Using smart camera technology to transform shopping

The solution allows retailers to capture facial awareness, demographic and footfall data in store and use the intelligence gained to: 

• Plan and adapt store layout based on who is using the store, where they go, what products interest them and how it affects their mood. 
• Develop personalised offers to consumers by being able to see how the consumer travels around the store and offer promotions related to the products they are most interested in. 
• Identify suspicious activity by monitoring unusual behaviour or dress which may indicate possible malicious motivations such as shop lifting. 

It can also be used to monitor in-store occupancy levels, verify customer age to ensure they meet designated shopping hour criteria, and track social distance spacing. Acting on this data to adapt store layout and reduce over-crowding can provide reassurance to employees and consumers that the retailer is taking the necessary steps when it comes to its duty of care in a COVID-19 world. 

In addition, the solution can be installed in distribution centres, alerting managers if employees are not properly equipped with protective equipment such as PPE or hard hats for example, or adhering to social distancing rules. 

The solution is based on Cisco’s Meraki MV Smart Camera and EveryAngle’s computer vision applications and includes design, implementation and ongoing support. 

• Cisco’s Meraki MV Smart Camera is easy to deploy, configure and manage with Maintel providing advice on where best to install in store to gain the most valuable insights. 
• EveryAngle’s computer vision applications are designed to take camera data such as consumers’ age, gender, mood, and in-store journey and provide insights into footfall, dwell times, suspicious person detection, PPE detection, customer waiting times and turn it into actionable insights that retailers can use to develop their in-store experience. 

James Mingard, Head of Retail at Maintel, commented: “Our solution will help retailers intelligently deal with social distancing issues now, while also enabling them to put the building blocks in place to build the stores of the future.  

“Online retailers have been able to gain deep insights into how their shoppers interact with their brand online and have seen huge success by using these insights to deliver personalised experiences. But, what a consumer does when they actually step foot in-store remains somewhat of a mystery. Using smart camera technology to capture visual data to understand in-store shopping behaviours, and even mood, has the potential to transform the shopping experience and provides retailers with the tools to encourage footfall back in store.”