place?  Just signs of what a busy day you have had, right? How many people were in your store for that rush?  Does it matter?  A door counting sensor would have been a great tool to answer that question, but you haven’t invested in one. A retail traffic counting system can give you data that can help you staff the store to better serve your customers. 
     A door counting sensor keeps track of the number of visitors entering your store.  It can help establish the days your store is busiest and it breaks that information down to customer traffic by the hour.  A retail traffic counting system provides a store owner or management team with information that can help in creating more effective schedules for a business. As historical data is gathered, you will be able to compare apples to apples in other words a Monday afternoon on a labor day may require more scheduled workers than a Monday afternoon in February.   Making informed decisions about how many people you should staff your store with and at what times makes your business more efficient and profitable. 
    One of the old maxims in retail is, “Time enough to lean, time enough to clean.”  I’ve heard this said in a number of different stores and the idea is that when it is slow and your associates have nothing else to do, they can find things to stay busy like dusting, wiping counters, sweeping etc.  I would suggest to the business owner that if this is repeated frequently in your stores, it could indicate you have too many employees working at the wrong times.  Using information collected from a door counting sensor, a business manager could validate peak shopping hour trends and staff the store according to those indicators.  A regular Sunday afternoon peak rush from 3pm-6pm may mean that for those 3 hours, Sundays are scheduled heavier on cashiers so there are no lengthy lines.  How does this impact the bottom line?  Those shopping carts filled with merchandise that I mentioned in the beginning of the article would not exist.  The patron frustrated by the long line that you were so pleased with, who abandoned that purchase due to the wait time would now complete the purchase.  The extra cashier would have made the difference between losing that sale and profiting from it.  
     How about that stray merchandise stacked up around the check lanes that you considered signals that you were having a great sales day?  Many of those items may well be individual purchases that people gave up on rather than stand in a line for a single item purchase.  How do I know?  I have been one of those customers.  I do get irritated when I have to stand too long for one or two items because a store is not staffed correctly.  I have put down merchandise and left rather than spend my money.  I have also seen it happen as an employee and at that point even the best customer service can’t recover that sale.  Additionally, I have walked away from a potential purchase when I had to wait too long for service at a display case.  If I do it, and I can be a little forgiving with my background in retail, how much more does the average customer walk away because of a lack of service?  A retail counting system can help you boost sales by giving you the information you need to optimize store coverage on the floor and at checkout. 
     Don’t play a guessing game at properly staffing your store.  Invest in a retail traffic counting system so you know when your business is busiest.  Opportunity knocks, count on it with a door counting sensor!  
Get more information on Door Counting Sensors, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.     

It’s the middle of the afternoon; you have lines of people at your checkout counters and two cashiers to check them out. Isn’t it wonderful to see this kind of business in your store? Someone on the sales floor needs help but you can’t assist them just now, it’s too busy. Get the checkout lines down a little bit and THEN you can see what the customer wanted assistance with. The thought crosses your mind that you don’t recall ever seeing it this busy when it isn’t a holiday. Is that really true or is it just your perception at the moment? I suppose it doesn’t matter the store is hopping and there have to be a gazillion people in here shopping. When things calm down a bit, did you notice the shopping cart filled with merchandise pushed to the side? Did you question why there is so much stray merchandise just plopped down all over the place? Just signs of what a busy day you have had, right? How many people were in your store for that rush? Does it matter? A door counting sensor would have been a great tool to answer that question, but you haven’t invested in one. A retail traffic counting system can give you data that can help you staff the store to better serve your customers. 
     

A door counting sensor keeps track of the number of visitors entering your store. It can help establish the days your store is busiest and it breaks that information down to customer traffic by the hour. A retail traffic counting system provides a store owner or management team with information that can help in creating more effective schedules for a business. As historical data is gathered, you will be able to compare apples to apples in other words a Monday afternoon on a labor day may require more scheduled workers than a Monday afternoon in February.  Making informed decisions about how many people you should staff your store with and at what times makes your business more efficient and profitable. 
   

One of the old maxims in retail is, “Time enough to lean, time enough to clean.” I’ve heard this said in a number of different stores and the idea is that when it is slow and your associates have nothing else to do, they can find things to stay busy like dusting, wiping counters, sweeping etc. I would suggest to the business owner that if this is repeated frequently in your stores, it could indicate you have too many employees working at the wrong times. Using information collected from a door counting sensor, a business manager could validate peak shopping hour trends and staff the store according to those indicators. A regular Sunday afternoon peak rush from 3pm-6pm may mean that for those 3 hours, Sundays are scheduled heavier on cashiers so there are no lengthy lines. How does this impact the bottom line? Those shopping carts filled with merchandise that I mentioned in the beginning of the article would not exist. The patron frustrated by the long line that you were so pleased with, who abandoned that purchase due to the wait time would now complete the purchase. The extra cashier would have made the difference between losing that sale and profiting from it.  
     

How about that stray merchandise stacked up around the check lanes that you considered signals that you were having a great sales day? Many of those items may well be individual purchases that people gave up on rather than stand in a line for a single item purchase. How do I know? I have been one of those customers. I do get irritated when I have to stand too long for one or two items because a store is not staffed correctly. I have put down merchandise and left rather than spend my money. I have also seen it happen as an employee and at that point even the best customer service can’t recover that sale. Additionally, I have walked away from a potential purchase when I had to wait too long for service at a display case. If I do it, and I can be a little forgiving with my background in retail, how much more does the average customer walk away because of a lack of service? A retail counting system can help you boost sales by giving you the information you need to optimize store coverage on the floor and at checkout. 
     

Don’t play a guessing game at properly staffing your store. Invest in a retail traffic counting system so you know when your business is busiest. Opportunity knocks, count on it with a door counting sensor!  

 

Get more information on Door Counting Sensors, contact us or call 1.770.426.0547 today.