The Importance of Traffic Analytics in Experimental Stores and Spaces

Organizations open experimental (or temporary, pop-up) stores and spaces for a variety of reasons - to launch new products or features, test design changes, gather feedback, and more. The concept of experimental stores or spaces isn’t new, but with advancements in technology it’s now possible to capture granular metrics and insights from your spaces, and get a powerful look at how your space is performing. 

When launching an experimental store or space, there are a number of metrics and variables you should be capturing (and areas you can measure). While different technologies will provide you with a varying degree of metrics and granularity, here are a few of the most important metrics you should focus on to get the more actionable analytics from your experimental store.

Total traffic - The easiest metric to track is entries into your space. This will help to set a baseline of how attractive your space was and also help determine how well it performed against projections. 

Occupancy - Separate from entries, maintaining a count on occupancy will help uncover how consistently busy your space was as well. This not only helps discover how engaging your space was, but can also help you better manage staffing and other resources as well.

Engagements - Once people are in your store or space, you’ll likely want them to visit different zones throughout it. Tracking visits to these spaces and how long people spent in each helps you determine the most attractive and engaging products, features, or areas of your experimental space.

Flow and movement - With certain technology or a fully covered space, you can also capture directional insights and even the full paths people are taking throughout your store. These insights can be crucial when analyzing the layout of your space and can help in altering its design to direct visitors to certain areas.

Learn more about technologies you can launch for deep experimental store analytics.

Transactions - While not a spacial metric, tracking your transactions in comparison to entries, engagements, and occupancy will help determine how profitable your new space could be on a per-visitor basis.

Feedback - Spacial metrics are powerful, but it can also be incredibly helpful to hear directly from your visitors about what they liked in the space, what they didn’t like, and what they would suggest in the future. 

Capturing a strong mix of spacial metrics and analytics in your experimental store is crucial not just for seeing how your spaces perform, but also to set a baseline to compare to future changes or spaces you launch as well.

A big part of an experimental space or store is just that - the experimental side. Don’t shy away from making changes, testing new approaches and designs, and getting feedback from your floors and visitors. With a commitment to capturing and analyzing these insights, you can create a repeatable process for creating and improving your spaces and stores and boosting your bottom-line.

Learn more about A/B testing in physical spaces!

Learn more about how Scanalytics makes it easy for retailers to capture foot traffic data and more to improve their bottom-line and market-share.