The latest Location Based Analytics technologies are enabling retailers to engage with their customers better than ever before. According to IDC “The most successful retailers will find opportunities by putting mobility, analytics, cloud and social to work in their customer and operations strategies”. This includes “employing location-based services via analytics driven engagement and operations.”
This year ShopperTrak returns to EuroCis to showcase its enhanced Location Based Analytics offerings which provide retailers with rich insights and increased opportunities to improve their store performance.
Developed in the company’s new Innovation Lab in San Francisco, ShopperTrak’s latest product developments include solutions that can be customised to fit any size of retail footprint, from kiosks to large format stores. Its analytics suite also leverages Bluetooth Low Energy Technology (BLE). Through third party and retailers’ own applications, ShopperTrak customers have the ability to engage with their shoppers and gain access to more in depth information about how customers are behaving in their store. This arms retailers with the tools they need to draw shoppers in, help them to buy and encourage them to buy more.
Research has shown that 80% of companies believe they provide ‘superior’ customer service but only 8% of customers believe those same companies deliver that level of service. This shows a significant lack of understanding of the customer and would suggest that a retailer’s impression of customer service levels are based more on assumption or intangible information than on accurate insight.
Understanding the customer journey
Knowing the customer has become more complex as the shopping journey has evolved. The mission of the retailer remains the same but the ability to understand how customers are behaving while webrooming or showrooming for example, are all pieces of a larger puzzle.
Technology helps to put these pieces together. Location Based Analytics provide information on your customers from the moment they walk into a store – counting them in and using a variety of technologies from Wifi to Bluetooth, BLE and Video to understand their journey once they are inside the store.
The technologies employed are determined by the data a retailer wishes to gather which can be divided into either a one to many or one to one level of analysis:
ONE TO MANY is the anonymous tracking of consumers, which enables a retailer to gather trends about behaviour. This insight can then be used to inform operational and marketing decisions. Retailer KPIs around one to many Location Based Analytics could include:
Draw rates – analysing the number of people walking by the store that actually enter, so that retailers can determine whether they are receiving their fair share of shoppers.
Abandonment rates – Cameras may count shoppers into the store but technologies such as Wifi and Bluetooth then monitor how they are using the retail space. How long do customers stay in store before they turn around and leave for example? The parameters of this time limit can be determined by the retailer themselves.
Sales intercept – does a sales assistant intercept the customer, after how long and does this lead to an increase in conversion rates? What is the optimum time for a sales person to engage with the customer?
Zone level traffic – where are people going within the store and how is this impacted by promotions?
Dwell time – how long are customers spending in the store and what is the average time it takes to make a purchase?
From a ONE TO ONE perspective Location Based Analytics can help retailers to engage with their customers and encourage loyalty. Short range technologies such as BLE, Near Field Communications (NFC) and RFID usually require the customer to opt in. This means that the customer is happy for retailers to know more information about them which opens up a marketing channel at exactly the right time.
Location Based Analytics in practice
Joe enters a store and heads towards the jeans section. The department has a combination of styles and sizes and if Joe is left alone for too long he will become frustrated and leave. Using Location Based Analytics the retailer knows as soon as Joe enters the store. They also know that someone is in the jeans section and have ascertained from historical data that the average time spent by customers in this zone is nine minutes – once the optimal experience time exceeded, conversion rates start to drop.
The nearest sales assistant on the shop floor receives an alert on the handheld device to notify them that a customer has been in the jeans section for seven minutes. The sales assistant is then able to attend to the customer at the optimum time, help them with sizes and take payment on their iPad without the need for Joe to make his way to the till.
Join our session
Colm Roche, regional sales manager, central and east Europe for ShopperTrak will lead a session at EuroCis entitled: Enhancing The Customer Experience Through Location-Based Analytics. The session will explore how location-based technologies are changing the way companies look at customers - helping them to understand the path to purchase by recognising behavioural patterns and trends. Attendees will learn:
- Why securing relevant consumer behaviour information captured in your stores is critical to achieving superior customer experience and growing share.
- How leading retailers are benefitting from location-based solutions, including GPS, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).
- Explore the two different ways to think about location-based analytics: One-to-One and One-to-Many.
Interpreting customer data in the context of each zone, store, region or network will give you a better grasp on which operational strategies are performing to their full potential.
The Session will be held on Wednesday 25th February from 4.30pm – 5.00pm at the EuroCis Forum. Join ShopperTrak’s session or book a meeting at stand 10 C04!
Source: ShopperTrak
