Footfall analytics for restaurants, cafés and bars

Restaurant footfall analytics anonymously counts the guests who come in, by hour and zone, and the people who pass outside without entering. It uses Wi-Fi, often on existing access points, and a 3D sensor where the door count must be exact. Bumbee Labs is the company behind the only footfall method in Europe approved by a data protection authority.

The short version

• Footfall analytics for restaurants, cafés and bars: guests per hour and zone, and the people who pass outside.
• Wi-Fi covers the room and the street outside, while a 3D sensor counts exactly at the door.
• With the till feed connected, visits sit beside transactions hour by hour.
• Eight questions follow, from the lunch rush to a live count, and then ten shorter ones.

What do restaurant owners ask footfall analytics to answer?

The lunch rush starts before the rota expects it. How do we staff to it?

Counting guest visits by hour and weekday shows when the restaurant’s dining room fills and how long it stays full. The rota can then start where the rush starts, with kitchen and floor staff placed on that curve. Staff planning with footfall data explains how to turn it into a roster.

The till shows what we sold. How do we see how many came in?

The count adds what the till cannot record: how many came in. Visits per hour sit beside the till’s transactions, which arrive through an integration. When the room is busy but the in-store conversion rate falls, the restaurant can see which hours turn the fewest visits into orders.

Sales are down. Is it us or the whole street?

Count the people who walk past the restaurant as well as the guests who come in. The street sets how many pass, while the entrance and the offer decide how many step in. Capture rate is that share. Benchmarking footfall shows whether the market is moving with you.

Does the terrace or the sign by the door bring people in?

Compare the share who step in before and after the change. Wi-Fi people counting registers the people who pass outside a restaurant and the guests inside, so a new sign, a refreshed frontage or a terrace set out is judged on the same measure in both periods.

The queue at the counter eats the lunch hour. Can we see it building?

Dwell time at the order point of a restaurant, café or food court, read by hour, shows when a queue builds, because a long dwell there means guests are waiting. Where the exact figure matters, a 3D sensor measures dwell time at the bottleneck, and the peak hours show when extra hands would shorten the wait.

Mondays and Fridays are quiet. Which days still fill the lunch?

Counting visits by weekday and hour shows which days carry the lunch trade and which stay quiet. A restaurant can then set its lunch menu, opening days and rota to its own pattern. The weekly rhythm of footfall explains why such patterns repeat.

How much should the kitchen prepare today?

A restaurant kitchen can prepare for the visits that usually arrive on that weekday and at that hour. The counts come per weekday and hour, can be set beside weather and events, and reach your own planning tools or BI through the People counting API.

Is the room full right now?

For a live count, 3D sensor counting at the restaurant door keeps a running total of guests in and out, and the Crowd Alert add-on raises a near-real-time alert when the room passes a level you set. Wi-Fi shows how occupancy builds and clears through the day.

What else do restaurants want the count to settle?

• Should we open for breakfast, or close an hour earlier? Passers-by outside show whether people walk past before and after your hours, so opening hours can follow the street.
• What is the most we can have inside at once? A 3D sensor at the door keeps the running count against the limit you set, and the Crowd Alert add-on alerts in near real time when the room passes it, as described under real-time occupancy.
• What do we point to in the rent talk with the mall or the station? Passers-by, capture rate and visits for your unit give both sides measured numbers to start from, and the turnover rent page shows how.
• Where should the next restaurant go? Passers-by at a candidate site and mobile network data on where people come from can both be read before the lease is signed, which is the subject of site selection.
• Is it the location or how we run it? The same measures in every outlet separate a weak location, with few passers-by, from weak operation, with a low capture rate or conversion, as retail chains compare their stores.
• Did the lunch deal bring more guests? Visits during the deal are set against a baseline of comparable days and read beside the till figures, the same way you measure event impact.
• Sun on Thursday, a match on Saturday: how do we plan for it? Visits are set beside weather and events, using a baseline adjusted for the weather, as in weather and footfall.
• Kitchen staff are not guests. Can they be left out of the numbers? Wi-Fi counting filters out staff-like behaviour, and with 3D sensors Xovis people counting leaves employees out, so the figures describe guests.
• Do our regulars come back? That can be measured (with visitor opt-in).
• Our restaurant is inside a museum, a station or a petrol station. How do we read it? It is read as a zone of its own, with its visits, the share of the site’s visitors who reach it and how long they stay; the Petrol chain, 100+ forecourts case has the restaurant as one of its zones.

How does restaurant footfall counting work, with Wi-Fi or a 3D sensor?

Restaurant footfall counting uses Wi-Fi for the room and a 3D sensor for the door. Wi-Fi, often on the access points a restaurant, café or food court already runs, registers guests inside and passers-by outside, which gives visits, dwell time per zone and capture rate at the entrance. A 3D sensor above the entrance gives an exact in and out total wherever the number must be precise. Staff are filtered out, and everything reported is anonymous and aggregated. How to count visitors compares the methods, and the people counter page shows which type fits.

Where are restaurants already measured?

As a zone inside a larger site, or as a food hall of its own. A Swedish petrol station chain zoned each station into pumps, EV charging, store and restaurant. A museum counts its restaurant or café like any gallery, with visits, the share of the museum’s visitors who reach it and how long they stay, and a station or a mall counts its food court the same way. A Stockholm food hall used the service to count how many people were inside and how many passed by outside.