Customer capacity doesn't reach potential

[Knottypine]

Maybe I'm not advertising enough? I currently have a large clothing store in a retail space that has a capacity of 75 customers per hour. My design supports the full capacity 75/75. It is virtually 100% satisfaction in all areas, well stocked, and it does make good money! The demand for several things was in the 80% range when I was ready to open my shop.

So it appears that everything seems as it should. However, customers never go over 30 per hour, I think the highest I might have seen was maybe 28 or high 20's at least. So I'm just curious if others have had over 30 customers per hour in larger retail spaces?

[Jeza]

I have noticed too that clothing shops have very low customers/hour since the last update.
I wasn't sure if it was an issue or not because in my case demand is not as high but well since I'm not the only one I thought i'd add my report too .

[XrstN-]

traffic index ?! Marketing ?!

[David Estes Creations]

Originally posted by Knottypine:

However, customers never go over 30 per hour

In addition to the store numbers, the customer flow is also based on the items that you sell. Fast Food (and other cheaper items) will have a high flow of customers and will likely hit the 75-capacity during mealtimes, but more expensive items like clothing shops, electronics, and jewelry will have a lower flow of customers due to the higher value of the items you're selling.

Originally posted by Jeza:

I have noticed too that clothing shops have very low customers/hour since the last update.
I wasn't sure if it was an issue or not because in my case demand is not as high but well since I'm not the only one I thought i'd add my report too .

That element hasn't changed - only the pricing bug was fixed, so if your prices are still too high, then you'll lose customers due to that. But once your prices are back down, the customers should return to where they were before!

[Jeza]

Originally posted by David Estes Creations:

Originally posted by Knottypine:

Originally posted by Jeza:

I have noticed too that clothing shops have very low customers/hour since the last update.
I wasn't sure if it was an issue or not because in my case demand is not as high but well since I'm not the only one I thought i'd add my report too .

That element hasn't changed - only the pricing bug was fixed, so if your prices are still too high, then you'll lose customers due to that. But once your prices are back down, the customers should return to where they were before!

That's the thing my prices are low, Not only are they the lowest prices on the market, in the insight tab of the store the pricing is at 100%
When I go in the customers don't say anything about prices being too high either.

In fact my prices when I opened the shop were set 20% lower than the lowest market price previously set by my competition.
And these shops have been opened several ingame days after the last update with the price bug fix.

But if you say that it's normal to never have the max capacity with clothing then there is no issue. It's just strange to never having more than 40% capacity at best, I would have expected having some spikes at 60 or so from time to time in a 75 capacity.

[Spaznetz]

Originally posted by Jeza:

That's the thing my prices are low, Not only are they the lowest prices on the market, in the insight tab of the store the pricing is at 100%
When I go in the customers don't say anything about prices being too high either.

In fact my prices when I opened the shop were set 20% lower than the lowest market price previously set by my competition.
And these shops have been opened several ingame days after the last update with the price bug fix.

But if you say that it's normal to never have the max capacity with clothing then there is no issue. It's just strange to never having more than 40% capacity at best, I would have expected having some spikes at 60 or so from time to time in a 75 capacity.

What is the traffic percentage for the building?

A 75 capacity building with 14% traffic will never see the same number of customers as one with 48% traffic. Combine that with a business type that gets lower customer numbers naturally and you'll never see anything close to maximum capacity.

[Spaznetz]

Originally posted by XrstN-:

traffic index ?! Marketing ?!

This, THIS, SO MUCH THIS.

People keep posting here about businesses that aren't making money or getting customers and they never mention their marketing or traffic.

If your traffic percentage is low and you aren't doing marketing, it doesn't mean a thing that the 3 people that stumble into your store like the prices and your interior, you're still gonna go broke.

[Knottypine]

Originally posted by Spaznetz:

What is the traffic percentage for the building?

A 75 capacity building with 14% traffic will never see the same number of customers as one with 48% traffic. Combine that with a business type that gets lower customer numbers naturally and you'll never see anything close to maximum capacity.

Originally posted by Spaznetz:

Originally posted by XrstN-:

traffic index ?! Marketing ?!

This, THIS, SO MUCH THIS.

People keep posting here about businesses that aren't making money or getting customers and they never mention their marketing or traffic.

If your traffic percentage is low and you aren't doing marketing, it doesn't mean a thing that the 3 people that stumble into your store like the prices and your interior, you're still gonna go broke.

Yes I can give you that, current stats:
Promotion value: 62%
Traffic Index: 47%
Marketing: 31% ($3000 per day in campaigns)

I feel like those numbers are well enough to warrant more than 30 customers per hour on a building with a capacity of 75, however, all satisfactions 100% and the busy part of the day flat lines at 28 customers per hour.

Edit;
I have another store that has a capacity of 30 per hour, Promotion at 90, traffic index at 40, marketing at 100, and I only get up to 5 customers per hour. Demand on items around 50%.

I have another store that has a capacity of 15 per hour, promotion at 38%, traffic index at 38, marketing at zero. No marketing. All 100% satisfaction. This is one of my only business that maxes out it's capacity. Not counting my grocery store since it's always at max since people gotta eat.

[Jeza]

For me promotion is at 94%
Traffic index 48%
Marketing 91%
It's a 75/75 shop
Satisfaction is 99% due to cleaning being only 99, all the other are at 100
Opens at 8 am closes at 10 pm and the best I get are 30 customers from 2 pm to 5 pm
The rest are around 15 with a single spike at 25 at 9 am
It's the same every day of the week
I have the lowest market price, no complaints from the customers
Demand is 60 for cheap and 50 for expensive clothing

[Knottypine]

Originally posted by Jeza:

For me promotion is at 94%
Traffic index 48%
Marketing 91%
It's a 75/75 shop
Satisfaction is 99% due to cleaning being only 99, all the other are at 100
Opens at 8 am closes at 10 pm and the best I get are 30 customers from 2 pm to 5 pm
The rest are around 15 with a single spike at 25 at 9 am
It's the same every day of the week
I have the lowest market price, no complaints from the customers
Demand is 60 for cheap and 50 for expensive clothing

I guess what it comes down to is what David mentioned about the value of the items you're selling and the lower flow of customers. So knowing this, it's probably best to reserve larger capacity locations for things like fast food and groceries where you can take advantage of the capacity.

From my testing, marketing seemed to increase the number of items people bought by a small margin, but didn't increase the number of customers at all.

[Jeza]

Originally posted by Knottypine:

Originally posted by Jeza:

For me promotion is at 94%
Traffic index 48%
Marketing 91%
It's a 75/75 shop
Satisfaction is 99% due to cleaning being only 99, all the other are at 100
Opens at 8 am closes at 10 pm and the best I get are 30 customers from 2 pm to 5 pm
The rest are around 15 with a single spike at 25 at 9 am
It's the same every day of the week
I have the lowest market price, no complaints from the customers
Demand is 60 for cheap and 50 for expensive clothing

I guess what it comes down to is what David mentioned about the value of the items you're selling and the lower flow of customers. So knowing this, it's probably best to reserve larger capacity locations for things like fast food and groceries where you can take advantage of the capacity.

From my testing, marketing seemed to increase the number of items people bought by a small margin, but didn't increase the number of customers at all.

While I agree that it seems the flow is restricted I would argue that it's still best to open a large shop for clothing in the best locations because it still generates more money than say a fast food that will have max customers most of the time.

I have the perfect example, 2 75 shops in Midtown, both with 99 satisfaction (99 cleaning only) both lowest market price
One is a fastfood opened 19 hours a day with 75 for 11 hours and around 60 for the rest
I get around 64000 with no marketing. Marketing is useless it lowers revenue
One is clothing opened 14 hours per day with 4 hours at 30 and the rest around 14
I get around 80000 with marketing.

Knowing that food shops get very high capacity no matter what I find it best to open them in the worst traffic index shops and leave the good ones for other stores where it matters.

[nightshark]

Originally posted by Knottypine:

Maybe I'm not advertising enough? I currently have a large clothing store in a retail space that has a capacity of 75 customers per hour. My design supports the full capacity 75/75. It is virtually 100% satisfaction in all areas, well stocked, and it does make good money! The demand for several things was in the 80% range when I was ready to open my shop.

So it appears that everything seems as it should. However, customers never go over 30 per hour, I think the highest I might have seen was maybe 28 or high 20's at least. So I'm just curious if others have had over 30 customers per hour in larger retail spaces?

Are you selling ONLY EXPENSIVE items? If that's the case, that is why you're not seeing as many customers per hour. The higher end product you sell the less customers you will see. Jewelry will net about the same. Electronics, High end Clothing, Jewelry all will see low customers per hour compared to fast food or something similar with High Traffic.

[Knottypine]

Originally posted by nightshark:

Are you selling ONLY EXPENSIVE items? If that's the case, that is why you're not seeing as many customers per hour. The higher end product you sell the less customers you will see. Jewelry will net about the same. Electronics, High end Clothing, Jewelry all will see low customers per hour compared to fast food or something similar with High Traffic.

No, I have not been specializing in a particular item. Where there are variants such as gifts, jewellery, clothing, my stores all carry both.

Originally posted by Jeza:

While I agree that it seems the flow is restricted I would argue that it's still best to open a large shop for clothing in the best locations because it still generates more money than say a fast food that will have max customers most of the time.

I have the perfect example, 2 75 shops in Midtown, both with 99 satisfaction (99 cleaning only) both lowest market price
One is a fastfood opened 19 hours a day with 75 for 11 hours and around 60 for the rest
I get around 64000 with no marketing. Marketing is useless it lowers revenue
One is clothing opened 14 hours per day with 4 hours at 30 and the rest around 14
I get around 80000 with marketing.

Knowing that food shops get very high capacity no matter what I find it best to open them in the worst traffic index shops and leave the good ones for other stores where it matters.

Some good points, and I concur. I had just finished opening a large restaurant in Midtown and knowing this I might have selected a lower traffic location and saved that one for something else that depends on as much traffic as possible.

On another note, my 11 businesses are now generating me 1.1M weekly.