Nice to see e-commerce technology once again pushing brick-and-mortar innovation to catch up. The in-store heat mapping is definitely a step in the right direction for in-store intelligence. It’s still just a first step, though. Stores now can know traffic patterns but not yet the depth of detail that is offered online but not offline. For example, heat mapping may tell that the cereal aisle is heavily trafficked, but it barely tells how many people picked up a box of Kellogg’s Corn Flakes without buying it. And it certainly can’t tell what cereal all those customers did buy after picking up a box and not buying it. Most importantly, while this in-store technology helps improve the understanding of “what” is happening in stores, it doesn’t yet address the $64,000 question for retailers and manufacturers — the “why” behind what is happening in stores. The convergence of online and in-store capabilities is happening but still has a long way to go.

Heat mapping techniques can provide some valuable information, but retailers have to be careful to respect shoppers’ privacy in their stores. Many shoppers will be uncomfortable with the knowledge that their every move is being tracked by image-sensing cameras and facial scanners.

Shoppers are accustomed to having their online activity tracked, but they like to feel anonymous inside physical stores. Retailers should be careful to preserve this sense of privacy as they experiment with heat mapping technology.

I have seen this type of technology before and also the ability to see mobile devices that have their Wi-Fi turned on while shopping in a store. I do believe the most recent advances in Wi-Fi access points have the feature. Many of the benefits were mentioned, but think of the department store that no longer needs to man the men’s department on Monday morning unless the system detects a customer who needs assistance. Labor savings. Also redirecting staff from a slow department to a busy department to help with the large amount of traffic. Customer service improvement for sure. A supermarket that sees a big increase in traffic in their last aisle and can now man more registers to handle the pending rush at the front end. Now lets add the fact that we can know what a customer is looking at, say in a consumer electronics store, when they decide to walk away. Why not use Wi-Fi or beacons to send an alert to the shopper offering more points or a small discount… Read more »

Heat mapping is a good tool however far from an equalizer. Retailers have always done a pretty good job with cameras and the eyeballs of store workers to see how customers are navigating the stores.

The real equalizer comes in the form of serving the customer. Online, with the right content, the consumer can ask and have questions answered, read comments and jump to other sites to check out pricing all in an effort to decide on a purchase. Often, when they come to the store, they have something else/more in mind. Heat mapping is not going to solve this and, IMHO, may be an unnecessary expense on its own.

But that’s just my 2 cents.

Regardless of the technology (or lack thereof as per Ryan’s story!) used, all the insights are worthless unless the retailer links these insights to conclusions and is prepared to make the changes necessary. These technologies offer great graphics and something to talk about but nothing of value to the shopper ever emerges. While I love and have used many of these technologies I’ve modified my point of view. I am now drawn more to leveraging some of these technologies to simplify and support the broader shopping experience from factory all the way through to a happy customer. Use little data instead of Big Data. Instead of adding more data the challenge is to leverage technology to minimize the data necessary to provide the maximum benefit to the shopper, the brand and the store. There are too many dashboards and not enough steering wheels!

” … adds some science to in-store merchandising.”

No, it doesn’t. But it promises something that smells vaguely like science, and so will no doubt be snapped-up by senior management with zero background in science, technology or methodology.

We use predictive heat mapping as a retail design tool. Heat mapping helps us focus on what we want the consumer experience to be. One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t want every spot to be hot or cold or everything neutral. Set up your retail experience for flow and provide moments where people can dwell, as well as transition and grab & go opportunities. It’s okay to have “cold spots” in your store. Just because no one is standing in front of something doesn’t mean it can’t benefit the overall experience. If you chase heat mapping without an overall strategy you’ll spin your wheels and waste your time. Heat mapping, both predictive and actual, is one of many tools to use in retail design. Great heads up. Thanks.

Technology is a good thing. Too much technology is not a good thing. I feel this almost falls somewhere in the middle. I’m with some of the other comments … it seems that most managers/executives already know their hot and cold spots. I do think you could learn some interesting trends on the impact of different products and brands.

As a provider of such solutions to retail for many years, I can tell you that real long-term value is extracted only after much trial and error. This is due in part to the hype and inflated claims by developers of analytics software who push the idea of elaborate systems paying for themselves in every conceivable retail environment. Counting works, and — as others noted — is a critical metric for stores. Heat mapping works — to a degree — but the insights gained often justify only partial deployment across a chain, especially when you consider the cost of syncing the systems/data with numerous floor plans and changing planograms. Gender, age, and mood detection are bleeding edge — and borderline creepy. The accuracy is mediocre at best, so IMO, these are only worth considering in very specific cases. Despite all of this, I’m optimistic about the future of such tech, since it gets better every year. We’ve helped pilot Wi-Fi analytics systems, BLE beacons, stereoscopic cameras, cloud video analytics, and a host of others —… Read more »