Until now, in order to identify customers’ needs in offline stores, owners had no choice but to glance sideways at them to figure out the route of their movement in the store or analyze how many products were sold through the sales history of the POS. Based on this, store operations have relied on ‘experience’ and ‘intuition’. However, digital technology is changing every aspect of everyday life. Likewise, advanced digital technologies are also being introduced in the field of offline store management.

What if you can analyze the number of visitors of the store, the crowding of the store, interests of customers, the number of visitors to a particular area or location, and the time of stay, by means of security cameras installed in the store? Store management and operations would become much more efficient, which will soon lead to improved sales. Through ‘RetailTrend’, which are leading in the field of business intelligence(BI), we learn smart next-generation customer analysis services.

The Offline Market also Need ‘Analytics’

In the online marketplace, consumers’ behavior is quickly ‘read’. Because every single user’s behavior is recorded on the web server computer, one can see which channels they have entered, which pages they have stayed on, which products they have clicked on or purchased, and where they have gone. Based on this, Google and Naver’s analytics provide analytics services to website managers, and managers gather this comprehensive data to plan what content and products are of interest to customers, and what methods to take to attract more visitors.

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However, offline stores cannot use these types of analysis easily. This is because customers and their real-life movements do not leave “Logs”. Of course, attempts have been made to measure and manage customer movements in offline stores. Some examples are tracking visitors’ smartphones or mount sensors in the cart, but there were limitations, since these methods only worked with smartphones with bluetooth or wifi on, or that there were many stores that did not use carts.

In recent years, the approach of using security cameras as sensors has caught attention. A case in point is the ambitious “RetailTrend” launched by Cpro, a company specializing in video security systems, as a strategy to break through the crisis in the offline retail industry.

’Flow Heat Map’ Drawn by Retail Trends

RetailTrend is a service that analyzes customer movements in and out of stores based on CCTV cameras with intelligent video analysis sensors. For example, a camera that illuminates the outside of the store measures the foot traffic, and a camera at the entrance to the store measures the number of customers actually entering the store. Cameras in the store track customer movements and draw heat maps.

Flow Heatmap displays the visitors’ movement patterns and heatmap data analyzed by a number of video sensors installed in the store on the floor plan of the store, allowing one to understand the flow of the entire store at a glance. One can clearly see which corner many customers are staying in, how long they are staying, which direction customers are moving, and where the hot zone and cold zone of the store are located.

‘Flow Heatmap’ of RetailTrend

RetailTrends provides a variety of visitor behavior analyses such as “RetailFlow” that analyzes visitors’ movements, “RetailHeatmap” that shows visitors’ traffic and stay in a heat map, and “RetailTraffic” that analyzes the number of passengers entering a specific stand or area.RetailTrend also uses AI facial recognition technology to infer information such as gender or age of customers. Of course, face clips used for recognition are automatically deleted after recognition for privacy, and only anonymous data is stored.

Visitor Analytics Data, How to Use it

RetailTrend analyzes various data collected by camera sensors through cloud*-based big data analysis technology and provides the results daily to offline stores through web or reports.

If you look at the applications by each item,
– Visitor statistics identify the inflow rate of stores and conversion rate of purchases by foot traffic and number of visitors, analyze performance by measuring the number of visitors during promotion, and efficiently operate the workforce by identifying the peak time of the week.
-Heatmap’s route analysis optimally rearrange the layout of the store so that customers’ traffic is evenly distributed throughout the area, and the overall traffic is improved by expanding excessively congested areas or passageways. Optimize distribution of goods by the distribution of interest, and focus staff on key points of interest to drive effective purchases
–Area of Interest Traffic is used as a basis to analyze the purchase conversion rate for each specific unit in conjunction with sales to determine whether customers actually purchased the products they were interested in.

As a result, store managers can find and apply improvements in areas such as marketing performance, placement of stands, and manpower management to reduce operating costs and promote increased sales.

Currently, RetailTrend services are introduced in Korea in large retail brands such as SK Telecom, Lotte Himart, Kyobo Book Centere, and Doota Mall. Last year, the company also launched “RetailAllinOne,” a visitor analysis service specialized for small stores of about 15 pyeong(533.748 sf), which can be applied to more diverse industries and various sized businesses.

Cpro Co., Ltd., which celebrated its 25th year of founding this year, speciallizes in video security, named in the ‘Top 50 Global security Companies of 2019’, and is also widely recognized in the North American video security market. In recent years, they have invested more in the development of AI technologies such as elevator cameras and RetailTrend, and are actively tackling overseas markets, so we look forward to having a heat map in our hands in the U.S. soon.

Data source: Cpro / retailtrend.com