www.footfall.com (61) 2 8907 7200

eXPeRIaN FOOTFaLL:aCTINg ON INSIgHT SeRIeS

Uncovering amazing Customer Potential: turning an overwhelming stream of consumer data into actionable business intelligence

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Everywhere consumers travel, they leave a fi ngerprint. From the transactions they make to the product searches they conduct, they are constantly generating a trail of information – and there are huge sales opportunities to be gained from interpreting this data and putting it to work.Many retailers are fully aware of how ‘capturable’ today’s consumers are, but numbers alone are not enough. This second report in our Acting on Insight series details how cutting-edge techniques can turn an overwhelming stream of customer information into actionable business intelligence, to uncover amazing customer potential.

Strike a pose! Consumers are more capturable than ever before

Counting customers is not a new phenomenon, but the sophistication with which retail traffic can be measured has increased dramatically in recent years. Retailers can now monitor who is entering and leaving their building with scientific accuracy, to build a detailed picture of retail activity during key trading periods.

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However, simply counting people moving in and out of the store is only one measure of what is happening. Retailers want to know where consumers go when they are in the vicinity, what captures their attention and when they choose to make a purchase.

advances in technology are now enabling retail businesses to create in-depth customer profiles by delivering previously unavailable data. People counting equipment, operational information and data analysis tools are being supplemented by new solutions, which use consumers’ mobile device connectivity to draw detailed pictures of visitor movement throughout their shopping journey.

What captures their attention and when they choose to make a purchase.

SALES COUNT IN-STORE QUEUE

CONSUMER

Mobile: the capturable customer’s new frontier

Using the signals being emitted from shoppers’ mobile connections, retail businesses can ascertain vital information such as:

• Movementaroundthestore• Dwelltimeinlocationsonthe

shopfloor• Activitysurroundingpromotions

andevents• Repeatvisitornumbers• Numberofpassers-byversus

storevisitors

There are 1.5 billion smartphones in the world, and consumers’ dependence on digital technology is creating new opportunities for retailers to gain granular detail on their shopping behaviour.

The challenge for shopping centres is to integrate this information with other key business data.

The challenge for retailers is to integrate this information with other key business data to create a single, detailed view of customer activity.

Until now, many retail businesses have been relying on in-house resources to combine and analyse data from these disparate sources, or looking at them in isolation rather than holistically. However, this can make it difficult or impossible to create the 360 degree overview necessary to pinpoint areas in which amazing customer potential can be uncovered.

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How can shopping centres convert consumer data into actionable insights?Once retailers have centralized all their key data, the next stage is to extract and analyze different strands of information to assess the efficiency and profitability of core business operations. Senior personnel can select the metrics relevant to their role, to determine actions that will improve the overall customer experience.

Monitor Identify Action

‘Peel off rate’ into store from passing consumers Popularity of store compared to overall footfall experiment with visual merchandising and promotional window advertising to determine what attracts the most customers

Customer journey around store Traffic ‘hot spots’ within store, dwell timesRedistribute staff to underserviced areas, change layout or promotions in areas with poorest traffic to increase footfall and time spent in store

abandoned purchase rates Sale conversion rates compared to total consumer trafficIdentify areas or times of day with poorest conversion rates, optimise merchandising and workforce availability to improve customer service

First time visitors versus repeat customers average number of visits, pinpoint high value shoppers Increase consumer engagement to increase customer value

Customer service Queue times, sales conversion rates enhance staff to customer ratio at times liable to queues forming, redistribute staff to underserviced areas

Marketing activity Footfall changes during campaign, traffic around feature displays Repeat effective marketing activities, avoid campaigns with poor ROI

Performance of store estate Benchmark performance across portfolio, average transaction value Share best practice with underperforming stores, set targets for improvement

For example:

What impact can actionable insights have on retail stores?Comprehensive business intelligence can be utilised on a day-to-day basis to make profit-driving or revenue-saving adjustments in real-time, but it is historic consumer data that provides an incredibly valuable forecasting tool.

Monitoring peaks and dips on a weekly, monthly and annual basis can reveal key trends around seasons, major events and environmental influences such as inclement weather.

Take the build-up to Christmas, for instance. although the festive period is traditionally the busiest time of year for retailers/shopping centres, there are dips and spikes in footfall during the build-up.

as this graph showing December 2013 online and offline retail traffic shows, bricks and mortar retail patterns vary significantly to online. Digital promotions clearly have an adverse impact on offline activity, with footfall decreasing on Cyber Monday and Manic Monday – the busiest two online shopping days before Christmas. Conversely, internet traffic decreases significantly between the two events, as online offers trigger festive shopping in consumers’ minds and they head to their nearest street or shopping centre instead.

In light of this, retailers would be well advised to increase staff numbers during the week following Cyber Monday, to maximise sales opportunities during the early Christmas rush.

It is also interesting to note that although offline footfall overtakes online during the later stages of the month – as missed guaranteed delivery dates send late shoppers to the streets – retail activity peaks the weekend before Christmas. Therefore, retailers would benefit from building their marketing campaigns and operational structures around this weekend, before scaling back slightly in the days preceding Christmas.

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Experian Hitwise (online) Experian Footfall (o�ine)

Mill

ion

Cyber Monday

Manic Monday Panic Monday

Boxing Day

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Which retailers are leading the fi eld when it comes to driving profi t through actionable insight?

Renowned jeweler Michael Hill has refi ned its staff rostering to align employee levels more closely to actual shopper traffi c patterns, to support ambitious growth targets.

Prior to the project, Michael Hill stores based their staffi ng levels on historical sales and transactional statistics. To generate reliable information from which to make adjustments to its workforce requirements, Michael Hill selected Experian FootFall’s Site Analytics for Retailers.

By assessing footfall in half-hour segments against staff scheduling, Michael Hill was able to streamline its operational requirements in line with accurate customer volumes. This also led to an increase in sales activity, as the retailer increased staff levels during peak trading times where there were not previously enough personnel on-hand to provide a suffi cient in-store experience.

Case study: MICHAEL HILL

“Experian FootFall has worked closely with us to help us use the data in a way that would add shareholder value. The reports have taken the guesswork out of rostering and we’ve seen signifi cant lifts in conversion rates year on year.”

Phil Taylor, Chief Financial Offi cer, Michael Hill International

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Global luxury toiletries company Crabtree & Evelyn craved accurate marketing campaign measurement across its network of 21 Australian stores, to pinpoint where it could leverage commercial advantages.

By integrating customer counting and transaction data through Experian FootFall’s Site Analytics for Retailers solution, the brand was able to ascertain the performance of each store, and benchmark them nationally.

Crabtree & Evelyn used this information to motivate each store, running inter-outlet competitions based on based on conversion rates and average transaction values. As a result, average conversion rates have improved by 5% year on year, while average transaction values have increased 6% over the same time period.

Case study: CRABTREE & EVELYN

“I was impressed with how much we could get out of the Experian FootFall solution and to see the evident payback from having more accurate performance information. We no longer have to rely on the word of third parties and can identify instances where good sales fi gures and average transaction values were masking the fact that shopping center traffi c is low. In these instances we’re now able to go back to the landlord and negotiate ourselves into a better commercial position.”

Stephen Watt, Managing Director, Crabtree & evelyn – australia

About Experian FootFallExperian FootFall is the leading global retail intelligence service, enabling international retailers and shopping centers to understand their customers inside and out, and generate greater profits from that insight.

Part of global information services group, Experian, FootFall has been providing actionable insight into consumer behavior for 20 years and now acts as a trusted advisor to retailers and shopping centers in Europe, Asia and the US.

Our customer insight solutions are used in 40 countries by thousands of

retail businesses, all of whom want to gain greater understanding of customer behavior and key performance indicators such as sales conversions, staff productivity and promotional effectiveness, in order to make profitable business decisions.

In 2014, Experian FootFall launched Interior Analytics, a new solution that uses the latest connectivity technique to track customers as they move around your store or shopping center. Available as a standalone service or to enhance our Site Analytics solutions, which captures all of your business data, Interior Analytics provides our most detailed insight into what is affecting your business performance.

To find out how Experian FootFall can improve your profits visit www.footfall.com or contact our team in your region on (61) 2 8907 7200.

www.footfall.com @footfallinsight

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