Every step you take

It might come as something of a surprise to you to learn that not every shopping centre counts and analyses its footfall. According to the Retail Institute, around 230 of the 500 centres in Poland (less than half) have exact figures for how many shoppers visit them, even though such knowledge is essential for assessing the potential of a centre. “The information from footfall counting systems is used in planning marketing and leasing activities as well as in a centre’s management,” points out Anna Szmeja, the CEO of the Retail Institute. “Shopper numbers also play a key role when negotiating new leases with potential tenants or when recommercialising a centre as well as in negotiations with investors,” she adds. This is a point echoed by Magdalena Chachulska, the asset management director at Neinver: “Shopper numbers, just like sales figures, are extremely important in supporting the management of a retail centre. With such data, we can better monitor and predict shopper behaviour both on a centre level and when looking at specific segments,” she explains.

From man to 3D camera

In the beginning, there was just a man. He would stand at the entrance to the store and count the people entering in his head, occasionally putting marks in a notebook and then a cross through them after a certain number. But because human memory and concentration often prove unreliable, the clicker-counters used at sporting events were later introduced. Such devices, normally used to count people as they entered stadiums, would fit in the palm of your hand and made a characteristic clicking noise as someone walking past was counted. Just like at sporting and cultural events, the job of using such rather simple but nonetheless reliable tools in shopping centres was entrusted to the security guards. However, in this case too such mechanical tools have been superseded by electronic gadgetry.

“The first digital footfall counters used beams of infra-red light across the entrances to the centre,” says Piotr Karpiński of CBRE. But, as he admits, although this device was adequate for counting those entering, it didn’t give you much of an idea of how the shoppers then moved around the mall.

The next advance was the introduction of simple thermal cameras. They could watch people entering and to a certain extent follow them as they moved around and in this way their shopping behaviour could be monitored better. Roman Pindel, the business development manager at Reveal Polska, recalls the first electronic systems for counting shoppers that were based on normal video cameras, but they also still required a large amount of input from people in terms of collecting data. These days they have been replaced by 3D cameras. Another system registers the signals from people’s mobile phones. “Unfortunately, such measurements are subject to errors, because not every shopper carries around a mobile phone or one with Bluetooth or Wi-Fi turned on. Also, you need to have the shoppers’ permission to take readings from their phones,” admits Piotr Karpiński. “Due to the costs, most shopping centre owners choose to install cameras to monitor people coming in,” he says. Malls with common areas and corridors have counting systems at all the entrances and often in the stairwells and lifts between floors to monitor the footfall at different levels. In retail parks, sensors are usually installed at the entrance to each store. According to Roman Pindel, it is in the main entrances, the passageways, elevator entrances, escalators and car park entrances that these systems are generally installed. When used together, such sensors allow managers to monitor how shoppers move within a centre as well as to collect specific data from the car parks, both those inside and outside the building. “Such a possibility is important, particularly during sales periods and over the Christmas season,” he claims. “Shopping centres are starting to want the option of managing their car parks during such periods so that they can ease traffic and prevent blockages. Our systems also allow managers to ascertain where the shoppers are coming from, which is essential data for geo-targeted marketing,” he adds.

For Apsys, footfall is regarded as one of the basic parameters of its shopping centres operations – and never more so than in the present situation. “It has an informative function and can be used to develop an action strategy for individual facilities. But during the pandemic footfall measurement also gives us the confidence that we will be able to comply with the latest health and safety regulations, since they include limits to the number people inside a building,” points out Małgorzata Białek, the regional property director at Apsys Polska. “For this reason, additional functions have been introduced to the customer counting systems, including a real time occupancy application. In selected facilities managed by Apsys Polska, we also use an SMS and e-mail system to provide notifications when the number of customers is approaching its limit. The data used for this alert is updated every 5 to 15 minutes, depending on the system. Thanks to these solutions, we now have the opportunity to react immediately and take action to ensure that we remain in compliance with the standards and avoid exceeding the prescribed limits for the number of people in a given centre,” insists Małgorzata Białek.

The power of analysis

Over the last five years, the Retail Institute has monitored the footfall in around 140 shopping centres. The daily figures are compiled into weeks, which are in turn aggregated into monthly, quarterly and annual figures. “Because the data is so sensitive to the calendar date, we have also started compiling the like-for-like figures so that we could compare periods with the same number of working days,” explains Anna Szmeja. “As a result, we were the only organisation in Poland able to assess the impact of the Sunday trading ban on companies’ results,” she adds. The Retail Institute’s analyses are based on actual industry figures and in no way involve the use of estimates or averages. “Basing your footfall predictions solely on counting machines is not enough,” insists the CEO of the Retail Institute. According to Magdalena Chachulska of Neinver, it’s very important to consider the history of a centre when predicting footfall. “When we examine the shopper behaviour from previous years and take into account both internal and external additional factors, we can accurately predict how many shoppers will visit in any particular period, such as during the week, on any given weekend or over a season,” she claims.

Counting with robots

Flow Point is one example of a technological innovation that has come onto the market as a result of the current sanitation requirements and the need to limit the number of people in stores. The system, which has been created by IU Technology in association with Panasonic Industry and Selfmaker, employs ‘robots’ to count the shoppers in real-time. These devices can be used to enforce a single direction for the traffic within stores – and can also be used as hand sanitiser dispensers. A single Flow Point machine can monitor the movement at entrances with widths of up to 430m. Each machine is small stand fitted with sensors and an LCD touchscreen, which can communicate with shoppers using visual and sound signals. If a store has several entrances, each can have its own separate device and the Flow Point machines will then communicate with each other so that they are all working with the same data on the current number of shoppers inside.