One of the biggest challenges for architects, interior designers and store managers is envisioning how a static design on paper (or in a CAD file) will behave in the real world when hundreds of people walk in. Is the aisle width sufficient? Will a pile-up in front of the cash register block the main entrance? Do the most profitable products catch the customer’s eye?

We have developed RetailFlow Analyticsis a browser-based, interactive simulation tool designed to answer these questions with “data”, not “guesswork”.

What is RetailFlow Analytics?

RetailFlow Analytics is an analytics platform where you can upload any floor plan (in SVG format) and overlay virtual, AI-powered customer traffic (agents) on top of it. The app simulates “smart customers” with specific goals, waiting times and behavior patterns, not just random wandering dots.

Key Capabilities of the App

1. Dynamic Floor Plan Integration: You can upload your architectural drawings in SVG format, scale them and convert them into an analyzable map.
2. Intelligent Agent (Customer) Behavior:

   • Scenario Based Flow: You can simulate the difference between the “Morning Rush” (fast, impatient customers) and the “Afternoon Stroll” (slow, thinning customers).

   • Pathfinding: Agents do not walk through walls; they calculate the most logical route to reach the shelves and crates you specify.

3. Advanced Heatmaps:

   • Traffic Heat Map: Red density lines showing which corridors customers use the most.

   • Income/Interaction Heatmap: New Feature! Dynamic bubbles that grow and change color (Gold/ Emerald green) based on density, showing where customers stop and spend time (spend money).

4. Real Time Data: Instantaneous number of people inside, average shopping time, completed purchases and checkout queue lengths are reported second by second.

Contributions to the Architectural Design Process: What’s Changing?

This tool revolutionizes the architectural planning process to ensure that a store not only looks “beautiful”, but is also “functional” and “profitable”.

1. Discover Bottlenecks Before Construction

Aisles may look spacious when a plan is drawn. But when you set the “Visitor Limit” to 300 people in RetailFlow, you can see that the queue in front of the checkout overflows into the product aisles and blocks the flow. This simulation allows you to recognize spatial errors before the walls are built.

2. Revenue Mapping

In practice Revenue Heat Mapvisualizes where customers spend the most time.

• Tip for the designer: “Hot” zones (where big, bright bubbles form) are where high profit margin products or promotional stands should be placed.

• Cold regions: They are “dead zones” where the customer never visits. It tells you that you need to change the shelf layout or lighting to revitalize these spaces.

3. Circulation and Routing Tests

Does the location of the entrance and exit encourage the customer to walk around the entire store? Or does the customer enter, buy from the first shelf and leave immediately? By tracking agents’ routes (with the “Show Paths” feature), you can test the efficiency of the in-store circulation setup.

4. Operational Capacity Planning

“How many people can my store handle at the same time?” is no longer a guess. With Crowd Density settings, you can stress test the store and observe how the system (and the venue) reacts when maximum capacity is reached.

Conclusion

RetailFlow Analyticstransforms architecture from a static discipline into a living, breathing and measurable organism. For store owners, it means increased turnover, and for architects, it means designs with proven functionality.

It is a powerful aid for those who want to design not only the square meters but also the experience to be lived in those square meters.