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Shoppermotion vs door people counters

People counters measure entries and exits at the door. Shoppermotion records what happens between the entrance and the till, and links it to the receipt.

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Footfall counters, from infrared beams to 3D sensors, count how many times the entrance is crossed. They are simple and affordable, and in fashion retail they are commonly used to estimate conversion by dividing tickets by visits. What they cannot see is the store itself: flow, dwell time and the route between the door and the checkout stay unknown.

Shoppermotion fills that gap. Tags on trolleys and baskets record the full path of each anonymous trip, so you get customer flow, dwell time by zone and conversion at the shelf, and each trip is matched with its ticket.

We wrote about this shift in the evolution of store people counters: from counting visitors at the door to measuring each journey, much like web analytics went from hit counters to full visitor behaviour.

Side by side

Criterion	Shoppermotion	People counters
What is measured	Full trips of trolleys and baskets	Entries and exits at the door
Path inside the store	Yes, bay by bay	No
Dwell time by zone	Yes	No
Link to the receipt	Each trip matched with its ticket	Only totals: tickets vs visits
Personal data	None	Usually none
Staff	Only tagged trolleys and baskets are measured	Often counted as visitors
Infrastructure	Ceiling anchors and tags	A sensor at each entrance
Typical use	Layout, category, media and attribution decisions	Footfall trends and store conversion rate

Last reviewed: 2026-09. General comparison of technologies; results depend on each deployment.

Choose Shoppermotion if

You need to know where shoppers go, stop and buy inside the store, not just how many came in.
You want to measure end caps, promotions or in-store media and attribute sales to them.
You want footfall and in-store behaviour from the same anonymous data.

Consider the alternative if

You only need entries, exits and footfall trends per hour or day.
Most visitors do not use a trolley or basket, as in fashion stores, and store-level conversion is enough.
You need a low-cost sensor across a large network of small stores.

FAQ

Questions, answered.

Do people counters measure customer flow?

No. They count crossings at the entrance. They collect no data on routes or dwell time inside the store.

Does Shoppermotion count visitors too?

Yes. Traffic and occupancy come from the tagged trips, alongside paths, dwell time and conversion. Shoppers without a trolley or basket are not included.

Is Shoppermotion anonymous like a door counter?

Yes. Tags identify trolleys and baskets, never people, and trips are anonymous from the first signal.

Other comparisons

Shoppermotion vs cameras→Cameras analyse images of people in their field of view. Shoppermotion locates tagged trolleys and baskets and matches each anonymous trip with its receipt.Shoppermotion vs Wi-Fi and Bluetooth tracking→Phone tracking locates shoppers' own devices when their Wi-Fi or Bluetooth is on. Shoppermotion locates tags on trolleys and baskets, with no personal devices involved.Shoppermotion vs receipt data alone→Receipt data tells you what was bought. Shoppermotion adds the path that led to it, and matches every anonymous trip with its ticket.

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