Vienna, June 8, 2016 – Shops, restaurants, and entertainment venues are facing enormous structural changes. Large shopping centers and cinemas at the periphery of cities are enjoying a brisk business; the small-scale businesses in city centers require a more differentiated approach, and frequency measurements provide the basis. Kapsch BusinessCom has set up a system in Graz, which businesses and the city government can use to jointly develop and refine integrated concepts for city development and marketing. Businesses as well as residents and visitors can benefit from such an undertaking.

The measurement of visitor numbers provides planning data for traffic management, new marketing concepts in the form of precisely managed digital media offerings, setting of opening hours, and resource management. In Graz, city center retail businesses, restaurants, property owners, and service providers have banded together in the joint “Graz City Center” campaign (Gemeinschaftsaktion Grazer Innenstadt, GGI). They can all access the data of the frequency measurement system that Kapsch has set up in Graz.

140,000 pedestrians in the Herrengasse

“If we know how many potential customers are on the streets of the city center at which times of the day, we can develop precise offerings. – And we can jointly communicate a consistent overall image of the brand ‘So richtig echt – Grazer Innenstadt’ (Genuinely authentic – Graz city center),” says Martin Auer, CEO of the eponymous chain of bakeries and member of the GGI campaign. The campaign initiated very successful activities during the Christmas season 2015. The concept utilized measurement data, which also provides information about how many pedestrians frequent individual streets. During one of the weeks of the Christmas season, up to 140,000 people were counted in the Herrengasse, for example, with up to 870,000 in the entire city center.

Sophisticated measurement technology and basis for additional digital services

In the basic version, the system used by Kapsch works with optical sensors as well as WLAN and Bluetooth antennas. “Our solution is designed as a modular system that provides interfaces for the integration of additional systems,” says Franz Semmernegg, CEO of Kapsch BusinessCom. The captured data is visually displayed on a dashboard, providing information about pedestrian frequency, turn-in rate, length of stay, frequency of return visits, and frequency in individual areas. Data protection and privacy are a priority. The solution complies with the highest standards and all statutory provisions. This is how Franz Semmernegg describes the advantages of digital measurement in city centers: “Now, brick-and-mortar shops have the same possibilities that online shops have had for a long time, namely, creating offerings and marketing campaigns based on data analysis.”

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