Platt Retail Institute: Audience Measurement Technology Optimizes the In-Store Digital Media Opportunity at Whole Foods Markets
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion, is a summary of a current article from the Platt Retail Institute's Journal of Retail Analytics.
A network of digital screens installed in Whole Foods Markets in North America is providing all the medium's stakeholders with some unique and valuable insights on the shopping audience and its dynamics. Operating so far in Whole Foods in Chicago and Toronto, with more under agreement, the network uses digital screens to help vendors raise brand and product awareness, educate shoppers and, most critically, drive sales.
The program is particularly important in the nutritional grocer sector because many, if not most, of the companies with products on the shelves do not have the budgets to build brand awareness using mainstream media.
Each store has as many as 11 "zones" - or marketing channels - defined and located by product area such as bakery, produce or seafood. Those stations have one or more large flat panel LCD screens positioned within easy view of shoppers, with a small sensor fixed in the screen fascia. Biometric software technology detects and calculates how many different faces look, for how long and when, and also segments viewers by gender.
A regular report, dubbed Pulse Analytics, provides details on overall audience viewership, individual station viewership, and by request only, detailed campaign viewership for the digital in-store program. The data so far shows some commonality across the retail estate, and also some unique store-to-store dynamics such as:
- Total audience: Foot traffic in a typical store is about 100,000 monthly, and the impression count suggests more than 75 percent viewership store by store.
- Peak viewing times: Peak time-of-day impressions vary considerably store to store. Early to mid-afternoon is consistently a high traffic period, but while impressions drop off steadily from then in a suburban location, they stay high through the dinner hour at a more urban location and actually peak mid-evening in the Chicago store.
- Day of week: Tuesday is the strongest weekday for audiences, while Saturday is the highest day of the week in the Toronto stores and Sunday slightly higher than Saturday in the Chicago store.
- Most viewed stations: Results vary by store, but grocery and supplements are high. The stations where there are not, typically, brand-oriented messages are the weakest - such as seafood, meat and produce.
- Gender mix: More than two-to-one female over male, but the data show in some locations the male percentage is higher at certain stations, such as prepared foods.
The data also gives Whole Foods an understanding of the actual viewing time, confirming this is a glance or pass-by media in which shoppers steadily scan the surroundings. The technology is showing shoppers are engaging with the screens for less than three seconds on average, with some spots appearing to hold attention longer than others. To counter that short engagement time, content is being developed that is short and punchy and has a quick call to action of some kind. Vendors are now using the data to get a far better grasp of shopper demographics and traffic patterns across the entire store, down to the individual stations.
Discussion Questions: What true benefit do you expect retailers will gain from shopping metrics tied to digital signage networks? Is the ROI there yet for retailers? What factors will impact vendor adoption of the medium?