How to Measure Footfall Outside My Shop With Just a Phone

If you have ever asked how to measure footfall outside my shop without buying sensors, this is the answer. You do not need hardware for a first honest number — you need a phone, a window ledge and about ten minutes of setup. This guide walks through framing, positioning and timing so the footage you capture produces clean counts of who walks past and who comes in, instead of a shaky clip that has to be thrown away.

The result is a Capture Rate Audit: passers-by, window stops and entries, hour by hour, from a video you filmed yourself. Here is how to shoot it right the first time.

Why a phone is enough to measure footfall outside my shop

People assume counting the street requires mounted, calibrated equipment. It does not. The counting happens in software, on the video — the camera only has to deliver a steady, clear view of the pavement and your doorway. A modern phone does that better than most fixed cameras, because its sensor and lens are good and you can position it exactly where you need it.

What the software needs from your footage is simple: people should be large enough to see, the scene should be steady, and the light should be usable. Meet those three and a phone beats a badly-angled CCTV camera every time. If you would rather connect a camera you already have, compare phone vs IP camera vs upload here — but for a first reading, the phone wins on speed.

Where to put the phone

Position is the single biggest factor in count quality. Aim for a view that captures the full width of pavement people use to pass, plus your door.

• Height: window-ledge or shelf height (about 1–1.5m) works well. Higher is better if you can manage it — a slight downward angle separates people who would otherwise overlap.
• Angle: point along the pavement, not straight across it, so you see people approach and pass rather than flash by in one frame.
• Framing: include the near edge of the pavement, the far edge, and your doorway in the same shot. If your door is off to one side, angle so both the passing line and the door are visible.
• Stability: lean it against the glass, use a small tripod, or blu-tack the case. A phone that slips halfway through ruins the second half of your data.

If people appear tiny in the frame, move the phone closer to the glass or zoom slightly. Our quality check flags footage where subjects are too small before you waste a day filming.

Key takeaways

• A phone in the window is enough to measure footfall outside your shop — the counting happens on the video, not in hardware.
• Frame the full pavement width plus your door, at ledge height, angled along the street.
• Keep it steady and charged; film a full day for shape, seven days to project a week.
• Avoid glare and backlight, and check that people look large enough before you commit a full day.

Getting the light right

Cameras struggle with the same things eyes do: glare, backlight and gloom.

• Avoid shooting into the sun. If your window faces the afternoon sun, film in the morning, or expect the software to flag reduced accuracy for the glare hours (it will tell you, rather than quietly guessing).
• Watch reflections. Shop glass reflects your interior lights onto the street view. Kill nearby internal lights, or move the phone right against the glass to cut the reflection.
• Dusk is the hard part. Low light widens the margin on any counter. If your peak trading is after dark, a phone can still work, but a camera with better low-light handling may serve you better long term.

How long to film

Match the filming window to the question you are asking:

• One busy hour — an indicative snapshot. Good for a gut check, not for planning. Treated as a spot reading, it is honestly labelled as such and never stretched into a projected month.
• One full day — the shape of your traffic: morning, lunch, close. This is what a single day of counting gives you.
• Seven days — enough to project a typical week with a real confidence interval, and to see weekday-vs-weekend differences. This is the Baseline Audit.

The reason longer is better is not marketing — it is arithmetic. A short clip carries a wide margin of error; a week of footage narrows it. We explain exactly how in what "accurate" really means.

Turn the footage into a number

Once you have your clip, uploading it is the easy part. You mark two lines on a still frame — one across the pavement for passers-by, one at your door for entries — and the software counts every crossing. That two-line setup is the whole trick behind a capture rate; here is how to draw the lines.

From there you get your Capture Rate Audit: hourly passers-by, window stops, entries, and the capture rate itself, plus a 60-second annotated clip so you can watch the count and check it. We count silhouettes, not people — no faces, no identities — and delete the source video after processing.

Ready to try it on your own street? Get your $99 Capture Rate Audit, or see the full pricing for the seven-day audit.

Frequently asked questions

Can I really measure footfall with just a phone? Yes. A phone propped in the window, filming the pavement, gives us enough to count passers-by and entries. The camera you use matters less than a steady, well-framed view of the street and your door.

How long should I film to get a useful reading? A single busy hour gives an indicative snapshot; a full day gives you the shape of your traffic; and seven days lets us project a week with a proper confidence interval. The $99 Baseline Audit covers seven days.

Do I need to keep the phone plugged in? For anything longer than an hour, yes — filming drains a battery fast. Prop the phone on a charger, lock it so the screen does not sleep, and make sure it will not be nudged.