Counting the pedestrians

An average of 5,631 people pass by the storefronts of Barcelona’s commercial zones each day. Of these, about 420, or 7.45%, enter the shops and 140 of those make a purchase.

These are data from a study by TC Group Solutions, a company that sells technology solutions to the retail sector and has more than 15,000 sensors distributed inside and outside the establishments where they are contracted, located in the main shopping streets throughout Spain.

With the compilation of data collected by the sensors TC Solutions Group can analyse consumer behaviour in various cities. Among other important data that the sensors have “captured” is that in Catalonia since they began this study three years ago, the busiest day without doubt, is Sant Jordi, April 23. In other capitals, this is not so and the busiest day of the year is January 4. Last year in Madrid, however, things changed and the busiest day on the streets was Friday, November 24: Black Friday. In Catalonia, Black Friday was also busy and, according to this study, the increase of pedestrians in the streets in commercial areas was 5.19%. TC Group has seen that in the US the whole dynamic of shopping changed with the advent and promotion of Black Friday, leaving the concept of Christmas shopping far behind.

Apart from being a valuable guide for commerce, the data also is able to interpret specific issues. Following last year’s terrorist attack in Barcelona’s Rambla, the very heart of the city, the sensors automatically recorded a 1.26% fall off in shoppers in subsequent days, but also the fact that in just 12 days, figures were back to normal.