Queuing. When the average person sees a queue of more than six people, they are unlikely to join it, unless they have to. They are equally unlikely to leave it, no matter how long they have been standing there, if there are more than six people behind them. But if they are standing in a short queue for longer than five minutes and 54 seconds, then they will give up and go somewhere else. Maybe your competitor.

This is the research recently revealed by Professor Adrian Furnham in a study commissioned by Privilege Home Insurance. It is also the tip of the retail iceberg. From managing queue density, the scents that entice, the store fronts that are designed to attract the right markets, to video cameras and footfall measurement solutions that determine which times of day and which areas of the store attract the most customers, technology is pivotal to success in a very complex market.