A display with a lot of visitors isn't necessarily a display that's actually working. It might just be somewhere a lot of people happen to walk past. Read visits and dwell rate together, and it becomes clear which display is genuinely earning attention.
What it shows
Zone interest analysis sorts each zone into one of four types based on visits versus how often visitors actually stopped. You can compare zones at a glance, from ones that are high on both visits and dwell rate to ones with lots of visits but low dwell rate.
High visits with low dwell rate is a "leaky bucket." That's almost always a display or first-impression problem.
When to use it
Use it to check performance metrics by display and build detailed merchandising strategy aimed at lifting sales.
A worked example
Here's an example. Say an entrance display is a "leaky bucket": plenty of visitors, low dwell rate, while an inner seasonal corner is a "hidden gem": few visitors, high dwell rate. Connecting the two zones with directional signage can naturally guide entrance traffic toward the hidden gem.
Which features to read it with
One feature alone rarely gets you to the cause. The pattern that repeats is: overlay a second feature to narrow the cause, act, then re-measure with a third.
- Measure — Overlay the zones flagged as leaky buckets with the representative path to see whether they sit on or off the main route.
- Act — Move them onto the route, or connect them to it with directional signage.
- Verify — Use funnel analysis to re-measure visits and purchase conversion in that zone.
This is an illustrative scenario: a new-arrivals corner sitting off the main path while sales fell short of target.
High visits with low interest points to a display problem. To scan zone performance more broadly before splitting into groups, start with zone analysis. Check out zone interest analysis in saai insight.
