00:00:00/Guide
How to reduce checkout queues with CCTV
The fastest way to reduce checkout queues is to know the moment one forms. A camera watching the tills can alert staff the instant the line passes your threshold, so the second till opens while the queue is three people, not eight.
A bad queue has an anatomy. It builds in ninety seconds, the floor staff are facing the other way stocking a shelf, and by the time anyone reacts the back of the line is already deciding not to come back next week. The information existed the whole time. It was on camera, nobody was watching it at that exact moment.
Set a threshold, get told when it's crossed
Queue Length watches the till camera and raises an alert when the line passes the number you chose, and "queue longer than four people" is a query the system understands directly. The alert lands where staff will actually see it in the moment, on screen, by email, or by webhook into whatever the team already watches.
- 01
Point Svid at the till cameras
Switch on Queue Length for the feed that covers the tills.
- 02
Pick your threshold
Choose the number that means "open another till" in your shop. It's whatever number you'd act on yourself.
- 03
Route the alert to whoever can act
The duty manager's screen, the back-office display, or a webhook into a system the team already watches.
- 04
Add Footfall & Dwell Time
So the pattern behind the queues feeds the rota, not just the moment they happen.
The rota is the other half
Queues at 12:40 every Saturday aren't a surprise, they're a staffing pattern that just hasn't been written down anywhere. Pair live queue alerts with footfall data over the weeks and the peaks stop being emergencies you react to and start being a rota you plan around.
What it costs
The subscription is based on your own usage for the shop's setup, minimum $9 a month, with the arithmetic shown on screen at signup. Queue Length is priced in the Store from your own usage, shown as the extra it would add ("+$X/mo at your usage"), and Footfall & Dwell Time is a report check from a $3 a month floor if you want the pattern as well as the ping.
- How does the camera know how long the queue is?
- The vision model describes what's visible at the till in each frame, including how many people are waiting, so Queue Length reads the line directly rather than inferring it from something indirect.
- Can I set my own threshold for the alert?
- Yes. You pick the number that means "open another till" in your shop, whether that's three people or six.
- Who gets the alert and how fast?
- Whoever you route it to, the moment the threshold is crossed: on screen, by email, or by webhook.
- Can it also tell me when queues usually happen?
- Pair Queue Length with Footfall & Dwell Time and you get the pattern over weeks, not just the in-the-moment alert. That's what turns queues into a rota decision.
Stop queues before they get long
Create an account at app.svid.ai, point it at the till camera, and switch on Queue Length.
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Guide
How to get alerts from CCTV footage
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Check
Queue Length: know when the line is too long
Queue Length watches the tills camera and alerts when the queue passes your threshold, so someone opens a lane while the customers are still in the shop.
Check
Footfall & Dwell Time: your cameras are already counters
Footfall & Dwell Time reads whole videos and writes footfall counts and dwell reports from the CCTV you already own. No beam sensors, no new kit on the wall.