Show a small offer only on the website and record every claim at the counter. The tally gives a rough count of shop visits the site produced, which Analytics alone cannot see.

The visit Analytics never sees

Someone reads your hours and the page about what you stock, on a phone, on a Saturday morning. An hour later they walk through the door.

Analytics recorded the first half: a visit, two pages, perhaps a look at the map. The second half happened in the shop, where no tracking code reaches.

So the reports show a website people read and a till that rings, with no line between them. For a business where most sales happen at the counter, that missing line is most of the question.

An offer that exists only on the website draws a rough one.

What the offer has to do

It is a measuring tool first and a promotion second, and the details follow from that.

The first is the rule most often broken. Once the same offer appears in the newsletter or on a sign by the till, any claim could have come from anywhere, and the count stops meaning anything.

An extra, not a price cut

A percentage off teaches regular customers to look for a code before every visit, and some will start waiting until they find one.

A small extra avoids that: a free item you stock anyway, a free service such as cutting or gift wrapping, a sample with any purchase.

It should cost you little and still feel worth mentioning at the counter. And state it as it is, since the Competition Act treats an inflated regular price used to make an offer look bigger as misleading.

Where it goes on the site

Put it on the pages a shop visitor reads before coming in: the hours and location, and the pages about what you sell. One line on the home page pointing to it is enough.

Make it readable on a phone, because a phone is what people will hold up at the counter. A sentence in large type works better than a printable coupon nobody prints.

Give the offer a page of its own, too. Analytics can then count the visits to it separately from everything else on the site.

Recording every claim

The count is only as good as the person at the till. Agree one place to record each claim: a key on the register, a line in a notebook, a tally sheet taped under the counter.

Record the date, and what was bought if the till makes that easy. Everyone who serves needs to know the offer exists, weekend staff included, or claims will be honoured and never written down.

A quick question at the counter, such as how did you hear about us, catches some of the rest. Keep its answers in a separate column so the two counts do not blur.

Reading the two numbers together

Each week, set the claims beside the visits to the offer page in Analytics. Add an annotation there on the day the offer starts, so the date is never in doubt later.

Treat the tally as rough, and usually low. Many readers never mention the offer, some claims go unrecorded, and the occasional shared screenshot adds one the site did not directly produce.

What it gives you is scale and direction: whether the site sends a few people a month or a few a day, on which days, and after reading which pages.

That is enough to weigh against what the site costs to run, and against any advertising pointed at it.

A worked example

A terrarium workshop in a converted storefront sells glass containers, small plants, moss and stones during the day, and runs evening classes where people build their own.

Class bookings came through the website, so those were easy to count. The owner had no idea whether the site sent anyone to the shop itself, which brought in most of the money.

She added a line to the hours page and the plants page: show this page at the counter for a free bag of moss with any container. It appeared nowhere else.

A tally sheet went under the till, with columns for the date and what was bought, and all four staff heard about it on the same morning.

Over two months the sheet filled steadily, mostly on weekends and mostly from people holding a phone open at the hours page.

Set beside the visits to the offer page, it gave her a first rough figure for how many shop customers had started on the website. It costs a few bags of moss a week, and it is still running.

Run it long enough

A single week tells you almost nothing. Weather, school holidays and a street festival can all move shop traffic more than the website does.

Run the offer for at least two months before reading much into it, and longer for a seasonal shop. The weeks before the holidays are worth including, since many shops see more first-time customers then.

Changing the offer partway through resets the comparison, so choose one and leave it alone.

The counter-case

For a business with few walk-in customers, or one where nearly everyone books ahead, the tally stays too small to mean much, and the bookings are already counted.

A shop that already runs frequent promotions may find a separate online offer gets lost among them. A consistent question at the counter does part of the job without giving anything away.

Where a shop depends on walk-in trade, though, a small offer seen only on the website is the least costly way to learn what the site does at the door.

Setting it up

  1. Choose a small extra, not a percentage off.
  2. Show it only on the website.
  3. Give it its own page for Analytics.
  4. Tell every staff member, weekends included.
  5. Record each claim with the date.
  6. Add an annotation on the day it starts.
  7. Compare weekly for at least two months.

Step four is where most of these tests quietly fail. An offer honoured and never written down leaves you exactly where you started, and the weekend shifts are often the busiest.

Reading whether new customers ever came back is covered in new customers from a daily deal who never returned.

Frequently asked questions

Why does Analytics miss shop visits?

Its tracking code runs only on the website. Once a reader leaves the site and walks into the shop, nothing connects that visit to the pages they read first.

What kind of offer works best?

A small extra, such as a free item or service with a purchase. A percentage off teaches regular customers to wait for codes, and an inflated regular price misleads.

Where should the offer appear?

Only on the website, on the pages shop visitors read, with a page of its own for Analytics. Repeating it in flyers or the newsletter makes every claim untraceable.

How should staff record each claim?

In one agreed place, such as a key on the register or a tally sheet under the counter, with the date. Every staff member, weekends included, needs to know.

How accurate is the count?

Rough, and usually low. Many readers never mention the offer and some claims go unrecorded. It shows scale and direction rather than a precise figure.

How long should the offer run?

At least two months, and longer for a seasonal shop. Weather and holidays move shop traffic more than a website does, so a week or two says little.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

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