How video surveillance will help increase sales

30.12.2022 15:47

Trade automation expert at Torgsoft

відеоспостереження у торгівлі

One of the promising technologies in marketing analysis is intelligent video analytics based on machine learning and computer vision algorithms - a technology for detecting, tracking and identifying objects.

The presence of video surveillance cameras is unlikely to surprise anyone, even in small stores with basic necessities. Large retail players not only use cameras to monitor visitors, but also use the collected information to improve customer service, logistics, merchandising, as well as to predict the workload on staff and identify high-demand goods.

How does the video analytics system work in trade?

The task of entrepreneurs is to constantly improve the value of their products for consumers. With the development of online retail, instant payments between individuals and globalization in the world - customer habits have changed significantly.

Customers have the opportunity to choose - not to go to the store that does not provide the expected quality of goods and services. The requirements for business are becoming more stringent, so retailers should develop the technical component of the business - the introduction of automation, specialized commercial equipment, video surveillance, security systems, self-service points to ensure a high level of customer service.

Traditionally, to calculate the conversion - how many customers came, and how many of them bought something, use a counter of visitors or POS-terminals. But such attendance counting does not record the customers who did not buy anything and why.

In this regard, it is appropriate to get access to dynamic key performance indicators - KPI - video analytics, which gives a complete picture of customer behavior and his "path" in the store.

What is intelligent video analytics

Smart video surveillance is a competitive advantage for stores. First, it is security in stores: cameras with computer vision help staff to respond faster to various situations related to the influx of visitors and investigate incidents of theft and fraud.

Having received data about customers from video surveillance cameras, marketers can adapt marketing strategies for sales in sales areas in accordance with the needs of target customers. For example, often based on this information, specialists develop commercials or audio ads, which are subsequently broadcast at the point of sale for customers.

Smart camera capabilities

In Ukraine, E-series video cameras with a large list of intellectual capabilities are sold, the price now (December 2022) on average ranges from 5,000 to 10,000 UAH.

Intelligent video analytics technology uses video footage from cameras in retail stores and processes it for analytics:

entry and exit from the specified area,
left or missing items,
perimeter protection,
crossing a conditional line,
people counting,
face recognition,
recognition of targets - people or vehicles,
signal about the accumulation of people.

There are several options for using video surveillance technology in sales:

Analysis of the "customer journey" or user path

Increasing traffic, eliminating sales shortcomings, expanding business and increasing its profitability by understanding customer behavior is part of any retailer's strategy.

With the help of intelligent video analysis, business owners and marketers can track the customer's path from the entrance to the store to the exit.

With the help of video surveillance, you can determine

Age and gender of customers.
How the customer moves in the store, where he stops.
On what days and hours the attendance is higher or lower.
The number of customers who pass by the store and enter it.
The work of staff on the territory of the trading area - is everyone on the ground?
Analysis of conversions by zones or departments.

Estimating the amount of time that customers spend in the store will help to predict periods of high traffic, respectively, at this time to increase the number of employees in the hall and at the checkout, to control the availability of high-demand goods.

Thanks to smart cameras, merchandisers can track customer traffic in different departments of the store and identify the most or least attractive areas. To do this, they use such metrics as the number of customers in the hall, the average time spent, visits to different aisles or departments in the store, etc.

Interaction with products

Sellers of grocery stores can track the number of touches of customers to the goods on the windows or shelves. This will help to understand which products are the "locomotives" of sales, and the accounting program will help to analyze the number of goods sold and the profit from them.

In addition, based on the data obtained from smart cameras, retailers can negotiate with suppliers of goods to change the assortment and reasonably ask for a price reduction for certain items.

Cross conversions in the store

Large format retail stores and supermarkets are interested in information about cross-visits to different departments. How many customers move from one department to another? How to use this information when forming product categories or developing promotional offers?

Optimization of order placement

A smooth checkout process is a guarantee of a high level of customer satisfaction and loyalty. Video analytics can be useful for predicting queue length and waiting time at different times of the day. Long queues are a clear sign of deteriorating service quality. Implementing business processes that prevent queues increases customer satisfaction by 35%.

Benefits of video analytics for retail

Technology gives sellers many benefits:

optimization of the location of goods in stores and warehouses,
increase in sales conversion,
improving the quality of customer service,
improvement of work processes.

Video analytics helps to improve communication between the consumer and the seller. Forecasting and accounting software ensure the optimization of logistics processes, and as a result, the constant availability of high-demand goods on store shelves.

And if video analytics and surveillance cameras were initially introduced to reduce losses from theft and fraud by employees, now they are an important tool for business growth. In particular, displaying product advertising on monitors in the store and video analytics will help to maintain competitiveness, increase customer loyalty, create demand for the categories of goods you need, and actually earn many times more than before.

Constant A/B testing

In order to find out whether a new product (A) will actually be taken more often than a similar old, but already familiar (B), it is necessary to first put out a new product in the same period of time, and a week later - the old and familiar. And observe. The purpose of the test is to compare the behavior of customers with product A with the behavior of those who still prefer product B. Hence the name - A/B testing.

As a result - the introduction of a process improvement cycle called DMAIC (Defi ne-Measure-Analyze-Improve-Control: Define → Measure → Analyze → Improve → Control), which is based on accurate indicators, such as: time spent in a certain area of the store, customer interaction with products for a day or several weeks; and answers to the question of why customers sometimes take the product, and then for some reason change their mind and return it to the shelf.

Moving towards a digital store

In the future, video analytics can be used in retail not only to calculate customer interactions with the store or determine their behavior patterns. This technology can also be applied in sales management systems - CRM, inventory, employee data, marketing calendar, etc.

The decisive factor will be the extent to which retailers will be able to integrate various uses of video surveillance technologies and real-time metrics into their business processes to truly control the customer journey.

The article was prepared based on the material of the Development Director of Deep North, an analytics and artificial intelligence company.

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