Could Software Allow Shelves To Look Back At Consumers?
Written by Evan SchumanOctober 23rd, 2008
Technology that has been deployed to digitally watch—and analyze—how consumers interact with digital signage could also be used to interpret what they are doing while looking at a cereal shelf.
Are they ignoring the product or are they picking it up, reading the label and then quickly putting it back? Does the timing and eye movement indicate they were repulsed by the sugar content (near the bottom) or the low fiber count?
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2 Comments | Read Could Software Allow Shelves To Look Back At Consumers?
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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
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:24 pm
I am very much against this kind of “spying” on customers; it’s a real invasion of privacy. I will strongly complain to any company and perhaps not even shop there when I feel that i am being spied upon and that’s exactly what it is- spying, invasion!
If I find that a product has too much salt or sugar for example, I call or write the company and tell them. I don’t need someone scanning my eyes and watching me read the label. Also the items that you sell more of , for example in the cereal line, must be more popular than the types/brands that don’t sell well. Duh! It’ doesn’t take expensive equipment to find that out!
November 3rd, 2008 at 7:11 am
Editor’s Note: No argument with the potential for invasion of privacy IF (and, dare I say, ONLY if) the data is attached to an individual consumer. If not, it’s quite innocuous aggregate data.
But I did want to briefly comment on your last line: “The items that you sell more of , for example in the cereal line, must be more popular than the types/brands that don’t sell well. Duh! It’ doesn’t take expensive equipment to find that out!”
Not necessarily. How can a retailer or manufacturer know WHY a particular product didn’t move? Were people not at all interested? That’s one situation. Or were lots of people seemingly very interested, immediately grabbing the box and about to put it in their cart when they saw something on the label and quickly changed their mind.
Those two situations would both have registered “no sale” because they would merit very different reactions by the manufacturer. So there is value in that data.