Retail Traffic Trends during the COVID -19 Pandemic
(Retail Trends / Why)
Retail traffic trends are the missing link between what we ‘know’ and what we ‘think’ is happening. Trends provide insight based on real data to indicate customer behaviours and traffic movements across the retail industry.
We are now starting to see some traffic return to some retail locations and environments. This differs greatly from state to state.
This graph shows the % change YOY for customer traffic in Australia. As you can see, it paints a pretty grim picture.
We create these videos to provide knowledge of the current retail market to further help our clients and the wider retail industry.
Our mission is to give retailers greater insight into customer behaviour during these uncertain times, as cliché as it may be, we really are all in this together, sharing our insights is just one way we can help.
Retailers can use our insights to assist with forecasting and determining appropriate actions on their end, whether it be when to re-open or how they are tracking against the wider retail industry.
Impacts of COVID-19
The retail sector has been one of the hardest-hit industries from Covid-19. The market was struggling already with lower foot traffic and revenue than the previous years.
In early to mid-March, we saw foot traffic drop by up to 90% in some CBD locations and up to 80% in suburbs and provincial locations.
However, we are now starting to see some signs of life as Governments ease restrictions (very gently) in certain states and Territories.
Week 18 in the Australian retail industry saw a year on year decline in passing foot traffic of 62%. This is the best result we have seen in 6 weeks and shows there are some opportunities in the market
Whilst the main shopping districts in the CBD locations are still seeing heavy declines year on year, in some of the more suburban locations, the passing traffic is not as heavily affected. This may be a sign of increasing customer activity/behaviours, potentially indicating a good opportunity to consider reopening stores.
(About Blix)
Blix provides unrivalled foot traffic accuracy with CountSmart®
Blix Traffic, powered by CountSmart® delivers accurate data you can confidently use to improve your retail operations
Blix has spent two years developing our proprietary technology, CountSmart®. This new approach to WiFi analytics performs a deep analysis of every packet of smartphone data, irrespective of randomisation and encryption, allowing Blix to make use of 100% of available smartphone data.
In addition to this, AI-based CountSmart® algorithms are able to leverage the Blix Traffic database of more than 3 billion smartphone interactions to generate a unique identifier for every phone, all while providing complete privacy for the smartphone owner. This ensures we’re compliant with all privacy legislation, including GDPR.
In October 2019, Blix was recognised as the most dynamic differentiator in the Global WiFi Analytics report 2019, making us one of the Top 10 Retail Analytics Solution Providers globally.
Brett Stephenson, Director of Business Consulting, BLIX
