Jewellery retailer Pandora partners Epiphany and Google in first UK tracking of in-store footfall from search activity

Harris said: “We’re still a predominantly store-based business. We’ve only been selling online for four years, but online sales already account for over 10 per cent of overall sales. We had a hunch that search was driving in-store footfall and sales but we didn’t know for sure. This new tracking project has given us the ability to confirm just how much store footfall online activity is driving, so the initial results have been really interesting and informative.

“We’ve found out that search does impact in-store visits. So far from initial tracking we’ve found that mobile in particular is driving in-store traffic, and that it’s very local based. We also know that there’s a big impact before major holidays, so search drives more in-store traffic around seasonal events. This initial stage is about collecting the tracking data; the next stage will be about how we use this to our advantage to implement testing and optimise our digital marketing activities.”

She continued: “Ultimately, I’d like the wider business to understand the role and importance of search and digital marketing within the total media mix. Eventually, I would like to see more budget shift from print and traditional media into digital and search. The project has raised an interesting challenge for the future – how do we optimise our search campaigns for both driving footfall in-store and online sales?”

Christel Hansen, industry manager at Google, said of the project: “The very strong collaborative relationship between the three of us – Pandora, Epiphany and Google – made this project possible. The modern consumer is always connected and seeking inspiration on various platforms and devices both online and in stores before a purchase. To improve our understanding of this path to purchase we were excited to initiate this project with Pandora.

“Omnichannel is one of the toughest areas for retailers to measure, making it difficult for companies to leverage on the new opportunities created in a connected world. Embracing the omnichannel reality is key to future success, so it’s important that companies like Pandora are willing to keep testing and learning to become closer to the customer of today. Google store visits reporting is now getting us one step closer to understanding the full value of digital and omnichannel.”

Tom Salmon, managing director of Epiphany, said: “We know that marketers are using data to optimise their marketing and business strategies in ever more sophisticated ways. Understanding the relationship between search and store visits brings huge benefits and we're extremely proud to be working with Pandora and Google on this UK-first project.”