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June 17, 2025
Should Increasing Dwell Time Be a Goal for All Retailers?
The Wall Street Journal chronicled how Canada Goose, Coach-owner Tapestry, and Tanger Outlets are adding amenities to encourage shoppers to spend more time shopping in stores in an attempt to increase their chances of conversion.
Among the amenities, Canada Goose is adding VIP lounges, curated displays, and Canadian art to some stores to join its cold rooms that offer shoppers a chance to try on parkas in sub-zero weather. Certain Coach stores offer coffee and cocktails for purchase as well as furniture to relax in. Tanger’s outlet centers are increasingly adding central lawns and entertainment options.
The investments come as WSJ noted that “dwell time,” or how long shoppers spend browsing in stores, has declined in recent years as online shopping has grown and customers look for more experiences to warrant a store visit.
Grant Gustafson, head of retail consulting and analytics at Sensormatic Solutions, which tracks store traffic, told the outlet, “The longer someone is spending in the store, the more likely they are to convert and be turned into a shopper or purchaser.”
Adding free Wi-Fi, background music, and digital signage are also common methods to extend dwell time.
A Path Intelligence study from 2007 involving a shopping center in the UK found that sales can increase 1.3% by increasing dwell time by 1%. However, not much research has been done around which channels benefit from dwell time.
Luxury selling, where a pricy purchase takes more consideration time, is assumed to particularly benefit from dwell time.
In opening its first store in New York City earlier this year, Printemps indicated that it is measuring success by time spent shopping rather than sales per square foot. The French department store chain’s CEO, Jean-Marc Bellaiche, told Business of Fashion, “We want people to hang out and be lost a little here.”
Costco’s sampling stations increase dwell time to support its treasure hunt shopping experience of frequent inventory changes. Analysis of Placer.ai data provided earlier this year to Supermarket News found Costco scoring the largest dwell time among major grocers, at between 37 and 40 minutes, followed by Walmart (32 to 35 minutes) and H-E-B (26 to 27 minutes).
Some c-stores elevating their food offerings, including Sheetz and Wawa, are seeing opportunities to cross-sell or upsell items as customers wait for their food, according to CSP Daily News.
Restaurants, bars, hotels, resorts, and casinos also employ strategies to increase dwell time to drive extra purchases as well as to increase satisfaction and encourage return visits.
The focus on dwell time comes as retailers make other investments, including adding self-service checkout kiosks, to speed the shopping trip.
Discussion Questions
Would all retailers benefit from increasing dwell time, or do certain channels particularly benefit?
Does the apparent appeal of a slower shopping experience conflict with demands for a faster shopping trip?
Poll
Loading …BrainTrust
Nolan Wheeler
Founder and CEO, SYNQ
Lisa Goller
B2B Content Strategist
Georganne Bender
Principal, KIZER & BENDER Speaking
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This really depends on the retail mission. For some shops, like grocery, the name of the game is convenience. You can certainly use displays and other ‘speed bumps’ to get shopper attention, but friction is not overly welcome. For considered missions, getting customers to linger and browse is more valuable. Of course, this has to be done by adding relevant experiences and point of interest – which is where having a good understanding of customers is critical.
Excellent point that it depends on the retail mission and the retail segment. I doubt that many grocery shoppers want to spend more time shopping, unless it is a premium store that is offering interactive experiences like cooking lessons. It also depends on the customer’s mission, as some customers value the shopping experience as entertainment and others want to be as efficient as possible.
Dwell time can be valuable, but it depends on the environment. For luxury or experiential retail, longer visits can driver deeper engagement and higher spend. But in everyday stores, speed still matters. The goal should be a tailored experience, whether that means encouraged dwelling or enabling quick, seamless trips.
Many retailers would benefit if shoppers linger longer. Of note, apparel retailers are making their fitting room areas an oasis of comfort. They want customers to take their time and get the right fit to avoid disappointment and costly returns.
We need to remember “When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure” (Goodhart’s Law). We also need remember that all metrics are wrong while some are useful (apologies to George Box’s estate). As an idea, perhaps there’s validity in “let’s sort out ways to have more people spend time in the store.” As a goal expected to increase revenue, there is great danger. While a store might find customers who spend more time today also spend more money, nothing suggests customers drawn in to spend more time will also spend more. Experience suggests caution on ideas like that. Instead, wise retailers must consider their specific customers, why they might “dwell,” and far more.
Retailers should be giving customers what they want; I’ve nothing against providing reasons to linger in a store, provided that it doesn’t interfere with the many people who want to be in-and-out as quickly as possible…and far too often companies become so enamored of their pet ideas they can’t imagine they might be wrong. (“We want people to hang out and be lost a little here.” I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt, but I fear this might be Exhibit A.)
For Grocery, most shopping trips do not benefit by simply increasing dwell time, studied and shared for years by Herb Sorensen – Shopper Scientist, and author of Inside the Mind of a Shopper. Shoppers generally have a sensed time limit in their heads upon entering the doors (unintentional) and it is up to the grocer build a store plan and clear merchandising to help them beat the clock. If they beat this time, grocery sales/basket size rises because shoppers are relaxed and have already accomplished their goals, thus able to add more items.
For Costco, WalMart and HEB, different animals, as they’ll drive a longer time limit, a larger shopping trip with more discovery and other goals.
Coffee and cocktails and art are nice, but in the long run they aren’t ways to increase dwell time. That takes intriguing product, displays that draw shoppers in, cross-merchandising to encourage add-on sales, and trained store associates who engage with customers and pull it all together. Gimmicks are fun but they will never replace solid merchandising.
I agree, but customer engagement and story telling in a luxury environment can go a long way!
Until it doesn’t. The sizzle doesn’t matter if the steak sucks. 🙂
Georganne, you are SO RIGHT!!! What you referencr is EXACTLY what Marshall Field’s used to do SO WELL! Even up to 2006! Anyone lucky enough to experience that type of merchandising and service will understand and it is so impossible to find today. (Von Maur still does a great job and some Nordstrom stores).
Yes! Don’t you feel sad for people who never experienced that? Von Maur definitely gets it and its only gimmick is a live pianist.
As I take my 19-year-old daughter shopping in Von Maur, I get to tell her stories of how every city used to have stores like this, especially our own Dayton’s. Magasin du Nord in Copenhagen last year was such a treat to go through as it expressed all the features and details we used to have in the USA – and was packed with shoppers. Denmark and Sweden are full of discounters, company shops, and specialty boutiques – yet they manage to make good old-fashioned department stores still a vital part of the mix. I think what happened with LBOs and runaway concentration of capital here is a major part of our retail crisis.
By creating engaging store layouts that encourage exploration and discovery, retailers can increase dwell time. Displays and demonstrations that are interactive can catch the attention of customers and keep them in the store for a longer period of time. Furthermore, offering comfortable seating areas or in-store cafes can encourage shoppers to spend more time in the store.
I see from the first few comments that we agree that all retail is not created equal, and that applies to a retailer’s quest for longer customer dwell times. Luxury retailers, home goods retailers, off pricers to name a few categories yes. My local bagel store, definitely not. “Please grab your bagels and get out of the store.” Same goes for QSR chains. Airport retailers such as a Hudson News, Duty Free Americas, and WH Smith probably wish they experienced longer customer dwell times but their customers are mostly eat-and-run/grab-and-go types. So, once again, if we leave the key word “all” [retailers] in the question, the answer is no.
Focusing on a single tactic without understanding the connection to the category, buying behavior, and customer engagement strategy is silly. Contextual awareness and value accretion for the in-store experience will improve conversion, as will having store personnel with proper training and integrated technology tools. Mechanisms that merely increase dwell times without respect for the desired in-store engagement model will not be sufficient and counterproductive at worst.
I’m still scratching my head over MacDonald’s putting wifi in its stores. I thought everything about it was to get you in, and out (no pun intended), The colors, the “furniture” all seemed designed for quick action. But free wifi totally implies, “Please, stay a while.” I think it’s more about building community than immediate incremental sales. How do I make my place a destination? That’s the key.
There is no such thing as one size fit all metrics in retail. Dwell time is important in certain formats like supermarkets and mass merchandise where you have space for shoppers to loiter. For convenience stores it is about grab and go and not excessively loiter around. At the end of the day it is dwell time and conversion to purchase,
Not all stores get the same benefits from longer dwell times. Longer visits are good for luxury, experiential, big-box, outlet, and convenience stores with foodservice because they get more people to buy things. But mission-driven stores like drugstores or discount stores put speed first and may not find longer dwell times as helpful. In the end, strategies for dwell time should fit with the retailer’s goals and what customers expect. By meeting different customer needs, slower, more immersive shopping and faster trips can happen at the same time. Retailers do well when they offer both fast service and fun experiences, so customers can choose what they want.
For many retailers, the more time a customer spends in the store, the better. There are different types of “shoppers.” Some are on a mission and won’t “dwell.” Others need help and want information. Their “dwell” time is spent learning, browsing, asking sales associates for help, etc. Others spend “dwell” time enjoying a browsing and relaxing experience. So, once you understand the customer and how they like to shop, it’s either “dwell,” sell, or get them through quickly. Adapt to what the customer wants.
If selling a high-ticket item, counter this extended dwell time approach with a service level that has most of the purchase work done online prior to visiting the store. Make the store a purchase confirmation opportunity or add on. Dwell time might work for some shoppers, but I would go after the time-starved. That could be a larger and underserved market.