Commentary

More Shoppers Enter Stores, More Leave Sooner

In case anyone missed it, mobile shoppers have been out in full force this holiday season.

Now we have some actual measurements of just how many people have been out shopping with some insights about their actual shopping patterns based on tracking of their phone locations and movements.

Foot traffic going by stores in November increased 20% over the same month last year, according to new research. This is in stark contrast to last month, when traffic decreased 4% from a year ago.

Meanwhile, the number of shoppers who enter a store as a percentage of that foot traffic increased 2% from the same time a year ago. This is the same amount of increase of October this year compared to October last year.

The aggregated data was collected and analyzed by Euclid and is based on foot traffic patterns from 25 million shopping sessions.  Euclid has traffic counting sensors that measure mobile phones in more than 700 shopping centers, malls and street locations around the U.S.

The data shows just how active consumers were compared to a month earlier, with a 32% increase in shopper foot traffic in November.

What I consistently find intriguing in these Euclid data reports are the patterns of shopping behavior.

For example, the shopping duration, which the study defines as the mean time from store entry to exit, was 22 minutes in November, a minute shorter than a year ago.

This could mean any number of things. Mobile shoppers may be doing more research digitally before heading to the store, merchants may have more effective displays, items may be easier to find this year or some shoppers may be leaving in frustration or been lured to a different merchant while shopping in one.

Another nugget in the research is what Euclid refers to as bounce rate, the number of shoppers who enter a store but leave within five minutes. In November, the bounce rate was 12%, compared to 9% last year, meaning more shoppers are leaving the store within five minutes of entering.

This would make it appear that for these shoppers, the merchant has a very limited time to serve them.

Retailers also appear to have fewer chances with some customers, with repeat store visits being only 12% of all store visits. This is down from 15% last year.

In yet another indicator that deals work, shoppers spent more time in stores and the average time in store jumped to 24 minutes. Of course, maybe it was that long checkout line that dragged out the stay.

Or maybe shoppers were using their phones to determine the next stop on their shopping journey.

 

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