People Counter Systems
People Counting, also known as footfall counting, or visitor counting, is an electronic device that counts the number of people passing through a specific passage or entrance. Some examples are simple manual clickers, smart-flooring technologies, infrared beams, thermal imaging systems, WiFi trackers, and video counters that use advanced machine learning algorithms.
Retail stores commonly use them to assess the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, building design and layout, and the popularity of specific brands.
These devices, also known as footfall counters, door counters, customer counters, and visitor counters, detect when a person crosses an invisible count line that has been configured in their settings.
The technology used determines how the people counting device detects a person. The most popular technologies are infrared ToF, thermal, and stereo-vision, each with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. Once collected, count data is typically transmitted (near real-time) via the internet to a retail analytics platform for analysis.
Using a people counter system instead of having someone physically stand at your doorway is often much more cost-effective. A lot of systems are barely visible to guests, making them far less intrusive than an employee greeter who also serves as a people counter.
People counting technologies
As we mentioned before, there is a popular technology that determines how people’s counter devices detect a person as:
- Infrared sensor array: A system requires an IR sensor matrix, which forms the detectors. The sensor signals are provided by the matrix. Pattern recognition algorithms detect people moving across sensor areas. For detecting people, such systems necessitate power processing and synchronization
- Video counter: it is based on a ceiling-mounted camera, and people are identified by image background subtraction. The objects (blobs) are identified, and their sizes are estimated and compared to previously established pixel dimensions of people. This analysis results in a population count.
- Infrared Motion Sensors: Each requires three PIR sensors. The passage is being monitored. A wireless RF link connects a coordinator to the sensors. The coordinator receives detected motion events from the sender. The coordinator derives the number of people by correlating the phase, number, and time difference of signal peaks. PIR sensors are an alternative to previous technology, but the effort and cost of installing multiple sensor nodes for each surveillance area is a cost disadvantage.
- Sensor Fusion: The system includes PIR sensors, CO2 sensors, and a camera. To calculate building occupancy, it uses a Hidden Markovian Model and an Extended Kalman Filter to calculate building occupancy. This technology uses current sensor readings and historical data to estimate the true state of the system while accounting for stochastic processes and sensor noise.
- Ultrasonic Sensor: There should be a cluster of tree-node sensors, with each node housing an ultrasonic area. A large area necessitates multiple clusters, with the coordinating node of the cluster reading from the nodes via an RF link. A distributed algorithm of nodes determines the counting process for detected people. To exchange data concurrently, such a system requires millisecond-level clock synchronization. A disadvantage of this technology is imposed by the clock synchronization protocol
People’s counter role in the retail industry
In today’s retail environment, knowing how many people are in a retail store at any given time is critical for the health and safety of your customers and employees.
Measuring the number of people who enter and exit any retail space is also significant for analyzing patterns and assessing growth.
Counting the number of patrons in a specific location can also provide vital information to ensure the security of your area.
All are important to business requirements and objectives that are constantly shifting.
We can sum up the importance of People Counter Technologies for the retail industry as follows:
1-Improve the Customer Experience In-Store
2-Assists in monitoring customer behavior.
3-Increase Workforce Efficiency While Lowering Labor Costs
4-Aids in the comparison and evaluation of the performance of various shops
5-Helps You Evaluate and Optimize Your Marketing Initiatives
How to Choose a People Counter System
Total daily traffic, average sale value, and salesperson engagement level are all factors to consider when choosing a system. Let’s look at each of these variables and why they matter:
1- Total daily traffic
some systems are designed for high-traffic areas such as malls and large department stores. Depending on the volume of traffic in your store, you may be only interested in the raw count rather than details about the customer experience.
2- Average sale value
Generally, the larger the ticket, the more engagement from a knowledgeable salesperson is required. In this case, you’ll want to track every step of the customer journey, from the moment they walk into your store to the time they speak with your salesperson and beyond.
3- Customer engagement level
Your salespeople’s level of engagement will be determined by the two variables mentioned above, average daily traffic and
4- average sale value
With the idea that higher ticket items require more engagement than lower ticket items.
Benefits of people counter system
According to new research, the People Counting Systems market will grow to $1.3 billion by 2025. This comes as concerns about public safety and security continue to rise, from retail and offices to sports venues and hospitality. Advanced people counting and occupancy detection solutions provide useful information on foot traffic entering and exiting buildings, as well as density and dwell time in common areas such as lineups, elevators, waiting rooms, and restrooms. With this data, business and building owners can identify hot spots and control environmental conditions to provide a safer and more comfortable environment for tenants, visitors, and employees.
Benefits of people counter like
- Improve Janitorial Services
- Verify Social Distancing Practices
- Increase Energy Efficiency and Comfort
- Improve Indoor Air Quality
- Provide Additional Security
- Determine your store’s conversion ratio.
- Examine store performance across a global network.
- Determine your footfall patterns.
- Optimize your building’s layout and personnel levels.
- Enhance customer service
If you are a multi-store, high-ticket, brick-and-mortar retailer looking to expand, the more you know about your options, the more you will value what we have created. Again, each system is designed for a specific set of circumstances, and once you understand this, you will be more likely to find the people counting system that is right for you. Get a free consultation now with our team to discover our people counting system.
