Accelerating Store Traffic: Now a Common Interest for Shoppers and Retailers

This year’s global pandemic has brought about extreme shifts in consumer behavior and priorities. Where does that put brick-and-mortar retailers? Focusing on the one thing that no one ever thought would be so vital: accelerating store traffic.

Concerns of safety and hygiene remain at the forefront of consumer’s minds – meaning that brick-and-mortar’s competition with online has increased. But when shoppers do opt to go in-store (which is preferable to retailers), research shows that they choose to shop at a location that is embracing the latest safety measures, like extra cleaning, contactless or plexiglass protected payment, and mask enforcement.

But perhaps one of the biggest shopper priorities when choosing where to shop is: speed!

“They want to get in and out….anything that can help expedite their shopping.”
– Shelley Kohan, founder and CEO of Shelmark Consulting²

McKinsey Periscopes Report from August 2020 shows that increasing store throughput has become an essential part in order to retain traffic to brick-and-mortar locations, versus online where retailer’s profits are lower:

What do you look for in a great in-store experience?

#1 answer in the US: “Store easy to navigate” (65%)
Increased due to COVID by 20-30% worldwide

#1 answer in the EU: “Not too crowded” (59%)”
Increased due to COVID by 46-107% worldwide”

Check out this hilarious example that shows a retailer (Sam’s Club) understanding of customers’ need for speed:

How can stores manage capacity and accelerate traffic (while keeping shopping convenient)?

Indoor positioning technology is the simplest solution.
When integrated into the retailer’s app, wayfinding capabilities offered by indoor GPS allow shoppers to search and navigate to their desired products quickly – minimizing interactions and in-store time, which provides a more comfortable and safe shopping experience.

“…consumers noted the importance of finding what they’re looking for.”
-McKinsey Periscopes Report 2020¹

At the same time, the analytics on store foot traffic gleaned by these systems provides the visibility needed to truly manage store capacity and improve store layouts for increased throughput.

In fact, many retailers, like Home Depot, Target and Sam’s Club are already using indoor positioning in their stores. What’s stopping the rest? Historically, indoor positioning has been a hassle, requiring extensive hardware setup and maintenance – and all for mediocre accuracy. Luckily, technology has progressed – and hyper-accurate, hardware-free indoor GPS can now be activated in a matter of hours.

Oriient is a pioneer in the revolutionary geomagnetic indoor positioning technology that has made this kind of hassle-free indoor positioning possible. Find out more about the many ways Oriient’s solution benefits retailers (like location-based marketing!) here.

^{1https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/marketing-and-sales/solutions/periscope/our-insights/surveys/reinventing-retail#}

^{2https://nrf.com/blog/how-wayfinding-technology-could-reduce-time-stores-and-covid-risk}

September 07, 2020