Making the store more compelling
OnWindows Issue 5: Winter 2015
Powerful analytical data is becoming vital to retailers worldwide
We hear from AVA Retail’s Atul Hirpara about how sensors, depth-sensing cameras and more can provide the in-store analytics retailers need to transform the shopping experience.
Understanding customers and how to cater to their needs is key to retail success, particularly in an age where fewer people are visiting high-street stores.
“Online shopping sources have put a lot of competitive pressure on traditional retailers recently, so many are looking for ways to make the in-store experience more compelling,” says Atul Hirpara, executive at AVA Retail. “Today’s shoppers are incredibly web-savvy. Roughly half of Western consumers use smartphones to check prices while in store, so it’s more important than ever to engage with customers both online and in the physical world.”
To make the in-store experience more engaging for customers and more productive for store associates, many retailers are implementing analytics and other data-driven technologies.
“Most people wouldn’t dream of launching an e-commerce site without deploying web analytics to track sales, page views and popular items, and AVA provides the interactive technology that retailers need to access the same data in their physical stores,” comments Hirpara. “Our solutions enable retailers to encourage in-store sales by sending real-time coupons to customers’ smartphones via beacons or near field communications technology. We even offer interactive kiosks that allow shoppers to learn about products or video chat with a specialist.”
AVA’s various infrared and proprietary sensors provide retailers with powerful analytical data about the number of people visiting a store, the aisles they visited, the routes they took and even the individual products they looked at.
“For example, our technology can show a retailer that the highest footfall is recorded on Tuesday afternoons when it’s raining, or that people frequently avoid a particular department,” Hirpara explains. “This type of actionable intelligence, which can be viewed online via Microsoft Power BI, helps retailers become more efficient.”
AVA also offers interactive experiences for consumers that are built on internet of things technology, such as Smart Shelf. Built using sensors and AVA’s digital content management system, Smart Shelf provides consumers with a better contextual and just-in-time content delivery platform.
“A retailer could use Smart Shelf to create a video advertisement for a new perfume that starts playing whenever a customer enters the fragrance section of a store, then as they pick up a sample, instantly triggers a display showing relevant content,” says Hirpara.
AVA’s technology collects data about how often each product is picked up, how long consumers spend looking at it and its purchase history.
“This makes the shopping experience fun and engaging for customers, and provides retailers with valuable analytics data about consumer behavior,” enthuses Hirpara. “It sounds very complex, but with our software stack and Microsoft Azure, we’re able to quickly build and deploy immersive experiences for retailers worldwide.”
