Odense Municipality is the fourth most populous municipality in Denmark. As the birth city of the famous fairytale poet H.C. Andersen, the city prides itself on being the city of fairytales in Denmark. The city offers, among other things, a beautiful scenery, exciting museums and attractions as well as a 3 km long shopping street.Read the case and find out how Odense Municipality improves the use of the shopping street with Vemcount.
We’ve been satisfied with our collaboration with Vemco Group A/S, which has shown us that it’s possible to reliably and professionally monitor pedestrians on our shopping street. We see a great potential in developing and running our city better based on the insights that Vemco Group A/S has given us.
Challenge
Odense Municipality’s challenge consisted of two parts. Being able to access insights on how the citizens and visitors of Odense use the city, and act on these insights based on a valid and factual ground of decision-making rather than a gut feeling. Odense Municipality raised the following questions:
How are we able to measure traffic in the shopping street’s testing area 24 hours a day and use this knowledge in strategic as well as operational decision-making?
How do events influence the number of visitors in the city?
How do we ensure the city spaces are optimally designed?
Solution
To solve the challenge that Odense Municipality face, it requires sensors that provide accurate measurements of visitors on the shopping street, in all kind of weather, day or night. We have managed this by using sensors that cover heights up to 20 meters unrelated to weather or temperature influences. To measure how the citizens and visitors of Odense use the shopping street, we cover all relevant entrances and exits. We have also implemented advanced height filtration to separate children from adults in the counts. The sensors are integrated with Vemcount, allowing Odense Municipality to follow the number of pedestrians in real time via an online dashboard, just as selected employees receive daily reports that provide a visual and easily understandable overview of the measurements from hour to hour, day to day.
We use Vemcount to measure the traffic at our entrances, so we get an idea of where the customers come from and when the number of visitors peaks during a day, week, month or year. This gives us, among other things, a tool for planning our marketing and activity calendar and subsequently evaluating on these activities
Janni Baslund Dam - Mall Manager
Our data shows that the most critical time in relation to distance is the moment where customers pick up groceries from the basket and put them on the conveyer belt.
Mikkel Baun Kjærgaard - Professor
Over the years, we’ve tested a handful of different people counting solutions, which unfortunately have disappointed us at every turn. Finally, with help from Vemco Group, we’ve found the right solution. A valid and good quality solution ensuring that we can optimize our business and measure the performance of our stores (…).
Henrik Wieben Country Manager, Denmark
