By: Bienson Jones
As a retail store owner or operator, you understand the importance of having security cameras. Those cameras are how you deter theft from patrons or staff as well as identify incidents and aid police when necessary. Your store’s camera system is the backbone for loss prevention but what if it could be so much more.
Today’s video surveillance technology not only minimizes loss but it can help maximize efficiency and profitability. How do you ask? Intelligent video surveillance solutions deliver demographic and occupancy data to store owners/operators. This data allows them to tailor their marketing, merchandising and staffing decisions thus creating a better in-store experience.
Demographic intelligent video surveillance solutions can identify the gender and approximate age range of your customers by detecting and analyzing their faces. These statistics can be used to target your marketing and merchandising efforts. Let me paint you a picture. Your data shows that from 9:00 am to 2:00 pm your highest demographic are 55-65-year-old women. Knowing this allows you to tailor advertisements, promote special offerings and have the appropriate merchandised stocked. When you identify and cater to your demographics, your results are likely to be higher sales and happier customers.
New video analytic solutions also have the ability to optimize your customer’s in-store experience through identifying occupancy patterns. Using this data allows store owners/operators to determine how many people are present in the building or a particular area at different times of the day. This information can help improve the use of space, indicate revenue opportunity in a particular area, improve staff planning and determine optimal hours of operation. Think about it this way. If your occupancy data shows that the shoe department is at capacity on Saturday’s between 11:00 am and 1:00 pm, you can ensure you have the correct number of sales staff to support customers and the proper number of security staff to protect occupants and merchandise.
Armed with this information store owners/operators have the ability to increase revenue and enhance their customers experience in real-time, giving this technology an immediate return on investment. It is time to say goodbye to a video surveillance system that only minimizes loss prevention and say hello to the future of retail analytics.
