Footfall Tracker or footfall counter or people counter is basically a device used to count the footfall (people) within a given area. This area can be as simple as area near door to count the people coming in and going out to as complex as tracking people at various shelf in a shop.
Footfall tracker come in various shapes.
- Clicker given to security guard
- Metal enclosure which is termed as metal detector followed by security frisking in number of places.
- Camera system which tracks.
Majority of the companies are using this device to capture only limited metric e.g. footfall and then uses that to derive conversion rate. Even sophisticated devices such as camera system is used for monitoring limited metrics such as footfall.
A footfall tracker generally allows to identify:
- Lack of footfall = Need marketing intervention
- Lack of Right Merchandise = Footfall is there but sales conversion is missing.
- Store staff need training = Footfall is there, Same merchandise is selling at other stores, but conversion is missing in this specific store.
However properly used footfall tracker can help give much more actionable insights.
A camera system generally works along with a software system which takes various inputs. You can use camera-based people counter for:
- Window conversion rates with in a store: When you are running a promotional campaign or want to experiment different window display and measure the effectiveness of the same, you can measure the effectiveness by tracking people visiting a particular window and conversion rate (People buying from ware displayed on window to number of people visiting that window).
- Time spent at a window: You can measure the time spent at a window/ display. By correlating this with window conversion rate, you can determine:
- Short Time and good window conversion rate= Right Product at right price.
- Long Time and average/ below average window conversion rate= Right Product at wrong price.
- Short Time and below average window conversion rate= Wrong Product and/ or wrong price.
In case of a mall or a chain of store, you can leverage the people counter in additional ways:
- Tracking people who visit more than one store: Such system allows to capture unique identifier (most likely device identity using SIM/ Mac address) and identify trend of identifier and store combination. It can also allow them to design combination promotion keeping store combination in mind.
- Queue counting: They can help track the average wait time and number of people in queue. Management can decide a cut-off beyond which they will be alerted for creating / opening more counters.
There are more ways to leverage footfall counters/ trackers/ people counters. Do share your comments.
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