A store with many displays sees the combinations of possible zone-to-zone routes multiply fast. List every one of those routes in a table, and you can't read anything at all. A Sankey chart, which shows flow size as thickness, solves that.
What it shows
Visitor flow simplifies the varied customer paths between displays and fixtures into a Sankey chart. The thicker the flow, the more customers took that path.
If the thickest flow out of a zone leads to the exit rather than checkout, there's an empty spot between them where a display could be prompting a purchase.
When to use it
Use it to identify the range of customer path types and the displays or fixtures tied to them, as input for changing store layout.
A worked example
Here's an example. Say the thickest flow out of the "new-arrivals zone" in the diagram leads to the exit rather than checkout. Read that as an empty stretch between the new-arrivals zone and checkout where a display could be prompting a purchase. Fill that gap, then check the same flow again to see if it changed.
Which features to read it with
One feature alone rarely gets you to the cause. The pattern that repeats is: overlay a second feature to narrow the cause, act, then re-measure with a third.
- Measure — Overlay the thickest flow with the representative path to check whether the two agree.
- Act — Fill the empty stretch with a display.
- Verify — Use purchase conversion to see whether purchases rose among customers passing that stretch.
Even a complicated path shows its core flow through thickness alone. Want to isolate just the single thickest flow? Continue with the representative path. Check out visitor flow in saai insight.
