Increased internet sales are having an impact not only on the bricks and mortar retail, from which the customers would have purchased the item, but also on other businesses that depend on traffic. In January, Starbucks announced their concerns about dwindling foot traffic and claimed that holiday foot traffic was about half of what it was three years ago. Now that is a scary statistic. As retailers and shopping centre managers we have choices. Do nothing and let it happen or come up with
innovative ideas to draw traffic. The power of children to draw traffic to a shopping centre (or club) should not be underestimated.
Visiting Top Ryde in Sydney recently I was intrigued to see that a children’s play centre called Monkey Mania has just opened.
It’s called a children’s play centre but that description is in the head. The adults who accompany their kids seem to get as much enjoyment as the children do. And then there is the laser section for older kids – say age group five to 85. I would certainly have a go in the dimly lit labyrinth wearing a vest and shooting the enemy.
I asked the manager a few questions and I understand that there is an impressive Monkey Mania at the Bankstown Leagues Club in Sydney’s south west which in itself is worth a visit if you haven’t seen it, plus others around the country.
Then there is the popular Udon noodle shop in Japan that offers a discount for each “live child” that customers bring to the store. One simply takes the child (under 12) to the store, shows the child to the person at the cash register and you say, “please use my child as a coupon”. This noodle shop claims to be the first to offer a “live child” discount which encourages parents to bring their children to eat at the shop.
Melbourne-based author, Gabe Sullens, tells the following story.
“Every morning my partner Jacqui makes her regular stop for coffee at a specific cafe on the way to drop the kids off at school. Not until recently did it hit me why she chooses this cafe – with inconvenient parking, slightly off the direct route to school, and with the added inconvenience of only accepting cash. Lollies. As soon as she loads the kids into the car at, the kids ask, ‘can we get a lolly on the way to school?’ This little cafe has a plexiglass box of free gummy worms and candy on the counter beside the cash register that the owner keeps full. A nice little sign sits on top that says, Take one :). As I sit having breakfast in this cafe on a Saturday morning, I witness family after family come in, the kid darts for the lolly box and the parents order their takeaway coffee or even sit and have breakfast.I imagine that our cafe owes at least 10 per cent of their income to that little lolly box, judging by the quantity of happy kids I witnessed there in just one hour.”
So whether it is investing in playgrounds, using live child discounts, or a simple lolly jar, there are many ways of building traffic and targeting the kids is one sure way to do it.
Or you can play dead and let the world go by.
Stuart Bennie is a retail consultant at Impact Retailing www.impactretailing.com.au and can be contacted at stuart@impactretailing.com.au or 0414 631 702
