Average dwell
Average Dwell is the average time a single visitor spends inside an area — Total Dwell divided by the number of people who entered. It tells you how engaging an area is per visit.
Average Dwell = Total Dwell / Entries
It’s the average time a single visitor spends inside an area. Where Total Dwell measures the area’s full engagement budget, Average Dwell measures engagement per visit.
Worked example
- 50 customers entered the Footwear area today.
- Their combined dwell time was 5,400 seconds (1h 30m).
- Average Dwell = 5,400 / 50 = 108 seconds per visit (1m 48s).
What changes the number
- Compelling merchandise or display raises Average Dwell — shoppers stop and look.
- Crowded or hard-to-navigate areas can also raise Average Dwell, but for the wrong reason (people stuck rather than engaged). Cross-reference with conversion to tell the two apart.
- Quick-pickup areas (basket grabs, accessories impulse) have naturally low Average Dwell. That’s not a problem — context matters.
How to use it
- Compare like-for-like areas across stores to spot under-performing merchandising.
- Track over time to see whether a new display or layout change moves the needle.
- Pair with conversion — high dwell + low conversion usually points at a product or price issue; low dwell + low conversion points at a discovery issue (the right people aren’t reaching the area).