The main aisle, sometimes called the power aisle, is usually a wide corridor in the central area of the store that provides a panoramic view of the key categories. Almost every store format has one and almost every trip crosses it, which is why so much of what happens in the rest of the store can be explained from it.
Most promotional trade is concentrated within a few metres of the main aisle, so its analysis focuses on a few questions: which share of trips turns into each aisle, which end caps and pallets get real attention and which are passed at full speed, and how a new promotion changes the direction shoppers take. Shoppermotion answers them with aisles direction, customer flow and end caps performance.
A door counter can't see any of this: it knows how many shoppers came in, not which aisle they walked. That's why a door counter can't see the main aisle, and why footfall and people counting are only the starting point. To measure traffic in every aisle, Shoppermotion follows each trolley and basket and reports the main aisle metric next to the category analytics of the shelves around it.
Layout affects how much traffic the main aisle gets: herringbone and grid layouts concentrate most traffic along it, with a large impact on nearby end caps and promotional islands. In the Superprix case study, see where shoppers turn after the main aisle.
In an analysis of 20,000 shopping missions in a Madrid supermarket, 48% of customers were attracted by the fresh food areas at the start of their trip, and the non-alcoholic ready-to-drink category attracted 15% of all traffic from the entrance. Moving it to the back of the store kept shoppers longer in the main aisle: the six surrounding shelves received an average of 7% more traffic and promotional sales rose by 3.4%. Read how moving one category lifted traffic on nearby shelves.
