Watching as you shop
Matéria da Economist.com mostra sistema de monitoramento dem supermecados que além de agilizar as filas, monitora o que fazem os consumidores…Na GB, o reino da vigilância!
“The system, called Smartlane, has two elements: sensors by the doors count the number of people entering and leaving the shop, and sensors by the tills work out how fast the queues are moving and how many “shopping units”—groups of people, such as families or couples, who will make one transaction between them—are standing in each queue. (Shopping units are identified using an infra-red sensor that tracks the trajectory and behaviour of “hot blobs” when they enter its field of vision; this approach is 95% accurate, says Chris Precious of Irisys.) All this information can then be used to predict how many tills will be needed up to an hour in advance and monitor average waiting times and queue lengths. In Tesco’s case, a line longer than one shopping unit triggers the opening of another till. Sir Terry Leahy, Tesco’s boss, said last year that the monitoring system had reduced waiting time for customers and helped to boost the firm’s profits.
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Rather than monitoring queue lengths, however, Brickstream’s system, called BehaviorIQ, is used by retailers to gather data on where their customers go, where and how long they stop, and how they react to different products. This information can then be compared with the store’s transaction log to determine the effectiveness of store layout, product fixtures and other variables. In-store designs and marketing campaigns that work can be identified and improved upon, and those that do not can be replaced with something more profitable. Retailers, it seems, are buying the idea that by watching customers while they shop—what might be called “retail surveillance”—and redesigning their shops accordingly, they can get people to spend more.(…)”