The longer you take to shop, the more you end up spending

London, Oct 9 : The longer you stay inside a shop, the more likely you're to spend, reveals a new mobile tracking system, called FootPath.

The software, developed by UK company, Path Intelligence, can track movements of mobile users over specified periods of time.

FootPath works by reading an anonymous identification number, called temporary mobile subscriber identity, or TMSI, that mobile phones transmit and can then track their movements.

The company studied the movements of shoppers in a UK shopping centre to find out the paths that shoppers take and how much time do they actually spend in the centre as a whole.

An increase of 1 percent of time spent resulted in a 1.3 percent increase on purchases.

"The real problem is that it's been hard to quantitatively analyse this. People say, 'you know, I think this is the case' but what we're able to do now is put some numbers behind those behavioural effects," BBC quoted Toby Oliver, the company's chief executive, as saying.

So all that retailers need to do is simply keeping shoppers' attention for a longer time to boost up their sales.

Mobiles are assigned with TMSI, which the phone periodically transmits to advise of its location, while moving. But, the number changes when the phone moves through different regions served by different base stations.

FootPath, directly detects that TMSI transmission from phones, without any need for an access to the mobile networks themselves, thus making the information specific to a user, but completely anonymous.

The TMSIs can only be associated with a number by the mobile operators and Path Intelligence encrypt the TMSIs that they acquire as an added level of security.

The approach will be useful for research, security and improving services in environments ranging from train stations to refugee camps.

--ANI