Accurately assessing footfall: Guide for retail spaces

Pedestrian frequency is the currency of retail: it indicates how many potential customers pass a specific location. However, quantity does not equal quality. Thousands of hurried commuters at a train station bring a jeweller less than a hundred relaxed strollers in the old town. Frequency is usually determined by manual counts or modern laser and Wi-Fi trackers and significantly drives up the rent. Therefore, before signing a lease, you should critically question the landlord's figures and check whether the people walking by are truly your target audience.

The Dream of a Full Shop

If you are looking for a new retail space, you constantly hear the old real estate mantra: "Location, location, location." But what actually makes a location good? Primarily, it's the probability that people walking past your shop window will stop, come in, and buy something. This probability starts with a simple metric: pedestrian frequency.

Many aspiring shop owners are blinded by high numbers. A location where 20,000 people pass by daily sounds like a goldmine. But if you don't understand the dynamics behind these numbers, the supposed goldmine quickly becomes a bottomless pit. Because frequency alone doesn't pay the rent - sales do.

What is Pedestrian Frequency?

Simply put, pedestrian frequency describes the number of people passing a defined point in public space within a specific time unit. In the context of commercial real estate, it is the indicator of your customer potential. One often speaks of the "High Street" or "A-location" where this frequency is highest.

But here you have to be careful. There is a huge difference between traffic frequency and shopping frequency. A tunnel in the main train station has a gigantic frequency at 7:30 AM. But these people are on their way to work, they are in a hurry and have their heads full of appointments. Their willingness to spontaneously buy fashion or furniture is close to zero. A quieter side street on a Saturday afternoon might only have a tenth of this frequency, but the people there are strolling, have time, and generally have a greater purchase intent.

How is it Measured? From Click Counter to Laser

In the past, you often saw students standing on street corners with mechanical hand counters. While this method is old-fashioned, it is always informative for a spot check by yourself. Today, however, professional location analysts and cities rely on technology.

In modern shopping streets, laser scanners or infrared sensors are often used, which count around the clock. Even more precise – and repeatedly debated in terms of data protection – is tracking via Wi-Fi signals from smartphones. This not only allows counting how many people pass by, but also how long they linger in front of the shop window (the so-called "dwell time") and whether they are recurring passers-by. These data can often be found in the detailed location analyses of large brokerage firms or from specialized providers such as Senozon.

The Influence on Rent

There is a direct correlation between pedestrian frequency and rent. Essentially, a shop window functions like an advertisement on the internet: you pay for impressions, i.e., visual contacts. The more people are led past the space, the higher the per-square-meter price usually is.

In the absolute top locations in Switzerland, such as Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse or the Rue du Rhône in Geneva, you pay astronomical rents because the frequency there is not only high but also affluent. The risk for you as a tenant is paying a "frequency rent" without achieving the corresponding "conversion rate." If you sell a niche product that requires consultation, the expensive high-frequency location might not even be necessary. You then pay a premium for thousands of passers-by who are not even your target audience.

Conversely, a B-location with lower rent can be more lucrative if you attract people through targeted marketing (destination store). You save rent and prefer to invest the money in advertising.

What to Look for During Evaluation

Never rely blindly on the information in the exposé. These figures are often averages or come from the best hours of the year (e.g., Advent Saturdays). To realistically assess the frequency for your business, you should consider the following points:

Pay close attention to the sunny side and the shady side. It sounds trivial, but in many shopping streets, one side is significantly more frequented – often the one that lies in the sun in the afternoon or provides the direct path to the train station. A shop on the "wrong" side of the street can have 30% fewer walk-in customers despite having the same address.

Distinguish between weekday and weekend crowds. A location in the banking district performs excellently for lunch from Monday to Friday (gastronomy, take-away), but is dead on Saturday. A shopping mile, on the other hand, truly comes to life on weekends.

Look at the surroundings and the "magnets." Who are the neighbors? A large anchor tenant (like a department store or a popular supermarket) generates frequency, from which the small shops around it benefit. However, if this magnet closes or moves, the frequency often drops sharply.

Conclusion

Pedestrian frequency is a valuable currency, but it must fit your concept. Before you sign a long-term lease, invest time in analysis. Position yourself at the location at different times of day. Observe not only how many people pass by, but who they are and how they behave. Are they stressed? Are they carrying shopping bags from other stores? Are they looking into shop windows? These qualitative observations are often more valuable in the end than the raw number in an Excel spreadsheet.