Footfall: 7 ways to get more customers through the door

Consumers vote with their feet. More than 80% of retail sales still occur in a physical location, and high footfall remains the cornerstone of any competitive bricks and mortar retail business.

​​Footfall is the number of people who enter a physical location within a given period. In retail, it’s a key metric of sales and customer experience performance, indicating the overall health and appeal of a retail setting.

Footfall data also provides valuable insights into customer behaviour. It can be captured by retailers and used to inform staffing levels, store layouts, marketing strategies, real estate decisions, and more.

Here, we’ll explore what footfall is and how it can be measured. We’ll also share seven effective ways to boost the number of engaged customers crossing your store threshold.

Footfall (also known as foot traffic) refers to the number of people who visit a physical space (such as an event venue, retail complex, or shop floor) within a set time frame.

In retail, footfall data provides an indication of a location’s appeal and convenience for customers. It can also be analysed to understand and shape the customer journey in and beyond physical retail settings.

Footfall tells you what works for customers – how to get them in and get them spending. Retail settings with higher footfall benefit from higher profitability and increased brand awareness. However, footfall analytics is about more than tracking store performance; it’s about using data to improve it.

Footfall analysis tells you:

• When to schedule more staff
• How best to lay out your store
• Whether your marketing strategy is working

It’s a sensitive indicator you can use to fine-tune the retail experience. For example, footfall is a key element of your conversion rate – determining how many prospective versus actual customers come through your door. It can also help you figure out your average transaction value (how much customers are spending in-store).

If your footfall is high but sales aren’t, it might be time to revisit your customer journey. If footfall is low, you’ll need strategies to attract more customers.

To reap the benefits of footfall analysis, you need a way to capture data. These are the different systems retailers use for measuring footfall and visitor activity, offering different levels of detail, expense, and accuracy.

Once you’ve measured your footfall, it’s time to get more customers through your door. Here are seven proven ways to increase foot traffic:

1. Drive footfall with in-store events and workshops
2. Boost visits through buy-online, pick-up-in-store services (BOPIS)
3. Capture the attention of prospective customers with social media campaigns
4. Build loyalty through exclusive in-store perks
5. Enhance the shopping experience with layout, ambience, and associates
6. Create urgency and grab attention with time-limited promotions and flash sales
7. Leverage community partnerships and local event marketing

What it is: Hosting interactive demos, classes, or VIP nights that give customers a reason to visit in person.

Why it works: Shoppers crave experiences that can’t be replicated online, and they’re prepared to spend on them; globally, 81% of customers are willing to pay more for immersive retail experiences, and 75% expect them by 2027 .

Loyalty program events can be a great way to reward and encourage repeat customers. We found that Gen Z shoppers are three times more likely than baby boomers to value experiential benefits in loyalty programs such as exclusive events and in-store classes.

Major retailers such as Nike and Glossier have invested in AI-powered, interactive retail events, creating personalised pop-ups and activations to launch new products and build positive brand associations.

Tip: Promote events through emails, social media marketing, and loyalty programs to maximise attendance.

What it is: Offer buy-online, pick-up-in-store services supported by unified inventory and checkout systems. Unified commerce delivers seamless customer experiences across online and in-store channels, giving shoppers flexibility and retail businesses a competitive edge. We’ve found that, while nine in 10 retailers have unified commerce initiatives underway, only 15% have fully realised their value.

Why it works: Customers value online convenience with in-store immediacy. When they come to collect one purchase, they’re likely to buy more. Seventy-five per cent of shoppers who have used BOPIS say they are likely to make an additional purchase, and 49% of shoppers were found to make unintended purchases while picking up items in-store.

This is borne out in sales data from major retailers. Target reported higher in-store sales from customers picking up online orders during holiday seasons and continues to employ a ‘stores-as-hubs ’ model offering multiple BOPIS options.

Tip: Position impulse-buy items near collection counters to capture incremental sales.

What it is: Optimise Google Business Profiles, reviews, and local ads while running social discovery campaigns.

Why it works: Most retail shoppers start their journey online before visiting a physical store. Meet them where they are. Search engine optimisation is a great, low-cost way to stay competitive and increase brand awareness so that your business is the first port of call when shoppers are ready to spend.

Roughly 46% of Google searches are local searches; “near me” searches are one of the most common types. Our research shows that YouTube is the most popular social platform for product discovery. We also learned that 40% of Gen Z use TikTok to discover products, versus 4% of baby boomers.

One café chain saw store traffic take off after tying trending TikTok drinks to limited-time in-store exclusives. The Japanese-inspired snack company Little Moons saw sales increase 1,300% in the UK following a TikTok marketing campaign.

Tip: Keep location profiles updated weekly and integrate trending products from social platforms into store promotions.

What it is: Run loyalty programs that reward customers with in-store discounts, freebies, or VIP access.

Why it works: Perks create reasons to return while strengthening emotional ties with your brand. Nearly three-quarters (72%) of the U.S. shoppers we surveyed said loyalty programs make them more likely to continue doing business with brands, and 84% of loyalty program members say these programs make them more likely to repurchase.

Following investment in loyalty management solutions like Commerce Cloud and Marketing Cloud, Australian beauty retailer MECCA saw an increase in omni-shoppers (roughly 12% to 30% of their customer base) over three years.

Tip: Use loyalty data to personalise offers and send exclusive in-store rewards via mobile apps.

What it is: Improve store design, sensory elements, and staff empowerment to elevate the in-person experience.

Why it works: Engaging environments and helpful associates encourage longer visits and higher spend. Retail consumers say they’re most likely to visit stores in person if they offer:

• Exclusive in-store loyalty program perks (61%)
• Dining options, like a coffee or wine bar (48%)
• Interactive displays, kiosks, or activities (29%)

Apple Stores are a great example of retail spaces that use open layouts, experiential product try-ons, and well-trained staff to drive foot traffic.

Tip: Equip associates with mobile devices and customer insights to personalise service on the floor.

What it is: Run one-day deals, BOGO offers, or clearance events promoted with urgency and surprise.

Why it works: Shoppers respond strongly to time-limited value propositions such as shopping events and Black Friday sales, which have spread beyond the United States and proved popular in Australia. In fact, Australian retail turnover rose 0.8 per cent in November 2024 , according to seasonally adjusted figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Tip: Use push notifications and SMS alerts to drive urgency and capture impulse-driven visits.

What it is: Partner with nearby businesses, schools, or events and use geo-targeted ads to capture local audiences.

Why it works: Community-driven efforts increase trust, visibility, and contextual relevance. Marketing to local customers capitalises on consumer preferences to shop local and receive a community-centred experience from their retailers. Seventy per cent of consumers desire retail spaces to reflect the people who live in the area, and 51% prefer local brands to well-known ones.

One electronics retailer reportedly saw a 30% increase in footfall by targeting Taylor Swift concert attendees with promotions.

Tip: Align campaigns with seasonal events or festivals and deploy geofencing marketing, such as mobile ads, for maximum impact.

Now that you’ve employed strategies to increase foot traffic, you’ll want to track their impact. Analysing and comparing footfall and sales data over time will help you drive efficiencies and translate traffic into revenue.

These five essential metrics will help you see what’s getting traction:

Conversion rates tell you what proportion of visitors are spending money in stores. A high conversion rate is an indication that a store provides an appealing customer journey from entrance to checkout, and that you’re capitalising on footfall.

Average transaction value is the total revenue from sales divided by the total number of transactions during a specified period. A high ATV indicates that customers are spending more per purchase and that your footfall strategies are attracting the right shoppers.

Dwell time is the average number of minutes visitors spend inside a store. Higher dwell times can indicate high visitor engagement. Generally, this means higher sales, but bear in mind that longer visits can signal that a store is tricky to navigate. A dwell time that is just right will see customers leaving satisfied, not delayed, and correlate with a high conversion rate.

Peak vs. off-peak traffic refers to the time frames in which footfall fluctuates up or down. Increased footfall may extend peak traffic hours. Monitoring patterns in the peaks and troughs in footfall will help you optimise staffing levels, deploy effective campaigns, improve efficiency and maintain a strong customer service experience.

Queue time is the average length of time customers wait to be served. As with dwell time, this can impact customer satisfaction. Faster service and competitive queue times attract repeat customers. Increasing footfall may increase queue time – adjust staffing levels or store layout accordingly.

Now you know what metrics to track, you’ll want to transform this data into actionable intelligence. Here’s a look at some tools that can help you collect, analyse and leverage footfall data, turning profitable insights into practical steps forward:

Customer behaviour continues to demonstrate that footfall is an essential metric to track for any retailer with a bricks and mortar presence. When you entice more paying customers across your threshold, you’ll benefit from higher sales, increased brand loyalty and richer customer experience insights to feed back into your marketing.

To increase footfall, start small. Make incremental changes, track progress and scale up the strategies that deliver with real-time, data-driven tools. Salesforce offers an ecosystem of complementary software that can help to leverage metrics like footfall into profit.

To see first-hand how a CRM system can use KPIs to build a loyal customer base, take a closer look at Salesforce Retail Cloud.