How to configure Dwell Time – Indivd

This article explains how Dwell Time works in Indivd, how to set it up for your location or specific zones, and how to interpret and filter the data in your dashboard.

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This article contains the following topics:

Activation
Setup: whole location or specific zones
Understanding the Dwell Time metrics
Using the Dwell Time filter
Viewing Dwell Time data in the dashboard

Activation

Dwell Time is automatically activated for all your zones when your plan is Indivd Pro or Complete. No manual activation is needed. If you are on Indivd Basic and want to upgrade, visit indivd.com/pricing or contact support@indivd.com.

Setup: whole location or specific zones

There are two ways to measure Dwell Time, depending on how granular you want your insights to be.

Option A: Measure Dwell Time for your entire location

One camera per entrance is sufficient. The whole location is treated as a single zone and Dwell Time is tracked for each visitor from entry to exit. This gives a high-level overview of engagement across your space.

Option B: Measure Dwell Time for specific zones

Cameras are placed at the entry and exit points of each zone you want to measure. This gives zone-level dwell time data for areas such as a product section in a store, a specific store in a mall, or a duty-free zone in an airport.

Zone planning for Option B typically takes under an hour. Contact support@indivd.com and Indivd will help you plan camera placement using a 3D map of your floor plan.

Note: Zones must be configured in Indivd before Dwell Time data is collected for them. See How to configure zones and zone settings.

Understanding the Dwell Time metrics

Once zones are set up, Dwell Time is tracked automatically for each visitor, up to two hours per visit. The dashboard shows the following metrics for each zone:

Average Dwell Time: The typical time visitors spend in the zone. Indicates how relevant or engaging the zone is to most visitors.
Median Dwell Time: The middle value across all visits. Less affected by extreme outliers than the average, giving a more reliable picture of typical behaviour.
Q1 and Q3: The bottom 25% and top 25% of dwell times. Together they show the range of typical stays and how spread out visitor behaviour is in that zone.
Outliers: Visits with unusually short or long dwell times. Short outliers often indicate quick exits or passersby. Long outliers often indicate staff presence. Both should be filtered out for accurate analysis.
Total Dwell Time: The combined time all visitors spend in the zone. Gives a big-picture view of overall engagement volume.

Using the Dwell Time filter

The Dwell Time filter lets you exclude visits below or above a specified duration, focusing your analysis on genuine customer behaviour.

To apply the Dwell Time filter:

Go to your Dashboard and select the location.
Open the Dwell Time widget or table chart.
Select the Visit duration filter.
Set a minimum duration to exclude very short visits (for example, under 1 minute to filter out passersby).
Set a maximum duration to exclude very long visits (for example, over 2 hours to filter out staff).
Apply the filter.

Note: Filters apply to the current view only and do not change the underlying data. You can adjust or remove the filter at any time.

Viewing Dwell Time data in the dashboard

To view Dwell Time data:

Go to your Dashboard.
Select the location.
Open the Dwell Time widget.
Use the zone filter to select the zone you want to analyse.
Use the date range selector to compare periods — daily, weekly, or monthly.

For deeper analysis, export the data to Excel. The export includes average dwell time, median, Q1, Q3, and outlier data per zone, broken down by your chosen time interval.

Note: Combining Dwell Time data with sales figures at zone level gives the most complete picture of zone performance. High dwell time with low sales points to a product or display issue. Low dwell time with low sales points to a relevance or layout issue. Both are different problems with different solutions.