Using Infrared Sensors To Measure Aisle Eyeballs
Written by Evan SchumanSeptember 27th, 2006
Some of the biggest names in retail and consumer goods?including Wal-Mart, Kroger's, Walgreen's, Procter & Gamble, Coca Cola, Disney, Kellogg's and Miller Brewing ?have gotten together to make a sort of Nielsen Ratings for retail aisles.
The concept, which has been the subject of a major trial with ten stores, is not especially cutting edge. Using no more than a dozen sets of wireless bi-directional infrared sensors, each store would count the number of people who entered and exited each shopping aisle, according to Peter Hoyt, executive director of In-Store Marketing Institute, which was actively involved in the trial.
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3 Comments | Read Using Infrared Sensors To Measure Aisle Eyeballs
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
September 28th, 2006 at 1:55 pm
I think infra-red and other customer tracking devices give people a good reason to shop at small businesses where they are less likely to be “studied”
September 30th, 2006 at 3:46 am
It does seem surprising that these highly visible companies would push a solution that is going against many of their own pronouncements in RFID. The smart shelves with appropriate technology would measure $AMP (Advertising, Marketing and Promotion) much more accurately and not establish more silos of technology within the store. IR sensors for traffic counting have been available and used in specialty/Dept. stores in Malls to try and establish numbers for conversion of lookers to purchasers. That is relatively successful but not very accurate.
The true reason may lie more along how to redistribute/readjust the flow of Trade Promotion $$ which can reach 7% of a retailer’s sales.
July 26th, 2008 at 1:10 am
This is a typical American way of doing things in a complicated and expensive way. Ultimately all these technological things dont really matter – what matters is providing top quality products, wide assortments, reasonable prices, good customer service