2025 Guide to Increase Foot Traffic To Your Retail Stores

Best Guide to Increase Foot Traffic To Your Retail Stores 2024

Physical shop owners are almost always looking for ways to drive visitors to their outlets to increase foot traffic. Furthermore, foot traffic partly determines how well a physical location is doing.

Physical stores, popularly known as brick-and-mortar outlets, are still relevant in this day and age as one of the most popular forms to shop, despite the dominance of e-commerce.

Many people still shop at physical locations, and this trend does not seem to decline because of all the benefits of buying from a real shop. However, to ensure that your brick-and-mortar outlet continues to be relevant, it needs to have a few key indicators of being a successful outlet, one of these indicators is “foot traffic”. 

“Foot traffic” or footfall simply refers to the number of people who are in your store at any given time. Furthermore, the number of visitors a retail shop receives can directly be associated with how many sales a store makes because the more customers you have in your store, the more chances you have to sell products. Therefore, foot traffic in a retail store is a very crucial element that many store owners look to increase.

There are many benefits of foot traffic, and some of these include:

1. More Sales – More people means more chances for sales
2. Higher Brand Awareness – The more people visit your store, the more news it is likely to spread
3. Direct Marketing Opportunities – You will be able to market products to more customers who visit your outlets
4. Data Collection Opportunities – You have more chances to collect customer data such as emails and telephone numbers
5. Bustling Atmosphere – A crowd of people in your shop is also likely to attract other passing customers 

In this article, we will go over 8 proven methods that will drive traffic to your retail outlets.

Method 1: Loyalty Programs to Get Foot Traffic In a Retail Store

The first way to raise foot traffic to your store is to have a loyalty program for frequent customers.

Most likely you will have a few people who regularly visit your local store. Regular customers can visit once a week, once a month, or even daily. Therefore, it is very important to prevent these customers from becoming bored with your products. Moreover, to make sure these regular customers keep coming back to your shop, you can offer them a loyalty program.

A loyalty program can be in many forms, such as:

1. A points collection system, where customers earn points for every purchase which can be redeemed to buy other products
2. An offer to add a discount to purchases once the minimum number of purchases is completed per month
3. Exclusive discounts and offers on certain products or on products that were previously purchased by the customer

A loyalty program will encourage regular customers to come back to your physical location. In addition, it will also encourage them to spend more. As a result, you will surely boost the number of visitors to your storefront.

Method 2: Promotional or Seasonal Events to Drive Traffic

More customers will visit your store if there is something that will attract them to it. And there is no better attraction than a promotional or seasonal event.

Promotional events that are centered around a certain holiday or season, are one of the best ways to drive more traffic into your retail store. This is because these events create an excellent atmosphere for attracting and retaining customers.

Often promotional events will include elements such as:

1. A Theme – Winter Sale, End-of-Year Sale, National Day, etc.
2. Free Food and Drinks
3. Decorations
4. Music
5. Special Offers – Buy one, receive one free

Organizing a promotional event for your branches is most likely to bring visitors to your business. However, you will need to add certain elements that will make your promotional event even more attractive to customers.

Firstly, you can try giving free samples, trials, or demos of your product to your customers. Giving free samples, trials or demos is a splendid way to get customers into your store. Furthermore, trying a product raises the customer’s confidence in it, which may result in a purchase.

Secondly, try giving discount coupons to people, either through email or handouts. This will incentivize people to visit your outlets and redeem that discount coupon, resulting in heavy visitor traffic.

Lastly, the most obvious element to have in a promotional event is discounted products. Discounted products are a surefire way to attract more people. By nature, human beings are attracted to big discounts and unbeatable bargains. Therefore, having either of these in your promotional event is bound to give you more visitor traffic.

Method 3: Improve Your Website to Increase Foot Traffic in Retail Stores

You will need to make minor changes and tweaks to your website to make it more visible to potential customers. Furthermore, your website visitors can be directed to your physical location to make purchases.

Improvements to your website can range from simple SEO optimization, website theme overhaul, adding new features, etc. In this section, we will look at one of the most effective improvements to your website that can boost visitor traffic.

The following improvement can also be used if you have an e-commerce store or if you are planning to open one. Furthermore, Shopify is one of the best platforms to launch an e-commerce store. Moreover, here is a guide on how to create the best Shopify store for your business.

Install a Product/Store Locator to Improve Your Website

A store locator is a website plugin that helps your customers reach your shops by providing them with all the information they need, such as:

1. Address
2. Directions 
3. Store Timings
4. Location

Once your customer has decided on a product he/she want to buy, you will need to be able to guide them to your outlets in such a way that they reach them easily and quickly, and this can be done by using a store locator. Furthermore, guiding your customer easily to your physical locations is extremely important because without accurate information, your customer might end up getting lost and frustrated, and he/she might decide to abandon making the trip to your store. Therefore, it is highly recommended to use a store locator to make sure paying customers arrive at your location using zip codes, in a good mood. In addition, using a store locator, such as WP Maps, is an effective way to increase traffic in your retail outlets.

Adding a store locator to your website will take your business a step further in becoming either an omnichannel or multichannel business. If you are interested in learning more about omnichannel and multichannel business models, please see this article: Omnichannel vs Multichannel: What is the Key Difference Between Omnichannel and Multichannel

Method 4: Promote Your Store on Social Media to Boost Foot Traffic

Another effective way to get heavy traffic in your retail storefront is by promoting your locations on relevant social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, Pinterest, etc. 

Identify the Most Relevant Social Media Platform for Your Small Business

Social media platforms often have thousands, if not millions, of people on them. Therefore, social media platforms are an excellent opportunity for retail business owners to raise the visibility of their outlets. However, the key here is to identify which social media platform your target audience is present in and to target that specific platform. Furthermore, you should avoid promoting on all social media platforms for 2 reasons:

1. It will take more time and resources to promote your business on all platforms
2. Promoting on social media platforms with irrelevant information might get your account suspended

Method 5: Promoting Your Products and Stores to Increase Foot Traffic

Once you have identified the most relevant social media platform, you can use it to advertise your p

Once you have identified the most relevant social media platform, you can use it to advertise your products and stores by:

1. Creating posts with many details about your business.
2. Connecting with various people
3. Replying with relevant information in the comments sections

Typically, many people leave questions on social media platforms on where they can get certain products, or which shop has certain products available. This can be a great opportunity for you to introduce your products and stores to them by replying to their comments.

Once you begin promoting your store and products on social media, you will raise the visibility of your store and products to potential customers. In addition, if your products match the customer’s requirements, they might end up coming to your store. As a result, you will notice a boost in retail visitor traffic at your store.

Method 6: Have a Business Referral System in Place to Raise Foot Traffic

A referral system involves informing your customers about your products and stores from third-party entities such as other retailers and existing customers. In addition, by having a referral system in place you can ensure more people are informed about your products and stores from various sources. As a result, you can potentially see a boost in in-store traffic.

One popular form of referral is to give your existing customers an incentive to bring along their friends or families to your retail shop.

You could offer your existing customers an exclusive discount if they bring other people to your store with them. With this system in place, you have the opportunity to increase store traffic, while your existing customer gets an exclusive discount. However, you will need to have a good tracking system in place to make sure no one keeps bringing in the same person over and over again.

Another possible referral system is to partner up with another business and make an agreement where each retailer will refer the other retailer’s store to existing customers. In this way, both retailers have the chance to raise their store traffic.

However, this method will only work if you partner with retailers who sell complementary products to your products. For example, if you sell cell phones, you can make an effective partnership with a retailer who sells cell phone accessories.

Method 7: Organize an Event to Increase Foot Traffic

Similar to running a promotional offer, organizing a fun event with music, games, food, etc. around your store is an excellent way to grab the attention of passersby outside your store and encourage them to walk into your store. Furthermore, you can even promote the event on social media to get even more people into your store.

You do not necessarily need to host a huge mega-event, even a small one that grabs people’s attention will do. Furthermore, there are countless ideas for fun events you can use to boost foot traffic in your store. Just pick one that suits your style and budget, and you’ll be good to go.

Organizing an event may require a lot of resources to cover the cost of all the elements needed for an event. However, it will be very worth it in the long run because you will surely attract new customers to your store, and thus raise store foot traffic.

Method 8: Have Basic Facilities To Raise Traffic in Your Store

This method mainly applies to store owners who own huge stores such as supermarkets, megastores, multi-story buildings, etc.

If you want more people to come to your store, come back to your store again, or remain in your store for a long time, you will need to make your store environment comfortable for your customers by providing them with some basic facilities such as:

1. Bathrooms
2. A Cafeteria
3. Air Conditioning
4. Free Wi-Fi
5. A Sitting Area

Please note that these facilities are not a must for every store. Furthermore, you don’t necessarily have to provide 5-star facilities. However, if your store requires the customer to be on their feet for hours browsing and shopping, you will need to have at least the basic facilities in place so that your customer knows that shopping at your store will not be very tiring. Furthermore, if customers feel comfortable at your store, they will most likely want to return. Whereas, customers who don’t feel comfortable while shopping at your store may be reluctant to come back again.

Providing a comfortable environment to customers with basic facilities and amenities in place is sure to get heavy foot traffic, which increases the chances of making more sales.

Conclusion

Having heavy foot traffic in your retail store is a good indicator of the “health” of your business. Having heavy foot traffic, it is also one of the many ways you can effectively grow your business. Furthermore, the more store foot traffic you get, the more chances you have of customers making a purchase. Moreover, by using the 7 methods mentioned in this article, you will no doubt begin to see an increase in foot traffic in your retail store. 

If you are just starting your business, then for the time being, gaining heavy foot traffic should not be high on your list. Instead, you should focus more on raising start-up funds to finance your business.

On a final note, you should also look up how to increase your conversion rate because good foot traffic will go to waste if your customers don’t buy anything at all when they walk into your store.

If you would like to explore more diverse topics related to e-commerce, please see our blog page.