British Telecom has announced a multi-year partnership with Purple, the Manchester-based specialist in wifi analytics and engagement, to help retailers and other businesses analyse footfall and customer behaviour.

The partnership will see the incorporation of customer engagement capabilities within BT wifi services early next year, enabling BT to provide high-street businesses with customer insight, tracking and analytics relating to footfall and user behaviour. The data are akin to that previously only accessible to those whose businesses operated in the online world.

Purple provides companies with guest wifi, wifi analytics, wifi marketing and wayfinding technology.

“We’re delighted to have agreed this partnership with BT,” said Gavin Wheldon, CEO of Purple. “Brick-and-mortar businesses are being placed under increasing pressure by digital businesses, and we look forward to working with BT and their customers to help take advantage of the insights available to them and ultimately engage with their own customers in a more meaningful and profitable way.”

For BT, by providing a simple social wifi login journey for their customers, businesses will be able to understand customer needs, as well as in-venue behaviour including frequency and duration of the visit. This additional insight will help BT’s wifi customers deliver tailored and targeted communications and better engage with their users, increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty and footfall.

“Our partnership with Purple will give businesses, and particularly those in the retail, on-trade, F&B and leisure sectors the opportunity to take their wifi service to the next level,” said Bruce Cuthbert, director of connectivity and commercial sport at BT. “These new features will help all manner of bricks-and-mortar businesses to connect with their customers in the online world and turn insight data into smarter marketing and profitable customer communications.”

Purple gives businesses a means to capture and understand their offline world by offering a cloud-based platform that sits on top of their existing wifi infrastructure. As a result, it has a guest wifi, analytics and engagement platform. Its customers range from individual restaurants with a single location to the largest brands in the world with thousands of stores.

• Former chief executive of BT, Gavin Patterson, is joining Purple as a non-executive director.

“There is no doubt the analytics and engagement tools enjoyed by digital properties will soon be commonplace in physical spaces,” said Patterson. “Purple is leading the field having already secured some of the biggest brand names in the world. I look forward to helping with their continued global expansion plans.”