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AN ANALYSIS OF SHOPPERS’ WALKING BEHAVIOUR BY USING GIS 
Lilian, S.C. Pun-Cheng®, Alice, W.C. Chu" 
‘Department of Land Surveying and Geo-Informatics 
"Institute of Textiles and Clothing 
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 
Hunghom, Kowloon, Hong Kong 
“Ispun@polyu.edu.hk, "techuwe@polyu.edu.hk 
Commission TP-PS: Working Group II/5 
KEY WORDS: GIS, Application, Decision Support, Pattern, Spatial, Observations 
ABSTRACT: 
GIS applications in the commercial sector have by large been concentrated on location query, optimal product routing and 
distribution. There is a scarcity of research and implementation of the geo-information technology on consumer behavior, which is 
decisive to a business set up. Fashion retailing is one type of businesses that relies heavily on the walking behavior of consumers. 
Retailers are often concerned with a truly profitable location for their stores, which simply means a location with a high pedestrian 
flow. A shopping plaza is an ideal testing place for consumers as most people are going there for shopping. With the construction 
of many large shopping plazas worldwide in recent years and especially in dense urban cities, it is interesting and beneficial to know 
why some locations are frequently visited or passed by shoppers. This paper presents an investigation in modeling the routing 
pattern of fashion shoppers in two multi-storey shopping plazas in Hong Kong. The walking routes of shoppers within the plazas are 
recorded and stored in a GIS package. First, a general walking pattern that reflects frequently visited routes can be derived. Second, 
by correlating the pattern with a set of environmental or spatial variables and with non-spatial variables like degree of familiarity, 
demographic factors, shoppers’ preferences and in particular their habitual walking patterns can be more thoroughly concluded. 
With these research findings, fashion retailers can be more assured in locating their stores and be able to weigh, more accurately, 
their investments in relation to expected benefits. The findings will be extremely useful for business marketing, especially in the 
decision making about store locations for the fashion retailers. 
I. INTRODUCTION non-spatial ones like frequency of passing-by, degree of 
familiarity. In this way, a set of attractive and repulsive 
Fashion retailing represents a large business in Hong Kong. variables might be identified, weighted and derived for gravity 
Retailers are often concerned with a truly profitable location for models of accessibility. Factors considered are those specific to 
their stores, especially when land rent is so high in this highly fashion retailing in this study. With the use of geographical 
urbanized commercial city. With the construction of many information technology and networking models, these 
large shopping plazas in recent years, many retailers receive parameters are quantified and a routing model is established to 
long lists of vacant stores from the land developer everyday. represent shoppers’ habitual walking pattern within the studied 
For retailers’ consideration, the different store locations will plazas. This is a new research direction in commercial GIS and 
greatly affect their sales performance even if these locations are the findings will be extremely useful for business marketing, 
on the same level inside the same plaza. Retailers who select a especially in the decision making about store locations for the 
good location enhance the chances of success because it allows textile and clothing industry. It is hoped that the method can be 
greater flexibility in developing their product, price and applied universally for visits to all other shopping centers, so 
promotion mix. There are indeed many factors affecting retail that fashion retailers will benefit in making their decisions on 
location selection (including fashion stores) such as the cost of store location, as well as developers in the plaza layout design. 
land / rent, tenant-mix strategy, the competing and 
complimentary effects due to space allocation in the shopping 
centers (Brueckner, 1993), the store composition, the pedestrian 
traffic and flow, the size and accessibility. However, very few 
of these studies are analyzed or correlated with the routing 
pattern of shoppers. For instance, stores of high rental value are 
assumed to be more accessible with high pedestrian flow; but 
little investigation has been made as to how and why these 
shoppers follow a certain pattern or route, their visit intention, 
effect of plaza layout on profits, and so on, not at least in a 
quantifiable way. 
Concerning geo-information system, the technology has always 
been considered as an effective tool in uncovering and 
analyzing patterns that involve a multiplicity of factors and 
voluminous data. However, the technology is often, at least for 
Hong Kong's case, only applied in areas like construction 
engineering, environmental science and land development. It is 
seldom mentioned in commercial fields in which a good 
decision support system is equally as important. Recently, 
there are examples of applying geographic information systems 
(GIS) in cake shop businesses and real estate. Yet, neither is it 
widely applied nor popular in the commercial fields. In fact, 
the technology has the potential of promoting business with the 
following decision making capabilities: 
This study therefore aims at modeling the routing pattern of a 
particular eroup of multi-storey plaza shoppers by identifying a 
set of environmental or spatial variables, correlating them with