Dan Cremins, global leader of product management at March Networks, talks to Innovative Retail Technologies about the importance of video-based business intelligence on the retail industry. He also provides tips on how to determine whether cloud is best for video surveillance.
IRT: How can a video-based business intelligence solution help retailers drive profitability and improve performance with insights into customer behavior?
Cremins: We should probably start by explaining what we mean when we talk about a video-based business intelligence solution. Essentially, it’s a solution that takes the surveillance video you’re already capturing and integrates it with video analytics (such as people counting, dwell time and queue length monitoring) and point-of-sale (POS) transaction data. The solution then aggregates that data in easy-to-use reporting software that retailers can use to analyze and compare performance metrics – like customer wait times, promotional effectiveness and conversion rates – across multiple locations over time. It helps them quickly identify trends, spot outliers and actually see what’s happening in their stores so they can improve performance.
A regional manager responsible for 15 stores, for example, can use a people counting analytic, integrated POS transaction data and synchronized video to remotely view daily reports on each store’s conversion rate and how they compare. If one store is clearly underperforming, they can quickly access the recorded video to get a better understanding of what’s happening at that location and what needs to be adjusted to increase purchase rates. Leveraging people counting, queue length, dwell time and other business analytics enables retailers to do more with the video they already have in place for security and loss prevention, and to directly impact profits.
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