Director of Footfall Analytics, Gurshinder Liddar, explains how CCTV is adding another string to its bow as retailers can now use the technology to monitor and analyse customer behaviour to influence footfall and increase store conversion rates.
CCTV has been around since the 1940s and over the decades has become an important tool for public sector organisations, companies and individuals, primarily for security, safety and loss prevention purposes.
Applications have become many and varied, including the use of CCTV in banks, retail outlets, garage forecourts, parking lots, buses, taxis, domestic homes – the list goes on. The functionality of CCTV, a multi million pound industry, has also broadened as the technology has been developed to include a multitude of features, from motion detection to body worn cameras.
The retail sector in particular has for a long time been a large user and beneficiary of CCTV, again primarily for use in security, safety, and in particular loss prevention – ‘customers’ are less inclined to steal goods if they are aware of CCTV cameras tracking their movement and actions.
The latest development in CCTV for retailers is that they can now use their existing CCTV cameras and networks as a platform to track and analyse customer movement and interaction through insightful visual maps, charts and graphs. What this means is that they can better understand customer behaviour so that any alterations, for example, to store layout, signage or staffing levels, can beneficially or detrimentally affect footfall and sales conversion rates.
In store footfall counting and analysis has become a more important operation for retailers in recent years as they compete not only with each other but also with online retailers. Knowing how customers shop and what can be done to positively influence buying habits is a particularly useful piece of knowledge in a retailer’s sales armoury.
Of course, footfall counting and analysis isn’t a new concept – there is already a range of existing technologies available to retailers if they wish to invest in additional heat sensors, cameras and other monitoring systems. The difference with CCTV is that it’s already in place.
As with traditional counting and analysis technologies, but through their existing CCTV cameras and networks, retailers can create their own experiments and test any area in-store. Through CCTV, retailers can have a real time window into their business where they can ‘be in’ and view any store, regardless of the location, from Aberdeen to Adelaide, at the same time.
This enables accurate counting of customers – higher or lower than yesterday, or at different times of the day or week – as well as the movement of shoppers, to understand patterns and trends. Although cameras are being used to collect this visual information, the privacy of individuals is not compromised. They key is that patterns of behaviour among groups of shoppers are being studied. It’s also worth adding that consumers have become accustomed to having CCTV cameras positioned in public places.
One of the major strengths of this approach, compared to traditional methods of customer counting and analysis, is that most of the technology needed is already in situ – most of the investment has already been made. Retailers can add more cameras to their existing network, should they wish, particularly if the benefits of monitoring are being realised, but otherwise all they need to perform is a simple software download and customer counting and analysis becomes immediately possible.
The true value of this data is not so much in its collection, but the analysis provided by companies like Footfall Analytics. By being able to evaluate and interpret data that is being delivered through optical visualisation, retailers can not only get a lot more from their existing investment in CCTV technology but also create a more conducive environment for sales and higher conversion rates.
About the writer
Gurshinder Liddar is a Director of Footfall Analytics – visit www.footfallanalytics.com.
