Core Definition
A store heatmap is a data map that visualizes, through color intensity, how long and how often customers dwell in specific areas of a store. Red zones mark high-engagement hotspots, while blue zones indicate blind spots that customers rarely visit.
Why store heatmaps matter
One of the questions store operators hear most often is: "Which shelf actually catches customers' attention?" Sales data shows what sold, but not why something didn't sell. A heatmap fills exactly that gap.
If a high proportion of customers stay in a given zone for 30 seconds or more, that zone is a high-attention "golden zone." If dwell time is short and the zone is frequently skipped along customer paths, that's a signal to reconsider its display method or location.
With a heatmap, you can compare before and after a display change, or analyze customer behavior by time of day to optimize staff placement and restocking timing.
How heatmap data is collected
In the past, this required Wi-Fi signal tracking or dedicated sensor installations. Recently, however, an approach has spread in which AI analyzes existing CCTV footage in real time to generate heatmaps without any additional hardware.
Anonymization-based AI does not identify individuals. It extracts only occupancy information, such as "someone was in this zone." This makes it possible to comply with personal information protection laws while still enabling high-resolution spatial analysis.
How SAAI Uses It
SAAI's saai care analyzes existing CCTV footage in real time to automatically generate a dwell-time heatmap for each zone. It collects no faces or personal information, relying only on anonymized behavioral data. In the saai insight dashboard, this heatmap data can be compared by time of day and day of week, serving as a basis for display layout decisions.
See it in action