Footfall Analytics

Footfall analytics is the measurement of how many people visit a physical location, when they arrive, how long they stay, and how often they come back. Sources include door counters, cameras, and - most relevant here - the WiFi network itself, which can observe device presence as a proxy for people.

How WiFi measures footfall

There are two distinct approaches, with very different reliability today:

• Passive (probe-based): counting the probe requests phones broadcast while scanning for networks. This once gave rough counts of passers-by, but MAC randomisation in modern iOS and Android scrambles the identifiers, making passive counts increasingly inflated, deduplication-resistant, and unable to recognise return visits.
• Authenticated (sign-in based): counting devices that actually connect through the captive portal. Each visit is tied to a real, consented identity, so unique visitors, return visits and per-guest history are accurate - at the cost of only measuring guests who connect.

Core metrics

• Visits and unique visitors per day, week and daypart.
• New vs returning - feeding the repeat visit rate.
• Dwell time - how long each visit lasts.
• Peak patterns - which hours and days actually carry the trade.

What venues do with it

Footfall data answers operational questions - staffing levels by daypart, whether the quiet Tuesday promotion moved the needle, how an event changed dwell and return behaviour - and it gives marketing a physical-world success metric: campaigns are judged on guests walking back in, not just email clicks. For the shift away from anonymous counting, see anonymous foot traffic and WiFi analytics metrics.