Surveys

Business Pulse: Do Jewelers Track Store Traffic?

SurveysJul 18, 2016

Business Pulse: Do Jewelers Track Store Traffic?

The latest National Jeweler/Jewelers of America survey counts how many jewelers keep tabs on the number of customers who come through their doors.

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In the latest Business Pulse survey, 59 percent of respondents reported that they do not count customer foot traffic in their store, many because they don’t have the proper equipment or technology to do so.

New York--When it comes to counting store traffic, it’s a 60-40 split for jewelers, National Jeweler/Jewelers of America’s latest Business Pulse survey shows.

Fielded between June 27 and July 5, the Pulse poll asked retailers to tell us if they counted store traffic and, if so, how and why. A total of about 131 jewelers responded.

Of those, 59 percent said they do not count or track foot traffic in their stores. This is because they don’t have the equipment or technology (40 percent), don’t think it’s important (28 percent) or don’t know how (13 percent).

Another reason given for not tracking traffic was simply not having the time or staff to do so.

The remaining 41 percent of respondents said they do keep track of how many people come into their stores, and they do so through a variety of means.

The greatest percentage, 59 percent, said they count traffic manually while 28 percent were evenly divided between using a counter they checked manually (14 percent) and using a counter that was integrated with their point-of-sale or security system (14 percent).


Less-utilized methods of counting store traffic included counting people using the video or camera feed (8 percent) and a counter that wirelessly transmits the number to a computer (2 percent). The “Other” responses were “Transaction Counter” and “POS system, track sales/jobs.”
Traffic-counting respondents also were asked what they did with the number once they captured it.

More than half of respondents said they either compared it to last year’s traffic (30 percent) or used it to calculate their conversion rate (23 percent).


Eight percent of respondents use foot traffic counts to calculate capture rate (collecting customer information when they’re in the store). The survey-takers who responded “Other” said they use the figure for “comparison,” for all of the factors combined or were “just starting with this” so couldn’t say what they would do with the number.

Other popular uses included using store traffic numbers to inform marketing decisions (13 percent) or staffing decisions (13 percent) or doing “nothing” with it (10 percent).

Michelle Graffis the editor-in-chief at National Jeweler, directing the publication’s coverage both online and in print.

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