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Discover how video analytics for retail stores turns shopper movement into valuable insights. Improve store layouts, staffing, security and the overall customer experience.
Understand customer movement, improve store performance and create better shopping experiences.
Most retailers know what their clients buy but don’t necessarily know what is going on before they make the purchase. Which displays catch customers’ eyes? In which part of the store do people spend the most time? What are the reasons for leaving the store without making a purchase? Video analytics for retail stores can provide these answers by turning the recorded camera footage into valuable business data.
With the use of artificial intelligence and computer vision, the technology will analyze how customers behave inside the store and provide information regarding footfall and activity inside.
How Retail Video Analytics Works
Retail video analytics is connected to existing CCTV or IP cameras in a store. AI software analyzes the recorded video and extracts data regarding movements, visitor counts, queues and occupancy rates.
The data will be presented in reports and dashboards instead of hours of video footage that should be analyzed manually.
This way, the existing system for surveillance becomes useful from both security and business perspectives.
Shopper behavior Insight
The sales data tells us what shoppers buy but does not give information about their whole shopping experience. The video analytics allows us to see how visitors move around and interact with a real-life store.
For instance, one product display can be visited often but have low purchase rate. It may mean that there is a problem with pricing, information or availability of the item. On the other hand, another section may be rarely visited because it is hard to spot or reach.
These facts will allow retailers to optimize product layout and provide a better customer journey from entrance to exit point.
Insights Useful for Retailers
Some of the insights that the video analytics can provide are:
- Footfall and visitors trend
- Most busy times of the day
- Customers movement between sections
- Visitor dwell time near certain products or display
- Waiting line and waiting time calculation
- Current level of occupancy
- Popular and ignored zones
Anything unusual that might be happening in the store
Enhancing Layouts and Placements within the Stores
A good layout will help customers move around the store naturally. Unfortunately, retailers might find it difficult to determine if a layout is good or not.
Heat maps and movement maps will show the places customers tend to visit often. The management will then ensure that the products that are popular, promotions and even important signs are placed in those areas.
Less visited places can also be improved through testing different layouts or placements of products. Comparison of the movement maps will help retailers know if the new layout is working well or not.
Helping Retailers Make Better Staffing Decisions
The number of customers coming to a store might be variable. This will depend on the time of the day, weekday or the season.
Knowledge of past customer traffic will allow managers to schedule their employees according to their needs. Real-time alerts will also tell teams when checkouts have longer queues or when a particular department is crowded.
Staffing will help retailers save labour costs and minimize the waiting time for customers.
Linking Footfall to Sales
Having many customers does not guarantee good sales figures. With the analysis of footfall and point-of-sales data, retailers will be able to know their conversion rates and where the gap lies.
It could happen that a shop has great weekend footfall but poor conversion rate, so managers will be able to see why it is happening: whether it is because of lack of goods or high prices or something else.
The link between the customer’s actions and sales is helpful for the retailer to understand their performance better.
Improving Retail Security
Video analytics can assist retailers in loss prevention as well. The software can recognize unusual activity, restricted area access and other events that were previously defined as such.
Instead of having people watching all the cameras all the time, the system will notify employees about any suspicious activity.
The technology assists the security team, but at the end of the day, people still need to make decisions.
Respecting Customer Privacy
Video analytics software has to be used properly by retailers. In order to do this, an effective system needs to capture only the data needed for its application.
There are systems that analyze movements anonymously and don’t identify individuals. Also, the business has to give proper notifications and secure collected data according to relevant privacy laws.
An open approach will help retailers receive valuable information without violating customer privacy.
Conclusion
In today’s world, retail stores require more than just statistics about sales. Video analytics for retail stores gives instant access to data about traffic, movements, queues and the use of space in stores to make smart decisions about retail business.
Retail video analytics services that transform existing camera recordings into valuable insights. Contact us to find out how your retail business can benefit from Video analytics AI solutions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is video analytics for retail stores?
It is a technology driven by artificial intelligence which studies footage from the camera to gain knowledge about the number of visitors, their behavior and other aspects of life in the store. The received data may be used for making various decisions regarding operations, marketing and security.
Is video analytics compatible with existing CCTV cameras?
Some solutions allow using existing CCTV and IP cameras. The quality of cameras, their location and compatibility with software should be checked prior to the process of implementation.
How can it enhance the customer experience?
The solution allows retailers detecting long queues, crowded zones and inefficient layout in the store. This data will help them improve staff distribution, navigation and availability of the products.
What is a retail heat map?
A retail heat map is a visualized representation of the most and least visited areas. Retailers can track how customers walk through the store.
Does retail video analytics detect specific customers?
No, the technology does not have to do this. If needed, privacy-oriented solution can study anonymous movement and behavior.
