Online, shops and merchants can easily track their customers\u2019 buying habits and information, giving them a better understanding not only who their customers are and their interests but what items and pages are clicked on most. For brick and mortar shops though, there are fewer ways to gauge habits and even fewer ways to analyze customers\u2019 behavior in store. Thankfully, however, there has been a recent surge in digital tech and business processes that monitor and analyze brick and mortar shops.<\/p>\n
1. Bluetooth & Beacon<\/p>\n
To start, some simple digital tech has begun to be used in decoding customers\u2019 behavior throughout a store towards purchasing. These low energy solutions include Bluetooth and beacons. iBeacon<\/a> technology is an enabling technology for Apple devices to alert websites or apps when someone leaves or approaches a location. For retail shops, the use of beacons can detect the exact location of a customer at any given time. At this point, business owners can push timely messages to customers providing useful information or promoting products. Beacons and iBeacon use Bluetooth wireless technology to locate customers in their stores and around their stores. Understanding your customers\u2019 behavior in your stores can help you better understand what they are looking at first and even most. This kind of technology also gives companies the chance to connect more personally with their clients and customers.<\/p>\n 2. People Counting Software<\/p>\n Other new tech includes people counting software. This kind of software can help provide similar insights to Bluetooth and Beacon. However, unlike Bluetooth, though people counting software uses technology like facial recognition and big data analytics. A people counter<\/a> can keep track of foot traffic and measure physical advertising. It can show businesses what works and how best to use a space. The system can monitor stores at all hours of the day, and isn\u2019t just for retail. Hospitals and banks can use it track patient loads and peak hours.<\/p>\n 3. Video<\/p>\n Also paired with Wi-Fi can be data gathered from video. This data gathered from surveillance video cameras and Wi-Fi hotspots can once again give business owners insight into how customers move around a store. Coupled with transaction data and a sales system, this can build a better picture of how well front window advertising can bring customers in. It can also serve to show whether the store layout helps make browsing easy, where shoppers go and even if checkout lines are losing customers. Facial recognition software can even give video analysis a leg up as it can detail gender and age profiles of customers, add on top of this the ability to register shoppers\u2019 reactions and emotions and you can really begin to understand whether or not your customers are disinterested, happy or bored as they move about your store.<\/p>\n 4. Data Analysis<\/p>\n