Mobile phone tracking and futuristic facial recognition technologies are being installed in stores and shopping centres in Australia to help retailers analyse consumer patterns.
A host of new technologies are popping up to help retailers in their quest to get shoppers through the door and to part with their cash – but is this a step too far?
UK company Path Intelligence does not think so and has now brought its concept to Australia.
The business has developed the FootPath system which consists of a small number of monitoring units installed throughout a store or shopping centre.
These units calculate the movement of consumers without requiring the shopper to wear or carry any special equipment, as they measure signals from the consumers' mobile phones.
Next month one shopping centre is due to become the first in Australia to fit the receivers that detect mobile frequency codes to pinpoint location within one to two metres.
Today ADT Security has confirmed its facial recognition and tracking technologies are currently being used in several Australian retail outlets – however ADT’s customers have not given approval to reveal their names.
ADT national manager, Phil Brown, said the release comes at a time when Australian retailers are looking to technology to help them battle increasingly tough economic conditions, where fickle shoppers are holding their purse strings tight and online bargains are luring customers away from bricks-and-mortar stores.
“Retailers are desperate to understand what works best to attract and engage customers,” Brown said.
“With sales down and costs up, many retailers have had to reduce employee numbers, leaving stores without the luxury of having staff to monitor customer behaviour and encourage sales.
“This is where technology can help, with futuristic facial recognition and biometric technologies now a reality.”
Capable of capturing visitor trend data such as traffic numbers, shopper direction, average time of stay and even demographics such as age and sex, the technologically advanced solutions aim to help retailers spot trends, patterns and abnormalities in customer behaviour.
Retailers can then use the data generated to place product and promotional items in areas receptive to their target market.
The systems use discretely-positioned video sensors to analyse and count customer faces automatically, categorising them by set parameters.
For a more in-depth look at futuristic retail technologies check out our October 21 edition of Ragtrader.