People Counting Technology and Competitive Advantage It Brings to Shopping Malls

Officially, a shopping mall is defined as a large enclosed shopping area from which vehicle traffic is excluded. Unofficially, they are the heart and soul of communities, the temple of the retail industry, a getaway from daily troubles, a social sanctuary for teenagers and a place where immediate entertainment takes place.

Southdale Center, the first enclosed shopping mall, has been introduced to the industry in 1956 and ever since that day there has been a growing business upon shopping malls. The current number of shopping malls is 1,211 in the U.S and the number of malls open has edged higher each and every year.  Shopping Mall industry is a rapidly growing industry where the rivalry is high, therefore formulating a good strategy in order to get ahead of competitors is crucial.

One way of formulating a good strategy to forge ahead of competitors in the shopping mall industry is knowing the behavior of potential and already existing customers. Shopping Malls draw a vast number of visitors because of the variety of shopping experience and entertainment opportunities they provide.

Every shopping mall visitor follows a specific path based on their purpose of visit. People Counting Technology understanding the visitors’ needs, entrance and exit ratios, peak hours and efficiency of the mall are possible. Data obtained from this technology allows mall managers to shape both visitors’ journey and come up with a better management strategy for their malls. Here is a list of benefits People Counting systems provide to shopping mall industry and how this system could forge ahead your mall of its competitors:

Calculation of Real-Time Traffic and Peak Hours

Every business with a physical space should be aware of the number of its visitors to comprehend what is going on the bigger picture. People counting systems count the number of people entering and exiting a physical space as they provide a comparison of this data between weekend traffic and weekday, or that of last week, last month and last year. By this way, mall managers are able to discover their mall’s power hours where the most traffic is generated and manage events and campaigns accordingly. As a result, the shopping mall’s profitability will increase.

People Counting Systems come in handy also in the discovery of traffic flow according to the weather forecast. With the data obtained from people counting, mall managers are able to make well-understood visitor predictions for future days and months by analyzing the weather correlation data.

Optimization of Staff Allocations

Thanks to people counting technology, evaluation of the attraction level within a shopping mall are possible. Mall managers can collect the data from this system and keep track of areas that generate the most traffic within the mall. After data collection, comparison of the traffic within interest areas is possible. As a result, Management would know exactly the areas that generate more footfall such as food courts, cinemas, game rooms etc. With this kind of information, a better staff allocation is possible. Optimization of cleaning and security staff operations with accordance to the number of visitors is beneficial to keep up with visitors’ needs and expectations. This will create a better customer relationship and end up with increased overall visitor satisfaction.

Analysis of Floor Performances

In a shopping mall, it is crucial to know which floors work better and generate the most attraction for the visitors. With this knowledge, better marketing strategies can be created and implemented to increase the profitability of the shopping mall. With the help of a sophisticated people counting system, mall managers are able to obtain the calculated data of how many visitors enter which floors on an hourly, daily, monthly and yearly basis. Mall managers can compare floor performances and allocate staff and organize events and campaigns accordingly.

Moreover, with people counting technology it is possible to count the number of people entering each and every store within a mall. This will lead to the understanding of which stores attract more visitors and have a more footfall compared to other stores hence optimization of key spaces will be inevitable. Like so, setting the rents of these spaces accordingly and justification of the value to the tenants will be achieved.

Benchmarking

To sustain success for a business, it is important to know how good your business’s performance is when compared to others. With people counting, it is possible to compare the traffic between shopping malls and locate the highest and lowest performing malls. As a result, mall managers can analyze their malls’ performances and increase effectiveness if needed.

Shopping Mall industry is a highly competitive industry. If a business wants to be successful it should stand out and get ahead of its equivalents. To get ahead of others in the market, it is important to know your visitors’ needs and expectations and how to make them happier in your mall, so that between thousands of malls, they will be choosing you. Thanks to people counting technologies, it is possible to know the customer’s journey within your mall and with the data obtained from this system, mall managers have the power to make this journey even better.

With people & Customer counting systems, mall managers can both increase the efficiency of most visited areas with better staff allocations and marketing strategies and be able to understand the reasons why some parts are likely to be visited less and shape future plans accordingly.  In the end, the performance of the shopping mall with a dedicate people counting system will be higher when compared to others as it increases its customer satisfaction thus increasing both market value of the business and profitability.