What Are People Counters and How Do They Work

People counters have gained importance, especially in the current Corona crisis. People counters indicate how many people are in a shop, restaurant, or market, quickly and easily.

In addition, research has shown that the required amount of space can be reduced by up to 30% by many businesses. One initiative that is key for space utilization is to count the number of people who go in and out of a workspace. Technologies available for people counting as well as the latest developments are diverse and innovative.

What Is A People Counter?

People counter is a technology that presents a way to count people, using a sensor specially designed for people counting. The very inconspicuous people counting sensor is mounted on the ceiling and records all people who pass it.

Installed in strategically important positions, these people counters can provide the marketing department with relevant answers in order to quickly record changes in the market and newly developed customer behavior and react immediately.

With the people counter the following key figures can be recorded in real-time and summarized in reports:

• Number of people who enter an area and number of people who leave the area
• Time course of the measured number of people

How People Counting Works

The hardware sends accurate information about the number of visitors to a portal, while the software analyzes the frequency of visitors. So users know when and how many customers enter their store. Furthermore, various variables can be set in context to the number of customers. This includes, for example, weather, time, sales, or marketing campaigns.

This innovative people counting technology consists of a people counter camera (thermal, stereo, 3D, video) which collects raw data and sends it to people counter software. Installation and commissioning are simple and only take a few minutes. Users simply place the sensor where they want to count people. Once activated, the portal converts all raw data into meaningful reports filled with insights that will help optimize businesses.

With access to the analytics platform and advanced reporting, they get deep insights to better understand customer behavior. These evaluations are particularly helpful for retailers and malls. Among other things, people counting systems present reports on the number of visitors in relation to:

• Time (hour, day, week, month, year)
• Areas-places in terms of density and duration time
• Different locations (local / global)
• Conversion and sales
• Customer behavior in relation to weather

For example, thermal people counters like Dor’s, count on the basis of thermal images, which results in extremely high counting accuracy (max. 99%). They even have direction recognition. This means that users can tell which direction each and every visitor has gone.

Areas of Application

• Retail stores such as in shopping centers, kiosks or chain stores,
• Public facilities such as museums, pedestrian zones, airports, train stations or other public buildings,
• If there are defined entrances and exits for parties, the number of visitors can be measured by comparing with the number of tickets sold,
• In restaurants, to know when and how many guests are visiting the restaurant.

Retail People Counter: How It Helps?

In the age of technology, customer control is possible in a different way than by handing out shopping baskets. With new technical innovations, in order to monitor the traffic in the store or to collect data for future personnel and marketing strategies, retailers can now deal with the smart solution.

Retail people counters make it possible to count customer traffic within a certain area, such as entrance and/or exit, in order to obtain an overview. Of course, such people counters could also be placed at the entrance to the shopping center, library, restaurant, or football stadium.

Also retail people counters are multifunctional. This means that the technology for people counting also has bi-directional counting, depending on the type; people entering and leaving can be recorded at the same time and reported separately.

Retailers should pay particular attention when they have the opportunity for important marketing observations. A people counter can also be used to measure whether the goods that are on the promotional table attract the attention and thus also the customer. This means that the people counting system can also provide additional information on customers and their shopping behavior.

Benefits of People Counting

• Qualitative evaluation and comparison of shops,
• Recognizing peak operating times,
• Optimization of personnel deployment and opening times,
• Shortening queues,
• Optimizing personnel costs,
• Precise, online counting of customers or visitors,
• Customer counting by hours, days or weeks,
• Overview of the time-of-day customer flow,
• Simple configuration,
• Problem-free integration into network,
• Optional reporting server at the customer’s or with an internet-based reporting service.

In addition to these obvious key values, people counters can also be used to optimally guide the flow of people. For example, at a large event, a people counter can be used to detect that the number of people allowed in an area has been reached. As soon as this is detected, gates for further admission can be closed and other gates can be opened as back-ups.

The checkout staff can also be divided up according to the number of customers in the store using a people counter. This ensures that customers do not have to queue for too long at the checkout and that you use their staff optimally.

Data protection is important for people counters, in contrast to people counting using a surveillance camera. Since no recordings are saved with the people counter and no one has the opportunity to look at the live images, the operation of the people counter is harmless in terms of data protection law.

What Else They Provide?

• People counters record customers in real-time: Not only by noticing that there are hardly any shopping baskets left in the stack but the number of people entering and leaving the store is recorded in real-time.
• Compare locations. For companies that have multiple branches, it is possible to compare high-performing stores or analyze differences.
• When is there the most traffic? The times at which the locations generate the most traffic also show the times at which the sales opportunities are greatest. This is especially important for special promotions.
• How many of the customers who enter the store also buy? People counters give an overview of how many customers generate sales or leave the store without having bought anything.