Electronic footfall monitoring: experiences among UK clothing multiples

Advances in electronics have added sophisticated footfall monitoring to retailers’ information weaponry. Many retailers are reported to be experimenting with this new technology, but limited discussion exists in the public domain on its potential role or retailer experiences. This paper utilises interviews with UK clothing multiples to help conceptualise the potential applications and examine the benefits and challenges of electronic footfall monitoring. The paper finds that, in spite of widespread experiments, only a small proportion of retailers have so far pursued full‐scale integration with existing information systems to exploit the claimed opportunities for improved market‐monitoring, diagnostic analysis, impact measurement and resource allocation. Concerns relate to the nature of the information generated, technical challenges, internal acceptability and broader organisational and management issues.