THE FIRETIDE BLOG

How video surveillance helps improve foot traffic

May 24, 2016

Escalators.jpgVideo surveillance solutions are most often used to ensure public safety and more quickly spot threats in a given environment. But this is far from the only application of this technology. Increasingly, video surveillance solutions are being deployed to improve foot traffic in given settings as well.

Video surveillance and foot traffic in retail environments

For brick-and-mortar retailers, ensuring that visitors become customers is a critical concern, especially as overall sales in these environments decline. According to numbers cited by Loss Prevention Magazine, foot traffic and sales in U.S. retail stores in January 2015 was down by close to 8 percent compared to numbers from January 2014. As e-commerce becomes more popular, this downward trend may continue in the foreseeable future. Thus, optimizing foot traffic in stores can be critical to ensuring their continued profitability. 

To this end, video surveillance can be hugely helpful. With such a system in place, retailers can, in real time, pinpoint exactly where in the store shoppers are congregating. This information can be immensely useful for determining what parts of the store are most popular at the moment, or if lines are getting too long. Using this real-time intelligence, store managers can then better direct staff members or more effectively stock shelves.

For example, let's say a major department store, using its video surveillance solution, sees that a lot of people are browsing the appliance section one afternoon, but that few people are in the clothes section. The manager can direct staff away from clothes and toward appliances to provide additional assistance. Especially when staff members are equipped with smartphones – a move that many major brands are now doing, according to Loss Prevention – these team members can pull up information to help prospective shoppers or even alleviate long lines by checking out customers directly from the mobile device.

Video surveillance and foot traffic in hospitality environments

The use of video surveillance in this manner is not just limited to retail, as stadiums, arenas and other similar locations can also use this technology to improve foot traffic. By ensuring the smooth flow of people into and out of event spaces, teams can make sure that attendees are never stuck in onerous lines. Video surveillance can also be immensely useful in an emergency scenario, to make sure everyone can get out and that first responders can arrive without delay.

In fact, this is how Gillette Stadium uses its video surveillance system. While the stadium is perhaps best known as the home of the National Football League's New England Patriots, Gillette Stadium also hosts other sports teams and other major events like large-scale concerts. With a video surveillance solution, staff at the stadium can see when a parking lot is about to be full, ensuring that parking lot attendants are properly directing traffic.

Without video surveillance technology in place, parking lot attendants could easily lead visitors astray and cause them to spend additional time circling different lots. If traffic in and around parking lots was continually a hassle, then it might prompt people to not attend games or other major events at Gillette Stadium.

The system can also help alert state troopers when large crowds are about to cross busy thoroughfares, ensuring that police can stop roadway traffic at just the right moments to ensure the effective flow of stadium attendees on foot. Not only does the video surveillance network keep pedestrians safe, but it also allows security professionals to spot fights or other crimes that may be occurring in or around Gillette Stadium.

Gillette Stadium's video surveillance is underpinned by Firetide technology. This way, the stadium has a highly reliable network in place, but without the costs and installation hassle that comes with trenching fiber. For more information on video surveillance and its role in facilitating foot traffic in a wide variety of environments, be sure to contact a Firetide representative today.


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Category: Transportation

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