Real attendance of offline points: how to evaluate traffic and choose the best location

Why is passability assessment important for business?

When choosing a location for a business, entrepreneurs often focus on the cost of rent, but forget about one of the key factors - real attendance. What's the point of a cheap space if almost no one passes by it?

Not knowing the traffic is a business at random. You invest in rent, repairs, personnel, but if the place does not attract customers, losses are inevitable. Assessing the traffic before renting allows you to understand in advance whether the chosen place will justify itself.

📌 According to statistics:

✔ 80% of business failures are related to the wrong choice of location.

✔ Insufficient traffic leads to low sales, and therefore to losses.

✔ Successful entrepreneurs always study traffic before opening.

Let's look at three effective methods for assessing traffic that will help you make the right decision.

Method 1: Manual Visitor Counting

The easiest and free way is to observe the flow of people yourself. To do this, stand in front of the future point and record the number of passers-by at different times of the day.

How to count correctly?

✔ Select different days and times (weekdays, weekends, morning, afternoon, evening).

✔ Note how many people enter the nearest points.

✔ Divide the observation into different seasons (summer, winter) – traffic may differ.

💡 Example:

You want to open a coffee shop. For three days you count the people passing by and see that during lunchtime the flow increases threefold. This means that the place is profitable for a cafe with lunches.

❗ A rookie mistake is to take measurements only once. One day is not an indicator. Analyze at least a week to get an objective picture.

Method 2: Analyzing Competitors' Receipts

If there are already establishments operating in your niche, their receipts will help you understand the real demand.

🔹 How to do it?

1️⃣ Go to a cafe, store or beauty salon similar to your future business.

2️⃣ Take the receipt and look at the order number.

3️⃣ After a few hours or the next day, get the receipt again - the difference in the numbers will show how many clients there were during this time.

💡 Example:

You went to a coffee shop in the morning, got check #045, and in the evening – check #210. This means that there were 165 customers during the day. If the average check is $7, you can assume daily revenue of about $1155.

✅ Advantages of the method:

• No need to spend weeks on observations.
• Data can be obtained in a couple of days.
• Shows the real picture of demand.

Method 3: Using services to analyze traffic

For accurate data, you can use online services that collect statistics for the area. They show the number of pedestrians and cars, which is especially useful for stores, car services and restaurants.

What services to use?

📍 2GIS – analyzes district traffic, creates heat maps.

📍 Statpad – shows customer traffic in different locations.

📍 Google Maps – helps you see how popular a point is.

📍 Yandex Maps – shows which establishments are in demand in the area.

💡 Example:

The 2GIS service shows that 5,000 people pass by your point per day, but most of them are in a hurry to get to the subway. This means that a to-go coffee shop will work better than a cafe with seating.

✅ Advantages of the method:

• Quick access to statistics.
• Up-to-date data on the area.
• Helps to evaluate traffic without personal observation.
  

How to choose the right method?

🔹 Minimal budget? Count people manually.

🔹 Need it faster? Analyze your competitors' receipts.

🔹 Want exact numbers? Use specialized services.

📌 The ideal option is to use all three methods. This will give a complete picture and avoid mistakes when choosing a location.

What to do after assessing the passability?

After assessing the traffic, it is important to work correctly with mapping services so that customers find you first.

✅ We will help:

• Optimize your point in Google and Yandex Maps.
• Conduct a free card audit.
• Set up promotion so that customers find you in search.

📌 Sign up for a consultation, and we will tell you how to choose a location, evaluate traffic and promote your business in local search.

📢 Choosing a location is not just renting a space, but a strategic decision on which the profitability of the business depends. Assessing the actual traffic helps to understand the potential of the point in advance, avoid mistakes and invest money in a truly promising place.

📌 Analyze traffic before renting, take into account seasonality and competition, compare several options - this will reduce risks and choose the optimal location.

Monitor changes in the flow of visitors and adjust your strategy so that your business always remains visible. 🚀