A location can look busy without necessarily being right for your business. Thousands of people may pass through an area every day, but when are they there? Does activity change between weekdays and weekends? Is the location consistently busy, or does footfall rise and fall significantly throughout the year? Understanding those patterns can add an important layer of evidence to decisions about new locations, existing sites and local marketing.
That’s where footfall analytics comes in.
What is footfall analytics?
Footfall analytics uses movement data to understand how busy different locations are and how activity changes over time. Rather than relying on a single footfall count, businesses can examine patterns by hour, day, week or month and compare activity between different locations.
Our Dynamic Footfall data, available through Periscope®, allows businesses to explore a range of analytics including:
- Footfall at different times of day and days of the week
- Pedestrian and non-pedestrian movement
- Changes in activity over time
- Comparisons between different locations and areas
That distinction matters. A location attracting heavy commuter traffic at 8am may behave very differently from one that becomes busiest on Saturday afternoons, even if their overall footfall figures appear similar.
High footfall doesn’t necessarily mean a good location
It’s tempting to assume that more people means more opportunity. But a high-footfall location isn’t automatically the right location for every business.
A coffee shop, gym, convenience retailer and destination restaurant may each be interested in very different movement patterns. The volume of people passing through an area is only useful when considered in the context of the decision being made. That’s why footfall becomes particularly valuable when combined with other Location Intelligence.
Demographic and consumer data can help establish whether an area contains the types of customers a business wants to reach. Competitor data shows what else is operating nearby. Customer information can reveal where existing demand comes from.
Footfall adds another question – how is the location actually being used?
Compare potential new locations
Two potential sites may look very similar on paper. They might have comparable populations, demographics and property characteristics, yet experience quite different patterns of movement. Footfall data can help reveal those differences before a business commits to a location.
One area might be consistently busy throughout the week. Another could depend heavily on weekend visitors. A third may experience large peaks during commuting hours but relatively little activity for the rest of the day.
For a business considering expansion, those patterns can provide useful context when comparing potential locations. They don’t determine which site will succeed, but they can help identify questions that might otherwise be missed.
Understand existing locations
Footfall isn’t only useful when deciding where to open next. Comparing movement around existing locations with their performance can help businesses understand their estate more clearly. If two similar sites produce very different results, footfall may be one part of the explanation. Perhaps one benefits from a stronger weekend market, while another depends on weekday workers. Or perhaps a location has substantial passing traffic but relatively weak customer penetration.
Sometimes the interesting finding is the mismatch.
A site performing strongly despite relatively modest footfall may be particularly effective at attracting or converting the available market. Conversely, a busy location with disappointing performance may prompt questions about customer fit, competition, visibility or the proposition itself.
See how locations change over time
New developments open, transport patterns change, businesses move in and out and seasonal activity can dramatically alter how an area is used. Looking at footfall over time can help businesses identify those changes rather than relying on a snapshot taken on one particular day.
This can be particularly useful when reviewing an existing estate. A location that performed well historically may now sit within an area experiencing declining movement, while another could be benefiting from increasing activity nearby.
It also helps distinguish between a genuine shift and a predictable seasonal pattern.
Make local marketing more informed
Footfall data can also add context to local marketing decisions. For businesses investing in outdoor advertising or other geographically focused activity, understanding when and where movement is concentrated can help inform where marketing might receive greater exposure.
But footfall shouldn’t be treated as a substitute for understanding the audience. A busy location filled with the wrong people for your proposition may be less valuable than a quieter area with a much stronger concentration of potential customers.
Combining movement patterns with customer, demographic and location data provides a more useful basis for deciding where activity should be focused.
Footfall is one part of the location picture
Footfall analytics can answer some valuable questions: How busy is this location? When is it busiest? How does that change over time? And how does it compare with somewhere else?
What it can’t tell you on its own is whether a location is right for your business and that requires context.
Periscope® brings Dynamic Footfall together with demographic, customer, competitor and other location data, allowing businesses to examine movement patterns as part of a much wider picture.
