Tracking customer behavior is nothing new. Mobile technology and GPS devices have allowed for targeted advertising and marketing. Tracking purchases through credit cards and analyzing the data has given retailers more information about you than most people in your life know.
However, retail establishments are now taking it one step further: using video-recording systems to track and analyze customer behavior. Retailers are enthusiastic about the technological advancements, but consumers are a little wary because they consider it an invasion of privacy.
What are the options for tracking customer behavior using video?
The majority of options involve security cameras. A retailer can use existing security cameras, or new cameras can be installed for this purpose. Software is then installed to analyze the data and generate reports.
Prism Skylabs is one option for security cameras. The company offers a software package that gets uploaded to the company computer that regulates the cameras. The system then analyzes the video footage and provides results, including conversion rates, long-term trends and hot spots in the establishment, which can be accessed from practically all devices. Prism Skylabs is useful in determining trends and analyzing overall customer behavior.
Another option in tracking customer behavior using security cameras is RetailNext. While Prism Skylabs is entirely focused on tracking customer behavior using video surveillance, RetailNext takes all behind-the-scenes aspects of the retailer and puts them to use. For example, it takes into account staffing schedules, the weather and promotional calendars. This could provide more specific results, but it will also require more time and input from employees.
But for a truly-innovative customer behavior tracking system, look no further than Almax, an Italy-based mannequin company. At the end of 2012, Almax released its EyeSee mannequin, which has cameras embedded in the eyes that watch and analyze customer behavior.
The system within the mannequin can determine age range, ethnicity and gender of the individual consumer, and it can also track the consumer's movement throughout the establishment. It can analyze what "track" the customer took through the store, the locations the consumer spent the most time at and for how long that consumer stayed at that one location.
The major difference between security-camera surveillance and the Almax mannequin is that EyeSee is watching from eye level. This provides a more intimate look at how the consumer is interacting and moving throughout the establishment.
Almax
At the end of 2012, Almax released its EyeSee mannequin, which has cameras embedded in the eyes that watch and analyze customer behavior.
Does the surveillance offer useful information?
This technology offers brick-and-mortar retailers hope for a fighting chance against the enormous amount of data available to online retailers.
Many national chains are using RetailNext, including American Apparel, Caché, Ulta, Gander Mountain and Family Dollar, and they are experiencing amazing results because of the data provided.
"It helps us make a better correlation between transaction data and traffic," said Chris Schindler, director of operations at Gander Mountain, in a company review. "So now we can find opportunities we might be missing."
It's unclear how widespread the use of the EyeSee mannequins are because Almax does not disclose who its clients are. However, the company does offer case studies that highlight the effectiveness of its product.
In one EyeSee case study, the mannequins analyzed the distribution of people entering the store from different entrances in relation to their ethnicity. Entrance No. 5 at this store is where 33 percent of Asian consumer traffic entered, versus 15 percent from all other entrances. The statistics from the store also showed that the majority of the Asian shoppers came between 3 and 6 p.m.
This data alone can be useful, but how do retailers know that the data provided by EyeSee is consistently accurate and useful?
Proof came quickly after the statistics were shown to the manager of the store. The manager investigated the claim made by surveillance analysis and discovered that a tourist bus stops near entrance No. 5 at 5 p.m. Not only was the surveillance analysis correct, it discovered valuable data that no employee or analyst of previous data was able to find.
With this information, the manager of the store placed two Asian sales assistants at entrance No. 5 from 4 to 8 p.m. This change in procedure increased the sales value by 12 percent, and it increased the total number of receipts by 22 percent.
What do consumers think about the new technology?
Consumers are typically aware that cameras are recording them while shopping. There are few places that do not contain some form of security camera, and they rarely cause any concern. Consumers consider these cameras safety and security devices that do not just protect the establishment, but also protect themselves.
When retailers begin using this surveillance and analyzing the data, consumers begin to feel "tracked." It was the same reaction from consumers when targeted advertising first sprouted. Consumers were hesitant at being tracked in any way. Most people have nothing to hide when it comes to shopping behavior, but the simple fact of being watched, tracked and analyzed puts many on edge.
However, the EyeSee mannequin seems to have attracted the most unwanted attention in regard to invasion of privacy. Having these cameras at eye level with the consumer gives many consumers that "feeling of being watched."
The consumer is constantly looking over her shoulder because of the feeling. There is practically no difference in the privacy features of the EyeSee compared to all other tracking systems for customer behavior, but the change in placement of the camera makes a difference in the eyes of the consumer.
Almax has repeatedly stated that the surveillance cameras do not record any information. The system takes the video and analyzes it in real time, so the consumer's personal information and images are never saved for future use.
The future of these software systems and mannequins include adding hearing to its list of senses. The producers behind EyeSee envision mannequins that will be able to eavesdrop on conversations of customers nearby in order to better target ads to them. Will this send consumers over the edge or will it become a mainstream marketing product?
Technology is constantly evolving; who knows where it will take us.
