Study shows city customer in-flow

Finding different markets

Pinpointing the flow of shoppers into Georgetown brought a surprising set of data, Thomas said. In analyzing retail flow before the study, Thomas thought the city was receiving a bulk of its out-of-town traffic from the north, especially the Dallas/Fort Worth area. The study found most shoppers were driving in from the opposite direction.

"Georgetown has people coming from up to 30 miles to shop and eat, and the trade area extended further south into Round Rock and the Austin area than we thought," The Retail Coach President Aaron Farmer said. "You actually have a lot of people who are probably trying to escape from the traffic and [are] shopping in Georgetown."

Previous maps of retail flow showed it did not go farther south than Westinghouse Road in South Georgetown. The study, however, has shown that local shoppers from Round Rock, Cedar Park and Leander contribute significantly to customer traffic.

"I think by doing this analysis, we have found that there are a tremendous number of people in Round Rock and the eastern edges of Cedar Park and Leander ... and that area appears to be a very, very rich area for us to think about for marketing," Thomas said.

Better marketing strategies

From the information gathered in the study, the city hopes to gain insight in bringing new visitors in for events, such as the upcoming Lighting of the Square, by increasing marketing in different areas.

"We could double the number of people ... [and] we might be talking about 1,000 people," Thomas said. "So, if for the same money we get 1,000 new people coming to town versus 10 new people coming to town, it almost forces you, just from economic sense, to make the decision on how you spend your marketing dollars."

Thomas said he hopes to get more information on visitors at each location, including The Monument Cafe, to better analyze if people from different regions go to certain places in the city. That data could also shed light on how advertising for places such as the cafe, which has displayed billboards on northbound and southbound I-35, affects customer numbers, Thomas said.

"Monument is a big draw within the downtown area. They do a lot of their own marketing, so we were curious about where those individuals [are] coming from," he said. "Has it been effective to pool all of their efforts with billboards and all the other advertising they do?"

The Monument owner Rusty Winkstern said exposure from billboards has worked to draw in customer.

"For the first two or three months, on a daily basis, there were folks who stopped in the cafe and let us know that they had seen our billboard," he said.

While The Monument is not doing any advertising currently, it may try new marketing in the future, Winkstern said.

"Any information that we can get ... is beneficial," he said.

Merchants' perspectives

Main Street Program Manager Shelly Hargrove said she hopes downtown merchants utilize the information to hone in on advertising as they approach the holiday season, which can have a make-or-break effect on their yearly revenue.

"I'm hoping it helps [merchants] further target their advertising and marketing efforts to better attract people ... because once you know who your target market is, it's much easier when you know what they like to do and what they read," Hargrove said.

She is also interested to see how the collected data differs from what business owners previously thought about their customer markets.

"I'm hoping that they'll see how it compares with the information that they already know, if it reflects the same demographic, the same target market, or if it's something a little bit different," Hargrove said.