Pedestrian tracking system monitoring shoppers in CBD

Auckland city pedestrians are being measured by an automated system with monitors feeding information back to computers.

Tania Loveridge of business association Heart of the City said a new automated system in the central city had provided benefits to retailers in the area who needed to know about pedestrian numbers.

Reveal, a monitoring business based in Auckland but with clients all around the world, was contracted to establish the system.

"We worked with several companies to realise this project in a public space, including Reveal who are responsible for the counting software as well as our IT company Fisheye who worked through the logistics with Reveal to allow the data to be sent over the 3G network," Loveridge said.

In February, at the bottom of Queen St on the western side from Monday and Friday, 25,000 to 35,000 pedestrians were counted.

The average for the month, excluding Waitangi Day, was 27,439 movements, Saturday's average 22,609 and Sunday's 15,747, Loveridge said.

The system charts pedestrian numbers at four key points in the city - three on Queen St and one on High St which Loveridge said gave a better understanding of how people used the city centre at all times of the day.

"Previously we've had access only to snapshot pedestrian counts taken on a Wednesday in mid-October every year, rain, hail or shine.

"Weather or road works or a cruise ship or even a blockbuster sale all can have huge impacts on the results," she said.

But she defended the system as non-invasive.

"It's definitely not Big Brother. There are no pictures and the technology isn't new but the benefits for our city and local business are immense," she said.

The counts are taken by monitors or cameras in canopies that record movements but not images due to privacy concerns.

A spokesman for Heart of the City said these systems were similar to those in department stores and shopping centres. Information is fed back to a server at Heart of the City which interprets the data and carries out the counting.

Ben Harman of Reveal in Newmarket said the business had a presence in a number of premises here and overseas.

"The value of understanding visitor movements in both private and public spaces is clear.

"We are seeing strong interest in this as businesses get smarter about how they use this information. We have a number of tools to help businesses get value from this data," Harman said.

Earlier this month, mall owner Westfield indicated it was also keen to track customers.

Justin Lynch, Westfield New Zealand director, said the business was looking at new ways to connect to its millions of customers and could consider electronically tracking their movements around its 12 malls here.

Westfield has a $1.4 billion investment in the malls with 437,483sq m which give total annual sales of $2.2 billion.

"With bricks and mortar, we're looking at how we connect to the shopper.

"We have invested in fibre optics and we are investing in Wi-Fi, mapping and GPS in malls and investigating the shopper journey," Lynch said.

Some mall owners overseas track customers with information from their cell phones, such as Blue Tooth, but retail experts said this could yield confusing results and did not always reveal the information businesses needed.

REVEALING YOU

Reveal, the monitoring system, is in:
* NZ Post stores.
* Telecom retail outlets.
* Noel Leeming stores.
* Loaded, Nike and Platinum shops.
* The Base, Hamilton.

Source: Reveal