An enterprise people counter rollout is decided by a few early choices: who installs, a proper survey of every location before any hardware is ordered, a pilot on a mixed sample of stores, and a schedule with room for delays, says Eric Lepine, Customer Success Lead at SMS StoreTraffic, who has directed several enterprise-scale counting rollouts (interview, October 2026). Difficult buildings aren’t the typical problem; the usual problems are people and logistics in the field, such as a store that isn’t open when the technician arrives or a network cabinet nobody on site can open. A few extra weeks and a 10 to 20% budget contingency absorb those field surprises.
This guide is for chains of 100 locations or more, which is where Lepine says enterprise rollouts start. If you’re choosing a traffic counting solution for a smaller chain, we recommend our guide to which people counter fits a retail chain of 20 to 50 stores.
| Step | Recommended approach | What it prevents |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Choose the install model | Your own IT team trained on one to three proof-of-concept sites, or the field partners who already service your stores | Installers who don’t know your stores |
| 2. Survey every location | Each entrance confirmed in the store, with dimensions, photos and network cabinet access | One sensor shipped to a store that has two entrances |
| 3. Replace old counters | Move every store to the new system rather than run two | Two systems to maintain and traffic data split across two platforms |
| 4. Pilot | An easy store, a hard one, a small one and a large one | A full plan written before anyone has seen the field |
| 5. Schedule with buffers | Monday to Thursday, early in the day, clear of the holidays and the biggest promotion weekend, with extra weeks and a 10 to 20% budget contingency | A rollout that runs longer and costs more than planned |
| 6. Brief every level | Store leadership, regional and district managers, the store manager and the crew | Hardware put away by whoever signed for it |
| 7. Install day | A named person to open the store and a plan for the network cabinet | A missed window that can push the install back a week or two |
Source: SMS StoreTraffic rollout experience, from an interview with Eric Lepine, October 13, 2026.
Who should install people counters in a chain of 100 or more stores: your IT team or your field partners?
Either can, and the counting vendor can train the installers in both models: train your own IT team on one to three proof-of-concept sites, or use the field and IT partners who already service your stores.
| In-house model | Partner model | |
|---|---|---|
| Who installs | Your IT team | Your field partner |
| What the chain supplies first | Staff to train on one to three proof-of-concept sites | Dimensions and photos of each location, so the vendor can specify how many units of which type each store needs |
| What happens next | The team repeats the method across the remaining stores | The partner installs from that specification |
Source: Eric Lepine interview, October 13, 2026.
The in-house model brings the know-how inside the company, and it fits chains where network cabinets are locked and only a few people can open them, which is one reason some chains send their own team to their sites. The partner model uses the IT contractors and technicians your stores already work with. They know your stores, their rates are already negotiated, and the counting vendor can train and coach them. “You already have field partners and IT partners. You’d be better off leveraging the people who know your stores and who you’ve negotiated good rates with,” Lepine says.
What do you need to know about each store before ordering people counters?
Survey every location before ordering hardware. In the partner model, the vendor uses each location’s dimensions and photos to specify how many units of which type each store needs. Head-office records are not enough: in SMS StoreTraffic’s rollouts, retailers rarely hold entrance data in one place, so a store listed with one entrance can turn out to have two, and the order comes one sensor short.
Before ordering, collect for each store:
- Every entrance customers use, confirmed by someone in the store rather than taken from head-office records.
- The dimensions of each entrance.
- Photos of each entrance.
- Who can open the network cabinet.
- Whether the store fits a standard type or needs its own plan.
The last item comes from a MarketScale piece featuring Telaid, a multi-site technology rollout firm, which advises grouping locations into repeatable store types before the rollout and flagging the stores that fall outside them, so those stores get their own plan (October 2026).
Should you replace existing people counters or keep the old system in some stores?
Usually, replace them, and move every store onto the new system, including the ones where an old system still runs. Two systems mean two to maintain, and traffic data that has to be pulled from two platforms and combined before anyone can use it; one system keeps every store’s traffic in one place. The counts wouldn’t line up anyway. “The typical recommendation is to rip out the old system and start fresh, because you never compare apples to apples,” Lepine says. “It also doesn’t make sense to run both together to try to create some sort of factor.” The trade-off to plan for: each replaced store’s comparable traffic history starts at its switch date, so year-on-year comparisons for that store resume a year later.
Which stores should you pilot people counters in first?
Pilot on a deliberately mixed sample before writing the full rollout plan: an easy store, a hard one, a small one and a large one. The pilot shows what the field really looks like, and that knowledge shapes the plan for every other store. “The best is to start with a sample of locations: an easy one, a hard one, a small one, a wider one. You learn the reality of the field before laying out the big plan,” Lepine says. Vixxo, a facilities services firm, also recommends piloting in a small group of stores that covers a variety of store sizes and traffic patterns (December 2025). Software rollout guidance makes the same point: Microsoft’s guide to planning Windows deployments calls finding a representative sample of devices the most important part of the pilot phase, and warns that the IT department’s own devices usually aren’t representative (updated December 2025).
Expect the first installs to be slow. On one retail wireless network upgrade across thousands of sites, Wachter, a nationwide installer, reports that new technicians took up to seven days on their first few installs (October 2025).
After the pilot, there are two ways to sequence the remaining stores: start with the easiest and leave the difficult tail for the end, or handle the difficult stores first so the rest roll out easily.
How do you schedule a people counter rollout so it stays on time and on budget?
Book installs Monday to Thursday, early in the day. In SMS StoreTraffic’s rollouts, most retailers avoid Friday installs almost at all costs. Each install starts at the store front, ideally before opening, so no ladder stands in the entrance during business hours. Very early slots, around 6 a.m., are harder to support, because the vendor’s support team is thinly staffed at that hour. Install windows also vary by retailer: Wachter notes that some retailers allow work only in the two hours before opening, which limits installs per day, while others allow full 12-hour shifts (October 2025).
Build slack into the plan. Large rollouts tend to run longer than first planned, because field issues come up that nobody expected, so add a few extra weeks, and keep the holiday season and the biggest promotion weekend out of the schedule. Hardware needs the same care: Ross Page of Telaid names hardware lead time as one of the biggest bottlenecks in retail technology rollouts, and the same article advises treating procurement, staging and technician availability as a single constraint (MarketScale, October 2026). Hold a 10 to 20% budget contingency as well, for the same field surprises: an entrance nobody recorded means another sensor, and a missed window means another visit.
How do you get store managers and staff ready for a people counter install?
Brief every level before the first visit: store leadership, regional and district managers, the store manager and the crew. Each store needs to know when the technician is coming, who opens the store, that the delivered hardware must be set aside securely, and that the technician may still be working after opening or arrive late. Present the counter as a tool that helps the team perform rather than as Big Brother; Lepine still meets people who say they hate traffic counters.
What causes delays on people counter install day, and how do you avoid them?
Install-day delays usually come from people and logistics: nobody there to open the store, delivered hardware nobody can find, or a network cabinet the technician can’t get into. Settle all three before each visit.
| Problem | What happens | Prevention |
|---|---|---|
| Store not open at the booked time | The technician has three to five installs that day and moves on; the install can slip a week or two | Name the person who opens the store for each install |
| Hardware lost after delivery | Whoever signs for the box puts it away somewhere | Tell the store the delivery is coming and to set it aside securely |
| Locked network cabinet | The store crew can’t open it; sometimes only the store manager has the key | Arrange the technician’s network access before the visit |
| Technician late or still working after opening | Traffic delays the technician, or the ladder stays up past opening | Tell the store team what to expect |
Source: Eric Lepine interview, October 13, 2026.
A missed window is costly, because the technician’s day is already full: “The installer can’t make the trip to the store every day. If you miss the window, the tech is already gone, because his day is busy with three to five installs. You won’t get a second chance,” Lepine says. Even with every step in place, expect some bumps: “Nothing is going to be perfect. There are going to be some roadblocks, some hiccups. Since it’s impacting so many people, so many teams, be prepared for it to be rock and roll at times.”
How we know
This guide is built on lessons learned from the many enterprise rollouts SMS StoreTraffic has completed, as Eric Lepine described them in a 26-minute interview on October 13, 2026, with his quotes edited lightly for clarity. Points on pilots, install windows, hardware lead time and store types come from Wachter, Vixxo, Telaid (via MarketScale) and Microsoft, checked October 28 and 29, 2026; the guide reflects one vendor’s field experience, not a survey of retailers.
Where we’d start
- Settle the install model before you ask vendors for prices. It decides what the request for proposal asks for: trial sites and training for your own IT team, or location dimensions and photos for a partner.
- Block the hardware order until the site survey is complete. One entrance missing from head-office records becomes a missing sensor on install day.
- Leave the sequencing decision until after the pilot. Easiest-first or hardest-first is easier to choose once a mixed sample of stores has been installed.
Sources
Outside sources are installation, facilities and IT rollout guidance, checked October 28 and 29, 2026. Dates are publication dates where the source gives one. Archived copies are Wayback Machine snapshots; pages that block archiving have none.
- Retail tech rollouts slip when nobody plans for the live store. MarketScale, 2026-10-06. www.marketscale.com/industries/retail/retail-tech-rollouts-sl…. Archived copy.
- How to Avoid the Most Common Pitfalls in Multi-State Retail Rollouts. Vixxo, 2025-12-12. www.vixxo.com/facilities-management-news/how-to-avoid-the-mos…. Archived copy.
- Create a deployment plan. Microsoft Learn, 2025-12-09. learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/deployment/update/create-de…. Archived copy.
- Inside a Nationwide Technology Rollout: What to Expect Before, During, and After Deployment. Wachter, 2025-10-31. www.wachter.com/resources/blog/inside-a-nationwide-technology…. Archived copy.
- People Counter Pricing. SMS StoreTraffic, undated. storetraffic.com/people-counter-pricing/.
- 3D SCOPE II LC people counter (product page). SMS StoreTraffic, undated. storetraffic.com/product/people-counting-camera-3d-scope-ii/.
- SMS StoreTraffic, first-hand rollout experience: interview with Eric Lepine, Customer Success Lead, October 13, 2026, and the author’s own statements (reviewed and approved by the author, 2026).
SMS StoreTraffic makes people-counting systems. This article draws on an interview with Eric Lepine, Customer Success Lead at SMS StoreTraffic, and on published guidance from retail installation and facilities firms.
By Raymond Casgrain, Marketing Lead, SMS StoreTraffic.
Research and drafting were assisted by AI tools; every claim was checked against its source and the article was reviewed and approved by Raymond Casgrain.
