People counting has advanced significantly since the days of simply measuring the number of people who enter or exit a venue. Modern traffic cameras can now analyze people’s age and gender and exclude employees, while multiple sensors can be connected to measure zone dwell time, and heatmap different zones.

However, there is now new technology in town in the form of Re-ID. Re-ID, or re-identification technology, utilizes artificial intelligence to identify individual visitors based on numerous unique characteristics: their clothing, clothing patterns and colors, accessories, and logos. This means that the same person can be recognized across multiple sensors – without the use of facial recognition, making it GDPR compliant.

Re-ID goes beyond regular people counting. With the technology capable of identifying and continuously tracking individuals within stores, a whole new realm of possibilities opens.

Re-ID can accurately measure site-level dwell time with a single device. As the technology counts and tracks individuals as they enter and exit a store, it can also measure how long they spent within it. Therefore, Re-ID provides a holistic overview of dwell time, as it is based on census level store visits data. This differentiates Re-ID from Wi-Fi technology, which measures dwell time by pinging customers’ mobile devices, and, as a result, only represents a sample of a store’s overall traffic.

A unique benefit of Re-ID technology is its ability to identify people who are just passing through a store, rather than shopping within it. It is quite often the case that shops and large department stores with multiple entrances are just used as a way for a person to get from A to B, with no intention of shopping. As Re-ID can track the same person across multiple sensors, the technology allows for dwell thresholds to be set to identify those who enter and leave an area within a short space of time – identifying them as passers-through. This also means that stores can measure the number of unique visitors, without double counting people who enter and leave more than once.

In addition to tracking passers-through, Re-ID means customer journeys can be more fully explored. Retailers can see which zones of their stores are the busiest or quietest and measure how long customers spend in each.

For example, Re-ID can track from the outside when a customer enters a fitting room, and detect them when they re-emerge, measuring their dwell time. Furthermore, as customers can be tracked across multiple sensors, fewer devices are required, as the whole path does not need to be covered. Lastly, in the case of shopping centres, Re-ID can be utilized to see which stores shoppers are visiting and how many stores they frequent.

Unlike other staff-exclusion technologies, Re-ID doesn’t rely on employees wearing lanyards or badges – which do not always align with a retailer’s brand guidelines. Instead, Re-ID’s AI technology can differentiate staff from customers by tracking how long they spend in-store in comparison to other individuals, and it can also learn what staff uniforms look like. This is especially beneficial to stores that have high numbers of staff, staff who need to leave and enter the store throughout the day to assist customers, and lower-traffic stores (such as high-end luxury) where removing staff from the count can have an impact on conversion.

Want to hear more about Re-ID and future news about advancements in people- counting technology? Click here to start a conversation with the team at Sensormatic Solutions today.