Foot Traffic: Measure and Increase Store Visits (2026)

Foot traffic is a metric that tells you how many people are walking into your store. These numbers reveal customer habits, help you place products where they’re more likely to sell, and measure how promotions and store layout changes affect store visits.

US monthly foot traffic to indoor malls rose year over year in key 2025 months, including a 6.3% increase in May, according to eMarketer. This is a sign that in-person retail continues to draw shoppers, and store owners can use foot traffic data to capitalize on the trend. 

This guide will show you how to measure and analyze your foot traffic, what tools can help you track it, and proven strategies to bring more shoppers into your store. 

What is foot traffic?

Foot traffic is the number of people who enter a physical location during a set period of time. In retail, store owners track foot traffic to understand how many shoppers come into a store, so that they can compare location performance, inventory, and promotions around in-person demand. 

In areas like commercial real estate and site selection, developers and leasing teams use mobility and pedestrian data to compare candidate sites, study where visitors come from, and measure how accessible a location is at different times of day. 

What is foot traffic in retail?

Foot traffic in retail is the number of customers who enter your store in a given time period. Retail foot traffic numbers can be monitored either manually using counters, or digitally using cameras and retail tracking software. 

There are many factors that can impact your store’s foot traffic, including:

• Location
• Local events
• Traffic patterns
• Proximity to competitors

Tip: If you want to test foot traffic before committing to leasing a commercial space, consider opening a pop-up shop first to test the area. To open a pop-up shop and start selling with Shopify, go to your Shopify admin, click the plus icon next to “Sales channels,” and select “Point of Sale.”

Why foot traffic is a key retail metric

The more foot traffic data you have to interpret, the better equipped you are to spot patterns, measure your store’s performance, identify sales opportunities, and make cost-effective decisions around labor and marketing. For instance, you can determine what your store’s busiest days are based on both total sales and foot traffic, which can help with scheduling retail staff. 

Foot traffic can also give you more insight into how external factors (like weather) or your latest marketing strategies are affecting revenue. Comparing foot traffic levels to the total number of orders you processed helps you see if your staff are turning opportunities into sales.

The strategic benefits of tracking foot traffic

Tracking foot traffic can help you improve overall store performance through:

• Extra customer insights. By tracking foot traffic patterns, you’ll get a better understanding of your customers and their activity and buying habits.
• Optimized staffing. Foot traffic data helps you schedule more staff during peak shopping hours and reduce staff during slow periods to manage labor costs.
• Improved product assortment and inventory planning. Some foot traffic tracking tools have heat map features that help you understand how customers move around your store. Use this to optimize space, improve your store layout, and increase sales with strategic product placement.
• Marketing optimization. According to Shopify’s November 2025 Merchant Survey,* 31% of established merchants earning $1 million or more cited paid advertising as their most effective growth strategy, while merchants earning under $100,000 found organic social media and product expansion more effective. By tracking foot traffic on the day of a promotion, you’ll be able to understand how effective your marketing efforts are.
• Better understand external factors. Foot traffic data can also help you understand how seasonality and weather, local traffic patterns, nearby events, and proximity to public transportation affect store visits and performance.

Tip: Shopify unifies order, customer, and inventory data to give a complete 360-degree view on retail performance. Monitor how customers move from online to offline channels, measure the impact of marketing campaigns, and view detailed inventory reports to make smarter decisions.

How to measure and analyze foot traffic

Figuring out how to measure foot traffic can be difficult. It’s important to consider which tools you’ll use, how much you’ll spend on them, and what you’ll do with the data.

Choosing the right foot-traffic analytics tools

Tracking foot-traffic trends over time can help you identify how factors like seasonality or marketing activations impact store foot traffic.

Here are some tools that automatically gather in-store foot traffic intel:

• Thermal sensors. Dor’s thermal-sensing people-counter is battery operated and sticks above the entrance of your store. It anonymously counts foot traffic without capturing customer data or requiring IT setup.
• Surveillance cameras. WingArc offers technology that runs a video-analytics algorithm over the feed from your security system to measure and track customer activity. It also generates heat maps to view customer flow as well as low-traffic and high-traffic areas of the store.
• Point-of-sale (POS) data. Cross-reference the total number of shoppers who entered your store that you measured with traffic-tracking software to the total number of orders or gross sales processed by your store’s POS system.
• Wi-Fi signal tracking. Tools like Aislelabs use signals from shoppers’ mobile devices to estimate how people move through and around a location. This gives retailers a passive way to study broader movement patterns, including dwell time and repeat visits.
• Mobile device location data. Platforms like Kepler Analytics and ShopperTrak use aggregated location data to help businesses analyze traffic patterns around a store, including passersby who never enter. This can help with site selection, benchmark performance, and understanding trade areas.
• Social engagement. You can measure foot traffic by encouraging customers to check in at in-store demos, or holding an in-store event that requires attendees to RSVP and/or fill out a survey that provides you with their data. You can also require customers to provide information like an email address when they log in to the free store Wi-Fi.

Whichever tools you choose, keep in mind that data accuracy can vary by tool and environment, and your business does need to adhere to the privacy requirements for your state and country when using these methods.

Manual and low-cost counting methods

If you’re not quite ready to invest in software, start by keeping a tally of the number of people who enter your retail store each day. Manually jot down the numbers in a notebook or use a tally or click counter. This method won’t give you the most accurate results, but serves as a good starting point. 

Interpreting your foot-traffic data to find opportunities

Foot traffic data can help you schedule the right number of sales associates for your busy and slow times, track conversion rates alongside sales data, and ensure that your store is designed in a way that facilitates customer engagement.

Here’s how to apply foot traffic data in practice:

• Identify cold spots in your store where products aren’t getting attention, and rearrange your layout to guide customer flow toward them.
• Pinpoint hot spots that get the most foot traffic and place popular items there, or rearrange underperforming products to be in more visible spots. 
• Find days with the highest footfall to understand when your store is busiest and schedule staff, promotions, or events effectively.
• Compare foot traffic against marketing campaigns to understand whether promotions, window displays, or events actually draw more people inside.

How to increase foot traffic: 10 strategies

1. Use your online presence to encourage store visits
2. Host in-store events
3. Perfect your window display
4. Improve store layout and design
5. Differentiate your products
6. Offer in-store exclusives
7. Offer omnichannel fulfillment options
8. Award loyalty points for in-store shopping
9. Build community through local partnerships
10. Improve store accessibility

More retailers are blurring the lines between physical and digital customer experiences to boost sales and foot traffic. Here are 10 ways to increase foot traffic using online and offline tactics:

1. Use your online presence to encourage store visits

An omnichannel retail strategy promotes your brick-and-mortar store through other sales channels like your ecommerce website, marketplace listings, and social media storefront. But there’s more to it than creating an online store.

You can make the most of a strong online presence to increase foot traffic by: 

• Investing in local SEO. Help local shoppers find your retail store in search results with local landing pages that target keywords they’re searching for. Blenders Eyewear, for example, includes regional phrases like “Pacific Beach,” “Mission Bay,” and “La Jolla” on the landing page for their Pacific Beach flagship store.
• Optimizing local search listings. Google Business Profile, Yelp, and Apple Maps are free and let you display store information, including a link to your website, store hours, contact details, a map, reviews, and photos of your products. This way, shoppers can easily find your store and plan a visit.
• Improving social engagement. By improving engagement on your social media channels, you’ll interact with more potential and existing customers. “I would invite any business right now to consider a content strategy, not just to drive hard KPIs such as sales traffic, but to really go back to what engagement means,” says Jeremiah Curvers, co-founder and CEO of Polysleep, in a Shopify Masters interview. “It’s not just comments and participation when you do a contest and how many likes you have. Are you really able to communicate with your audience to get real data that could be applicable in your day-to-day decisions?”

Tip: Shopify is the only platform to natively unify POS and ecommerce. Customers get the same seamless experience wherever they prefer to shop, while you get one centralized operating system to streamline operations. An independent research study found this unified approach reduces total cost of ownership (TCO) by 22% on average. 

2. Host in-store events

Invite customers to in-store events that introduce new products and demos, and celebrate anniversaries, holidays, or customer loyalty. “We have this craving for tangible experiences, tactile experiences,” says Nicola Hamilton, founder of Issues Magazine Shop, in a Shopify Masters episode. “Like we want to go and experience something in a community that is like three dimensions.”

Events can also function as experiential retail, not just promotional tactics. They increase engagement with your customer base, giving you the chance to interact with shoppers face to face in a social setting. This offers the kind of interaction, community, and engagement that can help physical retailers compete with online-only brands.

Luggage brand BÉIS applies this concept to pop-up shops. It recently hosted a “BÉIS wash” event, where existing customers could bring in their bags for a professional clean.

CEO Adeela Hussain Johnson says as a result of these in-person experiences, “We see an average 30% increase in traffic during pop-up activation and an average revenue lift of 10%.” Customers acquired through the retail activation also have a 20% higher 12-month long-term value.

3. Perfect your window display

Visual merchandising describes how you display items around the store, including product displays, mannequins, and window displays. For example, placing bestselling products at the front of the store can attract passersby who see them from the street, while eye-catching window displays turn heads and drive foot traffic. 

From sidewalk signs to Instagrammable artwork, creative window displays can also help draw in more foot traffic. And if customers take photos and share them on social media, you’ll have enticed them to visit and received more online exposure for your retail store.

4. Improve store layout and design

Developing a retail merchandising strategy in tandem with your plans for store design will help you make the most of floor space to improve traffic flow. It will also help you plan new product drops and implement cross-merchandising strategies to increase cross-selling and upselling opportunities. 

Here are some additional tips to maximize foot traffic through store layout and design: 

• Consider seasons, special occasions, and holidays when creating your merchandising plan.
• Use creative displays to make the in-store experience engaging and unique. 
• Focus on themes or group products by brand for an easier customer experience. 
• Constantly refresh product displays and fixtures, either with new products or by shifting merchandise to attract customers back into your store more often. 

Essential oil brand NEOM, for example, displays samples of its bestselling products in-store. The scent alone is enough to draw in passersby. Once they’re in, they can “try before they buy” and find a scent they love.

5. Differentiate your products

High overall foot traffic in your area doesn’t guarantee success. You’ll need to find ways to win over customers from other retailers and make enough sales to justify the higher rent you’re likely paying to set up shop in a high traffic zone. 

According to Shopify’s November 2025 Merchant Survey,* product quality is the most commonly cited competitive advantage among established merchants (48%), followed by brand reputation (43%).

While you’re looking for a commercial space, take note of the types of retailers that are already in the area. If you sell activewear and there’s already a boutique that sells fitness clothing, it could be an indication that you’ll reach your target audience. But if your products are too similar, you run the risk of losing business to the store that already has a loyal customer base. 

The right differentiator can also vary by vertical. For example, home and garden merchants most often lead with product quality (62%), food and beverage merchants with brand reputation (57%), and clothing and apparel merchants through social media presence.

6. Offer in-store exclusives

In-store exclusives can increase foot traffic during slow periods or when you need to liquidate inventory. Even if customers don’t make it to your event, your marketing efforts can still drive brand awareness.

That could include special offers such as:

• Limited-edition products
• Exclusive bundles
• Early releases
• Special discounts
• Events or workshops 

As an example, Jewelry retailer Little Words Project unifies customer data inside Shopify, which is something the brand uses to invite VIP customers back in-store. “We’re using data we’re getting from Shopify to attract customers near particular stores for exclusive beading experiences and appreciation events,” says Martin Hogan, director of stores at Little Words Project. 

This creates a continuous loop of personalized outreach. As Hogan explains, “If you’ve had a great experience at our beading table or if you tell us a special story, we can follow up with you.”

7. Offer omnichannel fulfillment options

Modern order fulfillment options such as buy online, pickup in-store (BOPIS) and curbside pickup let you create an easy online-to-offline shopping experience that also boosts customer satisfaction. In Sensormatic Solutions’ 2025 survey, 46% of respondents said they were interested in BOPIS, underscoring how common these fulfillment options have become.

Another benefit is when a customer comes to your store to pick up their order, they may take a quick look around and could wind up buying more products, leading to more revenue. 

Tip: Enable in-store pickup availability in Shopify admin to show online shoppers whether a product is available for pickup at one of your stores.

8. Award loyalty points for in-store shopping

Combat rising customer acquisition costs by inviting previous shoppers back in-store through a POS loyalty program. As an extra incentive to shop in-store instead of online, offer to increase the value of loyalty points on retail purchases. For example, they could earn five points for every dollar spent in-store, compared to one point online. 

9. Build community through local partnerships

Host events in partnership with other local businesses to increase your reach and bring customers in-store. Those retailers will also promote the event via social media, email marketing, and word of mouth, driving increased foot traffic to your store.

If you have extra square footage that you’re not using in-store, take your partnership strategy a step further by hosting a shop-in-shop experience. Invite the partner to display their products within your space and have their team drive their own audience toward your location. 

10. Improve store accessibility

All retail stores must be accessible by law, but making it easier and more convenient to visit can drive foot traffic to your store and away from competitors who don’t.

Simple tips to improve the retail customer experience and create an inclusive store include: 

• Extended weeknight hours 
• Sharing proximity to bus or train stops
• Designated parking spaces for people with children or disabled parking permits
• Promoting ramps, automatic doors, and wide aisles for wheelchair and stroller access

Monitor and boost foot traffic for your retail store

Whether you use basic surveillance or advanced tracking software, understanding how customers move through your store is an important part of your retail strategy. These insights help you adapt to modern consumer trends, such as the increasing demand for walkable, mixed-use spaces.

Shopify unifies this data into a single system, making it easy to see if marketing campaigns or new window displays are driving traffic and revenue. By acting on these patterns, you turn foot traffic from a simple metric into a strategic competitive advantage.

*Based on a 2025 survey of 500 Shopify merchants conducted in English across Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United States. Respondents were established merchants with more than two years on the platform. Results reflect the experiences of this specific sample and may not be representative of all merchants.