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To measure whether roadwork is affecting your sales, compare revenue, transaction counts and customer visits before, during and after construction. Track what changed at the site—such as access, parking, visibility and delivery conditions—and compare equivalent trading days while noting other factors that could explain a change. This gives you a documented, practical picture of the business impact, not automatic proof that roadwork caused every sales fluctuation.
What to measure
Use separate measures for business results and customer access. Revenue shows how much you sold; transactions show how many purchases customers made; footfall estimates how many people entered. Together, they help distinguish fewer visits from a change in how much customers spend.
- Sales or revenue: Export daily or weekly figures from your point-of-sale (POS) system or accounting records. Be consistent about whether the figure is gross sales, net sales, or another measure.
- Transactions: Record the number of completed sales over the same period as revenue.
- Average sale: Divide sales by transactions for each period. This helps show whether the number of purchases changed, the average purchase value changed, or both.
- Footfall: Count customer entries consistently. Footfall is a proxy for visits, not a replacement for transaction or revenue data.
Toronto advises retailers to monitor sales, revenue and traffic during construction. The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) describes keeping financial records and footfall counts before, during and after roadworks. See Toronto’s Construction Mitigation guidance and ACS roadworks guidance.
Establish a baseline before comparing sales
Gather as much pre-construction history as you can readily access. Daily records are useful when the disruption changes from one day or work phase to another; weekly records can be easier to interpret where daily sales are irregular. If construction has already begun, use historical records to reconstruct a baseline and clearly identify the period and any gaps.
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Record the context alongside the numbers so an unusual trading period is not mistaken for a roadworks effect:
- Opening hours and exceptional closures
- Promotions, discounts and major marketing changes
- One-off local events or unusual trading days
- Seasonal patterns and, if available, comparable trading days from the same season in an earlier year
Business Queensland recommends keeping business records and monitoring performance through construction. Its guidance is available at Reducing business disruption from major infrastructure work.
Log the disruption customers and staff actually encounter
Sales figures show what happened; a dated work and access log helps explain what conditions coincided with it. For each day or work phase, note the conditions that matter to your premises and customers:
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- Road closures, detours or changes to vehicle access
- Footpath restrictions, temporary crossings or blocked entrances
- Parking spaces lost or changed
- Entrance visibility, signs and changes to the usual approach
- Public transport changes that affect access
- Delivery access problems, delays or utility interruptions
- Noise or dust when materially disruptive
- Work dates, hours and phases, where known
Dated photos taken from consistent locations can document restrictions or changes in visibility. South Australia’s Small Business Commission identifies access, parking, transport and visibility as relevant disruption factors; ACS also describes documenting restricted access. See Roadworks disruption.
Count visits consistently
If feasible, count customer entries at consistent hours on comparable days. You can use an existing door counter, an available POS or entry-counting system, or a manual tally. A handheld tally counter is optional; it records visits, not purchases or revenue. State how you counted and which hours the count covers.
Keep the coverage comparable: a count taken during a few busy hours cannot be directly compared with a full-day sales total or a full-day footfall count. Where you cannot count every day, record the sampled days and hours rather than presenting them as complete totals.
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Compare equivalent periods
Use a simple worksheet with one row per day or week and consistent definitions for every measure. Compare equivalent weekdays and trading hours; where records allow, also compare the same season in an earlier year. Show both absolute values and percentage changes, and name the comparison periods.
| Period | Sales or revenue | Transactions | Average sale | Footfall | Roadwork and access conditions | Hours and unusual events |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Before construction | Record value and definition | Record count | Sales ÷ transactions | Record count and method | Record baseline access | Record hours and context |
| During construction | Record value and definition | Record count | Sales ÷ transactions | Record count and method | Record work phase and disruption | Record hours and context |
| After construction | Record value and definition | Record count | Sales ÷ transactions | Record count and method | Record restored or continuing changes | Record hours and context |
For each measure, calculate the difference from the chosen baseline and, when useful, the percentage change: (comparison-period value − baseline value) ÷ baseline value × 100. Identify the exact dates or weeks used. If the baseline value is zero or missing, a percentage change may not be meaningful; show the underlying values instead.
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If available, compare with a similar location not affected in the same way, or with a broader local trend. Treat either as context, not a perfect control: differences in business type, customers, hours or exposure to the works can make locations unlike each other. The Wyoming Department of Transportation’s 2004 report describes examining sales estimates alongside traffic volumes, business survey information and general economic trends. The Federal Highway Administration’s PlanWorks economic-development guidance also frames business effects through access, travel costs and competitiveness.
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Interpret the pattern without overstating causality
A decline in visits and transactions during periods of restricted access is consistent with roadworks contributing to lower sales, especially when the timing matches documented disruption. It does not, on its own, establish that construction caused the full decline. Consider other changes that occurred at the same time:
- Seasonality, weather or wider local economic trends
- Prices, staffing or product availability
- Competitors, promotions or marketing changes
- Unusual closures, events or changes in trading hours
Look for whether the measures change in step with specific work phases or access conditions, and note other plausible explanations. Some businesses may experience little impact or offsetting activity; an average across a project can hide differences between businesses. Minnesota Department of Transportation’s 2023 report found largely null overall results across several outcomes while identifying negative construction sales effects in a subgroup of single-establishment businesses affected by infrastructure replacement. That variation is a reason to measure your own business rather than assume a universal loss rate. The report is The Effects of Highway Improvement Projects on Nearby Business Activity.
What your records can and cannot show
A dated set of sales and transaction records, consistent visit counts, a work-and-access log, and relevant photos can make a concern concrete for discussions with a project team or local authority. They document how your business performed alongside particular conditions. They do not, by themselves, rule out other causes or establish the precise amount of sales lost because of construction.
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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsOne ACS case study reports that customer numbers and profits at Duffy’s Budgens in Ash Vale fell by around 10% as a direct result of the works. That is the association’s account of one retailer’s experience; it is not a representative estimate or forecast for other businesses. ACS’s account also describes the retailer contacting the council and circulating vouchers. See the ACS roadworks page.
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