RETAIL TECHNOLOGY
The game changer:
Intelligent retail with Internet
Protocol video technology
Online retailers today know their customers’ shopping habits
very well. How can bricks-and-mortar stores get on par with this
development? Benjamin Low, vice-president, APAC, Milestone
Systems, talks about bringing the digital experience into the
physical store.
I
t is no secret that physical retail
stores have been struggling for
some time. US clothing brands
Gap and Banana Republic recently
announced the closure of their stores
in Singapore, and it’s hard to miss the
increasing number of empty units in
smaller shopping malls. In this light,
what is the relevance of bricks-and-
mortar stores in the future? Currently,
Amazon is one of the most significant
online players, and many others are
playing the game well, so the question is
whether bricks-and-mortar stores will be
outperformed by these online players in
the near future.
If bricks-and-mortar stores are to
survive, they need to adapt to the threat
from online stores. Online retailers know
their customers very well. Whenever
you shop online, there are bound to
be products introduced to you based
on your past transactions or browsing
habits. In contrast, bricks-and-mortar
stores know very little about their
customers, although it does not have to
be this way.
To meet these changing customer
needs, retailers must focus on bringing
the digital experience into the physical
store. Retail’s future will depend on how
physical stores can adjust to and coexist
with their digital counterparts. For many
retailers, one solution is right above their
heads.
Spotting hotspots
Video surveillance technology combined
with artificial intelligence (AI) can
identify age, gender and even read the
mood of customers when they enter a
store. In fact, the technology is already
built into some modern video cameras.
In an instant, shop owners can make
recommendations based on what the
hot-selling items are for a particular age
group. A customer loyalty programme
can even be set up, leveraging data from
facial recognition software. By matching
faces taken from real-time video with
a database of previously stored images
of faces, salespersons can identify and
greet the shopper by name, establishing
a closer connection and creating a
personalised shopping experience for
each individual.
Videos can also help track customer
behaviour through heat mapping. This
technology tracks a customer’s path
through the store and what products
they are looking at, highlighting a store’s
hotspots, dead areas and bottlenecks.
This way, retailers can optimise their
store performance by changing layouts
or implementing marketing promotions
for certain products.
In Singapore, retailers such as shoe
chain Design & Comfort have seen
success. The retailer has been using video
analytics to improve operations such as
deployment of staff and product display.
It is also using a system to monitor
footfall and how customers move
around the store. Currently, it has been
estimated that productivity has gone up
by more than 5%.
from products that are not relevant.
The entire customer experience only
improves by learning their behaviour
and by combining the online experience
with the physical experience. Why waste
time walking into a shop, looking for
a product that’s already sold out? By
searching relevant information online,
the shop assistant knows when the
product can be delivered directly to the
customer. It’s all about fusing the online
experience with the physical experience
and this provides the customer with
renewed power.
The opportunities are endless.
Beyond the basic functions of security
monitoring and recording, video
technology offers myriad functions that
can help retail businesses further their
business outcomes. From using heat
mapping as a customer management tool
to using facial recognition to personalise
and elevate the customer experience,
video technology holds a wealth of
hidden potential. ra
Fusing experiences
The use of video technology not only
benefits the stores, it can also help guide
the customers to the exact products
they are interested in and divert them
If bricks-and-mortar stores are to survive,
they need to adapt to the threat from
online stores. Online retailers know their
customers very well.
Retail Asia May 2018
23