"Position tracking" will inspire indoor marketing to change shopping patterns

You can't find what you're looking for in the grocery store? Some retailers want to help you, but that might mean that when you're walking down the aisle, the merchant keeps track of your movements.

In this emerging area of location data, marketing, and data analysis, retailers are experimenting with new ways to find out how customers shop, and then lock in customers with promotional campaigns and on-site maps on their smartphone.

This concept is sometimes called location-based marketing (place-based marketing), using detailed location information-often specific to the shelves you walk in order to drive sales and provide retailers with more information about the store's traffic. That means collecting bits of digital information from customers ' smartphones and mobile apps.

When a customer passes by a product, some of the apps will give them preferential information. Usually do not like to drink Pepsi? When you wander around a soda aisle, you may be moved by a discount coupon.

It's like a grocery store near your home trying to outsmart Google, or even Amazon. After all, these players are the biggest rivals in the eyes of traditional physical stores.

The challenge for businesses is to drive sales and not infringe on the privacy of customers. Users have grown accustomed to being tracked online, even if they don't like to be tracked, but when shoppers visit physical stores, they use wireless to keep track of customers, which can be repulsive and far away. Last year, Nordstrom, the US department store magnate, Nordstrom when he tried to do so last year.

Retailers hope that they can persuade customers to sacrifice a little privacy in exchange for some benefits, such as more favorable goods or some helpful shopping information.

Merchant strategy

In order to carry out data collection activities, many companies are taking different approaches. One strategy is to make smartphones a more useful shopping assistant. Aisle411 the company specializes in helping physical stores digitize inventories and mark them on the map, making it easier for customers to find goods. Users can create lists, browse recipes, and find products at the signing store. Nathan Pettyjohn, chief executive of Aisle411, says that in more than 12,000 retail locations, easily searchable store maps can be obtained through applications.

The company uses the Bluetooth "Beacon Launcher" produced by Estimote to detect when customers pass through certain places or aisles, so that it can sell preferential goods or other bargains to customers. Pettiohan that this would help fill the current digital gap, while the digital gap hinders the ability of traditional physical stores and online shopping channels to be higher.

Pettiohan said: "If any retailer questions this, I would say you might as well put yourself in the Amazon situation." Amazon probably wants you to stay in a digital state. ”

In addition to applications like aisle411, there are companies that collect data specifically, such as Euclid, Path FDI, and Gisi indoors, which track where consumers are and how long they stay there. There are also Bluetooth beacon transmitter manufacturers, such as Estimote, Qualcomm and Sticknfind. There are also such household brands as Nokia, through its here business, the main indoor map of this piece.

There are wireless hotspot operators, such as wireless network providers Boingo Wireless, the company detected a mobile phone wireless signal on the passive changes, you can detect traffic. The company has used the technology at many airports to allow passengers to estimate how long it will take to get through security.

But despite the large number of vendors, they all have one or two common purposes: to provide more customer information to the retailer at the back end, so that the store can manage inventory, layout, and recruitment more effectively, and provide more information to customers at the front end through maps, coupons and loyalty programs.

The Path FDI Company is committed to the back end. It uses a laptop sized receiver to mark a customer's activity on a map by reading the radio-frequency signals sent between the cell phone and the cellular tower. The technique is designed to be anonymous, so that you can see the location of the phone without seeing the user data stored on the phone.

The technology is now used in about 150 places, including shops, shopping malls and sports venues, providing information on where people are and how long they stay there. The company says its equipment is marked for a glance, but it is up to the retailer to tell the customer that they are being followed.

A real-estate developer says the technology of Path FDI is useful because it helps the mall to see whether people are leaving immediately after a movie, or to go to a restaurant next door after the credits roll. This will help the shopping center decide whether to reconsider the options offered in catering.

Characteristics of indoor Marketing

Indoor marketing is different from E-commerce, which is oriented to online shopping. However, indoor marketing includes various aspects of the entity sales point, more emphasis on the process, and physical retailers know little about it.

"This information is useful," said Bob Rosenblatt, a consultant and former chief operating officer of Tommy Hilfiger Group. He says there is much more backstage activity than consumer apps, because store managers are accustomed to reviewing and analyzing data to make decisions.

Opus's research suggests that retailers may be moving along the right path. Surveys show that in the United States, most people already use smartphones in stores, doing things like looking for coupons, comparing prices, or consulting product reviews.

Indoor marketing relies on those habits, hoping that consumers will allow businesses to occasionally sell preferential goods, or even to a certain extent, if they feel they have benefited.

There are a lot of advanced ideas in this area. In a few years, brands may buy ads from Google, which not only hits the site, but also hits customers who stop at a particular item in the store.

Ben Smith, chief executive of Wanderful Media, which specializes in local shopping, said: "As a brand, you don't have to pay the store to sell to people who patronize the store, which dramatically changes the retail industry." "The aisle411 Company's Pettiohan forecast:" Online experience and store experience competition opportunities will be fair. "At the moment, the website knows about your consumption preferences, but the physical stores will know about your preferences," he said.

Another idea is that the installation is flashing so fast that the human eye does not perceive it, but the camera on the smartphone perceives the LED light. Don Dodge, Google's development ambassador, says LEDs can be used to send messages or reminders to customers ' Tang Dauchi.

Dodge is dedicated to helping developers develop new applications with Google technology, and he is also looking at new sensor technologies that are expected to pinpoint customers ' range of action to centimeter level. He is reluctant to comment on whether Google is developing the technology or that many start-ups are committed to the field. He just said: "Anyway, a lot of manufacturers are involved in this field." ”

Major retailers are interested

Dodge estimates that half of the top 50 roughly in the United States are considering some form of indoor location tracking technology.

One of the biggest hurdles is the ability to integrate all the disparate technologies to make indoor marketing practical. "You may be able to develop excellent applications, but then you will find that the infrastructure may not be in place," Dodge said in a keynote address at the spot Convention. ”

Another challenge is that current global positioning System (GPS) technology cannot provide a very precise location. Some manufacturers claim that their services can provide the accuracy of errors within 5 m to 10 meters. But Alexei Agratchev, co-founder of RetailNext, says the number of stores with advanced technology is less than 1%. RetailNext specializes in shop Analysis Services for retailers such as Wellison (Verizon) and American Apparel (Anglo apparel). Nokia says it has identified 99% of the world's leading shopping malls on the map, but has not yet marked every shopping mall aisle on the map.

Privacy issues were highlighted in the General Assembly and became the subject of many of the issues discussed by the panel members. Last year, Nordstrom closely focused on the wireless signals of customers ' handsets and began tracking customer actions. Although it made it clear to the customer that they had been followed, it finally stopped the plan in May this year, partly due to complaints from customers. Some people at the position Tracking Service conference said that Nordstrom did not do well enough to explain to customers the benefits of their approach.

Jules Polonetsky, executive director and co-chairman of Future of Privacy Forum, said companies should be transparent when it comes to explaining their practices and why.

"We never convince consumers that they should like data exchange or marketing," he said. Poronetskiy said retailers should focus on the benefits Amazon offers by offering products and tell customers that "we recommend the product to you because you like a certain product", rather than hiding data collection matters in a lengthy privacy policy.

Chandu Thota, an engineer at Google, Candu Tota that companies should explain the benefits to customers. "But mobile phones are very personal things," he said. "When a store tries to collect location data, customers may have no interest in thinking about it."

Gisi indoors installed its wireless sensor at the place Congress and marked the attendees ' location on the map by the red dots on the hotel map displayed on the screen. However, location tracking is still not a precise science. The red dot occasionally gets bigger and covers a large area of the hotel. The representative of the company said, "That's a car that's got a signal from our sensors outside the hotel." The