Analytics Software Mines the Store
Retailers use cameras and other gear to collect information on shoppers in their stores
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Feel you’re being followed when you move around a store? You probably are. Retailers have set up cameras, motion sensors, and other gear to collect information about the buying behavior of their brick-and-mortar customers. According to market-research firm IDC, $1.3 billion will be spent on analytics software this year to make sense of the data collected.
Cameras
Department-store chain Gordmans rigged one store with 35 cameras and tracked movements of 29,000 shoppers over three weeks. The footage was turned into heat maps showing which parts of the store were popular with customers and which ones they ignored.