Table of Contents
Introduction
The constantly increasing amount of people in the world is changing how businesses operate. More and more customers flock to various places for a wide array of products and services. For businesses to be able to collect data on their products and sales, they have to know exactly how many people are interested in their products, what they look for, and how many of them actually enter their places of business. To do this, people counting technology was birthed, something that more and more workplaces and public institutions are incorporating into their daily operations. In this article, you will be able to learn about this technology. To find out, even more, visit this site.
What is People Counting?
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People counting technology is the use of various types of electronic devices and gadgets, like sensors and cameras, to measure and calculate the number of people who enter and leave a certain place. The use of this neat new feature can be applied to various places throughout our communities. So far, the most notable include shopping malls, supermarkets, retail stores, museums, galleries, train and bus stations, airports, and even some outdoor parks.
Depending on what kind of a device a certain place is using, different data can be collected to better calculate various business parameters and improve the availability of products, user experience, security, comfort, and much more. The tech proved to be a valuable tool for most places that installed them, so why not consider one for your own workplace?
Types of People Counting Technology
So far, five types of gadgets proved effective at people counting, no matter on what kind of establishment or store they are installed.
– Thermal Sensors
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As the name suggests, these sensors detect heat from the bodies of people walking below or next to it. When they pass the sensor, it will register how many heat sources passed and add them as customers. This is the best solution for anonymous data collection
– Cameras Sensors
Of course, the most common and obvious way of recording how many people enter and leave an area of business are cameras. Most businesses already have them for security reasons, but special camera sensors for people counting are different. They only focus on foot traffic and count people actively.
– Wi-Fi Sensors
Wi-Fi sensors are usually put on the doors. They count the people by connecting to their mobile devices if they carry one of course. However, this is not a very accurate solution as not everyone has their phone on them at all times, nor is their Wi-Fi always set to automatically connect to open networks.
– Break-beam Sensors
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These are the typical motion sensors that detect a change in activity on the area they cover. They work by sending a light beam invisible to the naked eye. Whenever someone steps into the beam or crosses it, they are calculated as a customer entering or leaving the premise. They count every person twice, meaning the final result is only half of the total amount.
– Bluetooth Beacons
Similar to Wi-Fi sensors, these beacons send Bluetooth signals to devices that have the setting enabled. Therefore, they are also somewhat unreliable because of the sheer fact that not everybody has Bluetooth turned on at all times. Some businesses also use this feature for promotional notifications to nearby customers.
Benefits of People Counting
The benefits of people counting technology are many. The following are the most useful ones for virtually any place that depends on customers entering their place of operations.
1. Sales Conversion
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To improve and increase the volume and quality of a business, the retailer has to rely mostly on the sales figures and try to understand what impacts the sale numbers in the store. People counting proves invaluable here as it precisely calculates and measures the activity in the store, which gives the staff a clear picture when, where, and how to improve. By knowing exactly how much people enter your premise, you will know whether or not you have to do something do draw more customers, or perhaps expand because you have too many. The more customers come, the more revenue you will have. However, you have to have a way to know the number of customers, hence the people counting device.
2. Peak Hours
Now that you know how many people enter your business on average, it is time to calculate the peak hours of a day. By carefully navigating the data from every day of the week, you will have a clear image of when your store is the most popular for customers. Is it Wednesday afternoon, Saturday morning, or Monday night? Whatever it may be, you will know about it and be able to use it to your advantage. If you know when your business is least visited, you can also use that time of day for cleaning, reorganizing, restocking, and unloading, without pulling in additional workers.
3. Staff and Scheduling
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Directly connected to the peak hours is the scheduling of your staff. When you become familiar with how many people come into your store and more importantly at what time of day, you will learn when you need the most staff clocked in. There is no need to have three workers per shift if one shift is vastly busier than the other. It is not cost-effective to have workers slacking off and being bored during slow shifts if they can come in when there is actually stuff to do. Therefore, maximize the sales opportunities and effectiveness, while also saving the workforce and money where possible. Everyone will benefit from the new distribution of shifts and work hours.
4. Marketing
Thanks to the people counting technology, thousands of public and private businesses and establishments have increased the effectiveness and the reach of their products and services. Since they now have all the data they need, they changed and reworked their marketing strategies to maximize the sales potential during peak hours. This can be achieved through various customer-favorite ideas, including sales, incentives, or promotions. What is more, you can literally rearrange your store displays and shelves according to where the customers go the most. By installing several people counting devices, you are able to narrow down which aisle is the most visited, which place the customers pass by the most, and where they stop to think. By introducing in-store marketing campaigns and new displays, you will capitalize on the traffic and improve your business.
