RETAIL SYSTEMS HELP TRACK SHOPPERS
Bien Perez
Jul 07, 2009
With the economic crisis putting the squeeze on consumer spending, more retailers in Hong Kong and major mainland cities have turned to advanced customer tracking and sales analysis technologies to learn what works best for their target shoppers.
"The economic downturn has stimulated interest in solutions that allow retailers to determine which stores are drawing traffic and which are not," said Michael MacMillan, the managing director at Hong Kong-based retail performance monitoring systems provider Vizualize.
"That is something you cannot see purely from sales transactions."
Over the past six months, other information-technology suppliers have formed alliances to tackle requirements in the retail sector.
Microsoft Corp joined forces with technology service consultancies Accenture and Avanade in a global initiative to help retailers respond to changing consumption behaviour by providing social networking, mobile and cross-channel shopping choices.
IBM Corp, the leading global computer services company, teamed up with Beijing firm eFuture Information Technology to introduce online subscription-based software designed for the mainland's retail industry. Their system allows retailers to exchange business information with their suppliers, arrange payments online, access purchase orders and inventory levels and analyse sales data.
"To survive or succeed in the downturn, retailers will be looking for efficient ways to generate revenue by managing the demands of the customer, while at the same time making cost savings across the organisation," said Christine Bardwell, the retail technology analyst at Datamonitor.
Vizualize uses a mix of small sensor technologies - including 3D, thermal and vision sensors - deployed at a retailer's strategic locations, such as entrances and displays, to gather real-time data on shoppers' traffic, demographics and behaviour and the staff's interaction with them.
The data is then processed by its retail analytics software to help client retailers change aspects of a store's layout, product displays and staff placement, with an eye to converting potential sales opportunities into actual purchases.
"We now have more than 1,000 sensor locations installed in Hong Kong, including at the city's most popular shopping malls," Mr MacMillan said. "We also have sites installed on the mainland, from Chengdu to Dalian and most first and second-tier cities in between."
United States-based sports footwear maker New Balance Athletic Shoes, a Vizualize customer that has its own-brand store at Times Square in Causeway Bay, has seen the intelligence gathering pay off.
"The return on investment has been rapid, not just through increased dollars in the cash register but also through insight into promotional activity," said Bob Neville, the head of international retail at New Balance.
Mr Neville said the system "now forms the base of our international retail strategy".
State-of-the-art retail performance tracking technology from Vizualize has helped leading athletic brand, New Balance, boost sales by providing real-time information on customer behaviour in-store. The athletic footwear specialist deployed Vizualize’s powerful retail analytics technology to modify Merchandising strategies to convert potential interest from shoppers into actual purchases.
The pioneering technology captures information on shopper traffic, shopper behaviour and engagement, demographic and point of purchase (POP), as well as staff optimisation data in the retail environment. This automated and cost-effective technology provides New Balance with accurate, real time insights into shopper activity. Once the data is analysed, New Balance is able to alter aspects of its store’s layout, product displays and staff placement, converting potential sales opportunities into actual purchases.
“At New Balance, we are keen to know the full facts of our retail operations. We want to move from ‘what we think is happening’ to ‘what we know is really happening’. Gathering intelligence is a crucial aspect of this,’ said Bob Neville, Head of International Retail, New Balance Athletic shoes.
“Vizualize’s solution has not only enabled us to fully understand what is actually happening in our Times Square store and enhance our procedures to increase conversion, but has provided hard, facts-based retail insight which now forms the base of our international retail strategy.”
Hong Kong has some of the most expensive retail space in the world but until recently store design has been more of an art than a science. Vizualize’s technology integrates shopper tracking technology with computer modeling to enable retailers to adopt a more scientific approach to improving store performance.
“Our analytics technology is able to paint a true picture of what is going on throughout all aspects of the store, said Michael MacMillan, Managing Director of Vizualize. “Store pulling power, store conversion and location comparisons can all be measured with the objective of optimising retail strategies. More and more retailers are considering this kind of technology, recognising that understanding consumer behaviour helps build retail strategies that can convert mere interest into positive sales. The opportunity for increasing revenue is enormous.”
In the New Balance store, Vizualize tracked ‘hot’ and ‘cold’ areas to determine where shoppers went most frequently, which products were drawing the most attention and whether that translated to purchase. New Balance was then able to determine the true conversion rate for potential shoppers. The performance of marketing initiatives was also measured by tracking how many people viewed the in-store promotional digital screens, dwell time of the audience and gender composition.
Outside the store, Vizualize measured how many people walked past the store versus how many people entered and, of those, how many people actually purchased something.
The information was used by New Balance to optimise its in-store merchandising. This included store-layout, staffing levels, media and product placement and product displays. It also enabled a better understanding of the layout of the store and whether it was easily navigable or if there were any choke points.
In addition to understanding shopper behaviour, the technology also addresses staffing issues such as whether shoppers are waiting too long for service, staff levels at high traffic areas and whether shoppers are spending too little time in-store.
“The ROI has been rapid, not just through increased dollars in the cash register, but also through the insight into promotional activity. We have immediately reduced the number of unproductive LCD screens, DVDs and POP to direct marketing dollars into more effective areas of investment,” said Neville.
零售表現追蹤技術供應商Vizualize是一家香港公司，短短5年，已吸納置地廣場、Chanel、Jimmy Choo、Paul Smith、Tods等一商場及品牌採用，董事總經理Michael MacMillan透露澳洲電訊（Telstra）亦已落實於當地250間門市安裝系統。「通常商場官方人流數字都較為樂觀，故很多零售商都希望自行安裝人流計算系統，與商場洽談租金或推廣支援時有所依據。」
Michael進一步解釋：「假設1,000名訪店客人中，有約20%人購物，換言之另外80%人純粹逛店，但已成功被品牌或推廣吸引，這些人流都是不可忽略的商機，系統的好處是監察店內真實的銷售情況，轉化為數據。」
現時安裝此類系統的零售商集中於大型商場和奢侈品牌，Michael指香港僅有3%的零售店裝設系統，香港市場佔Vizualize整體銷售額約10%，主要競爭對手為一些來自歐洲的生產商。「他們定價較昂貴，Vizualize產品雖然於深圳生產，有部分零件採購自英國，但質素絕不比對手遜色。」
Vizualize產品至今供應至全球逾32個國家，在香港、倫敦和澳洲已有分公司，有逾半成客戶是轉介，由於香港市場使用率仍然極低，加上受早前經濟不景影響，相信未來銷售額可有3至4倍升幅。「銷售對象會針對一些大型連鎖店，因為只要取得一個客戶，便可帶來高額定單。」Michael謂，安裝感應器豐儉由人，下產品價錢介乎300美元至3,000美元。 |
