STATE COLLEGE, Pa. -- Using video cameras, point-of-sale data and exit interviews, researchers have discovered nuances in foot-traffic patterns that may help convenience retailers better lay out their stores.
In the seventh annual C-Store Shopper Insights (CSI) program provided exclusively to CSP magazine by VideoMining, State College, Pa., the study analyzed 83.5 million shopping trips and how store layout determined basket-size sales and shopper-to-buyer “conversion” rates (or how often someone who walked into a store actually bought something).
Study participants included BP America’s ampm, Chevron, Circle K, Cumberland Farms, Giant Eagle’s GetGo stores, Holiday Stationstores, Maverik, RaceTrac, Rutter’s Farm Stores, Thorntons and Vintners Distributors’ Loop convenience stores.
Here are examples of how different store layouts affected store traffic …
A center-store entrance has a tendency to force people straight to the counter, possibly contributing to a lower conversion rate (57%) by allowing the customer to bypass impulse items.
With the counter and key destination spots toward the entrance, opportunities to interrupt a shopper and gain an impulse buy may hurt store conversion rates (56%).
A store with two entrances and destination spots spread throughout the store breaks up traffic and allows for more points of interruption. This layout has a higher conversion rate (73%), but the layout may also cause more confusion, the study said.
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