How long a shelf or fixture is in shoppers' view depends not only on where it stands but on where shoppers wait and which way they walk. Here are three examples an AI counted in earlier articles, with the tool it calls over MCP (get_visibility, its shelf attention count). Assuming the simulated shoppers look the way they walk, the tool counts the time each face was in their view (120° wide, 6 m deep) in shopper-seconds, and the number of shoppers who had it in view.
1. The shelves and fixtures in view
| Floor | Shelf, fixture or place | Face | Shopper-seconds | Shoppers who had it in view |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A convenience store's lunch rush (85) | Tobacco and lottery shelf (behind the checkouts) | East | 5,887 | 85 (100%) |
| A convenience store's lunch rush (85) | Gondola: chocolate | West | 2,540 | 85 (100%) |
| A convenience store's lunch rush (85) | Gondola: candy and gum | West | 2,513 | 85 (100%) |
| A clothing store's Saturday, ground floor (168) | New-in table | East | 10,422 | 110 (65.5%) |
| A clothing store's Saturday, floor 2 (86) | Caps and wallets table | East | 15,771 | 79 (91.9%) |
| A clothing store's socks and small gifts table (168) | A. Now: beside the checkout queue | Any face | 6,615 | 117 (69.6%) |
| A clothing store's socks and small gifts table (168) | B. Just inside the entrance | Any face | 3,780 | 168 (100%) |
| A clothing store's socks and small gifts table (168) | C. At the foot of the up escalator | Any face | 3,306 | 162 (96.4%) |
| A clothing store's socks and small gifts table (168) | D. Among the women’s tables (west) | Any face | 1,917 | 59 (35.1%) |
The number in brackets after each floor is the shoppers counted there; floors are counted as in Japan, the ground floor being floor 1.
2. What they show
- Faces in front of where people wait are in view longest. At the convenience store, the tobacco and lottery shelf in front of the checkout queue was in view for 5,887 shopper-seconds; upstairs at the clothing store, the caps and wallets table in front of the fitting rooms was in view for 15,771.
- Long in view and seen by many are not the same. Beside the checkout queue, the socks and small gifts table had the most time, 6,615 shopper-seconds; just inside the entrance it had 3,780, but all 168 shoppers had it in view.
- Some faces are never in view. Of the convenience store's 88 shelf faces, 25 never came into any shopper's view.
3. The articles
- Which shelves do shoppers see?
- Which fixtures do shoppers see in a clothing store?
- Where should the small gifts table go?
4. How to ask an AI
In this shop's Saturday simulation (as drawn), list the ten fixture faces longest in shoppers' view on each floor, with a view of 120° and 6 m.
5. What this does not cover
- What is counted is the time in view. Whether shoppers looked, picked something up or bought it is not known.
- That shoppers look the way they walk, and the size of the view (120°, 6 m), are each article's assumptions.
