What footfall data you can get
Counting is the start. The value is in the data: visitor numbers, dwell, paths, conversion and occupancy, delivered however you work.
Approved by a data protection authority, no personal data.
Trusted by
Four things to know about our data
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More than visitor counting
Counts, dwell, paths, zones, conversion, occupancy and trends: the full picture of how a space actually gets used.
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Privacy-first, by design
No individuals are identified. All personal data is irrevocably deleted, so only anonymous, aggregated statistics remain.
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Delivered your way
A live dashboard, an open API into your own BI, scheduled exports and reports, or real-time crowd alerts. You choose.
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Validated, not guessed
A passive statistical sample, heavy error filtering and manual control measurements. The method is validated by academia, partners and customers.
The data is the product
A people counter that only shows a number above the door answers one question. Bumbee Labs is built to answer the ones that follow: how long people stayed, where they went, which zones pull traffic, how many passers-by you converted, how busy you are right now, and how all of that moves with the weather, your campaigns and the calendar. If the dwell metric is new to you, dwell time explained covers what it means and how to read it.
Measure with Wi-Fi, cameras and 3D sensors, cellular, or a hybrid of all three; the output lands in one place and the same metrics become comparable across days, sites and seasons. This page is the hub: what you can measure, how it reaches you, and the method that makes the numbers trustworthy.
The metric catalogue
Every metric below is something Bumbee Labs can deliver. Not every method delivers every metric: the right method, or a combination, depends on what you need to know. The comparison further down shows which method delivers which.
Counting & volume
- Visitor count (total), how many visitors came, over any period you choose. The headline number.
- In / out counts, directional counts across a line: exactly how many entered versus left a door or gate. Native to cameras & 3D sensors
- Unique visitors, distinct visitors rather than visits, separating one returning person from many different people.
- Passers-by, how many people passed outside without entering: the audience still in reach.
- Capture rate / conversion, the share of passers-by who came in. A footfall conversion rate.
Behaviour & movement
- Dwell time, how long visitors stay, per zone or overall. The clearest signal of engagement and of queue pain.
- Visitor paths & flows, the routes visitors take between zones and sites: first stop, next stop, last stop.
- Zone data & correlation, activity per zone and how zones relate. Hot versus cold areas.
- Anchor positions, the zones that pull and hold the most traffic: your natural anchors for tenant mix and layout.
- Segments / visitor classes, groups defined by behaviour: short versus long dwell, staff versus visitor, passer versus entrant.
Timing, capacity & safety
- Peaks & lows (trends), when you are busiest and quietest by hour, day, week and season: the basis for staffing and planning.
- Occupancy / capacity (real-time), how full a space is right now against its safe limit. Strongest with cameras / 3D sensors
- Crowd alerts, a real-time trigger when a zone gets busier than a level you set, via the Crowd Alert add-on.
Context & comparison
- Origin / catchment, where visitors travel from: the geographic draw of a site or area. Native to cellular
- Travel patterns between sites, movement between separate locations, e.g. station to high street.
- Benchmarking, like-for-like comparison across sites, periods and campaigns, normalised so the numbers line up.
- External-factor correlation, footfall set against weather, sales/POS, campaigns and events to show cause and effect.
Which method delivers which metric
Each method has a sweet spot. Wi-Fi covers whole spaces; cameras and 3D sensors nail exact in/out and live occupancy; cellular reaches wide-area catchment; a hybrid removes the blind spots.
| Capability | Wi-Fi | Camera & 3D | Cellular | Hybrid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whole-space coverage | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| Exact in / out at a door | Partial | Yes | No | Yes |
| Dwell time & paths | Yes | Partial | Partial | Yes |
| Capture / conversion rate | Yes | Partial | No | Yes |
| Live occupancy | Partial | Yes | No | Yes |
| Wide-area catchment & origin | No | No | Yes | Yes |
- Full
- Partial
- Not available
How the data reaches you
Bumbee Labs is dashboard-agnostic and delivery-flexible. Everything runs through the API; how you consume it is up to you.
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The dashboard (Explorer)
Your data as business intelligence: KPI tracking, conversion funnels, area flow and dwell, on your own floor plan. Tailored per stakeholder, and dashboard-agnostic: we build into your BI or suggest one.
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The API
All delivery runs through the open, documented Bumbee Labs API, available around the clock. Pull every metric from every installation straight into the stack you already run.
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Exports & reports
Scheduled and on-demand exports and reports for stakeholders who want numbers in their inbox, comparable period-on-period and site-on-site.
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Real-time Crowd Alerts
An add-on that fires an SMS, email or dashboard alert when a zone crosses a threshold you set, for office floors, food courts, beaches and airport queues.
The data journey
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Collection
Visitors' phones look for networks and emit signals as they move through a space. Bumbee Labs measures these passively, with no app, no login, no action from the visitor. (Cameras and 3D sensors count optically at the point; cellular uses anonymised, aggregated network data.)
- Personal data deleted, not stored
Anonymisation
All personal data is irrevocably deleted, never hashed and kept, never stored. Only anonymous statistics remain, so no individual can be identified.
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Filtering
A heavy AI filtering stage removes the noise that would distort a count (randomised identifiers, spoofing, stationary devices, blacklisted vendors and staff-like behaviour), leaving a clean statistical sample.
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Processing
The statistical engine extrapolates from complete visits to a robust estimate of the real population, fills gaps in paths, and calibrates against manual control measurements. The model keeps learning.
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Insight
Aggregated, anonymous metrics are delivered through the API and presented in your dashboards, exports and alerts. Standard metrics are ready the day after the visit; near-real-time crowd levels are supported.
Approved by a data protection authority.
Bumbee Labs' footfall method was reviewed and approved by a European data protection authority. To date, it is the only footfall method in Europe with this standing. You can use these statistics without taking on privacy risk, because no personal data is ever produced.
Data method & accuracy
Bumbee Labs makes accurate estimates of visitor flows the way rigorous statistics has always worked: a good sample, an honest accounting of the sources of error, measurement of the drop-out, and extrapolation to the true population.
- A passive, representative sample. Not everyone carries a phone or has Wi-Fi on, so no method captures every single person. The large majority of visitors carry an internet-capable device, and a large share of those have Wi-Fi enabled; that is the selection base the model extrapolates from.
- Aggressive error filtering. Wireless printers and other stationary devices, identifier randomisation and spoofing, temporary signal-strength errors, all filtered out before the count is formed.
- Path completion. Because devices probe at different rates, some are missed by some sensors; incomplete visits are extrapolated and gaps in paths are filled against routes defined as valid, so a single missed read doesn’t break a journey.
- Manual control measurements. Bumbee Labs always runs manual control counts and matches them to its own data; these become part of the training data and keep the extrapolation honest. Independent control measurements (for example with Sweco) have shown the extrapolation factors hold consistently.
- Independently validated. The method is validated by academia, partners and end customers, and has been applied across travel centres and entire city centres over many years, with active research conducted on the data.
Put the data to work
The same metrics drive very different decisions depending on who you are:
- Retailers & malls: staff to the peaks, prove campaign impact, set visitor-based rent, find hot and cold zones. Retail chains · Petrol & convenience · Malls / city centres
- Cities: anchor points, property value, safety and bottleneck management across a whole centre. City centres & smart cities
- Transport: board/alight peaks, route optimisation, flow through hubs. Transport hubs
- Advertising (DOOH): total contacts, dwell and segments around each surface. Outdoor / DOOH
- Airports, museums, parks: queues, occupancy, exhibit and ride popularity. Airports · Museums · Amusement parks
For the in-store view, where hot and cold zones, paths and dwell come together on one floor plan, see retail heatmaps.
At Ray our motto is customer success, and we are excited about our partnership with Bumbee Labs. Complimenting the seamless Wireless provided by Ray, our customers will now be able to leverage the deep analytics provided by Bumbee Labs and take informed business decisions to aid their growth.
Frequently asked questions
What can the data actually tell me?
Across methods, Bumbee Labs can deliver visitor counts, unique visitors, dwell time, movement paths between zones and sites, zone activity and correlation, anchor positions, peaks and trends, passers-by and capture/conversion rate, real-time occupancy, and crowd alerts. Which metrics apply depends on the method and the installation. See the metric catalogue above.
How do I receive the data?
All data is delivered through the Bumbee Labs API, and presented as business intelligence in dashboards. You can use our Explorer portal, connect the API to your own BI tool, schedule exports and reports, or switch on real-time Crowd Alerts. The platform is dashboard-agnostic.
Is the data personal data?
No. The method is built so that no individual can be identified. All personal data is irrevocably deleted, and only aggregated statistics remain. This is the approach a European data protection authority reviewed and approved.
How accurate is it?
Accuracy is high, though it varies with the method, the venue and how the installation is calibrated. It is verified with manual control measurements matched against our own data. We tune each deployment to the space and can combine methods where higher precision is needed.
How fresh is the data?
Standard footfall metrics are available from the day after the visit. Recurring visits can be tracked within the same day. The Crowd Alert add-on works in near real time for live occupancy and threshold alerts.