Digitizing Footfall to Increase Physical Store...

Customer contact has long been a physical store advan-tage, but that advantage is evaporating as today’s online retailers skillfully employ data to build customer loyalty and

revenue per customer. By collecting precise information from every customer touchpoint, online retailers are increasing customer site vis-its, clickthroughs, and sales.

To compete, physical-store and omni-channel retailers are turning to innovative Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. This article looks at an end-to-end IoT customer analytics platform from SEMSeye that incor-porates smart cameras, beacons, cloud analytics, loyalty programs, smartphones, and tablet computers (Figure 1). We explore the plat-form’s ability to collect, analyze, and employ data to improve promo-tions, enhance customer satisfaction, and increase conversion levels and revenue. We discuss the platform’s potential for monitoring cus-tomer service and fine-tuning staffing levels. We then consider how

innovative solutions such as Intel® RealSense™ Technology will further improve the effectiveness of the SEMSeye platform.

A 2015 Deloitte Digital survey of 3,000 U.S. consumers, “Navigating the New Digital Divide,” estimated that digital interactions controlled by consumers would influence up to 64 cents of every dollar spent in retail stores. The report also offered the following insights:

• Consumers convert at a 20 percent higher rate when using digital resources in a physical store.

• Seventy-six percent of customers interact with brands or products before arriving at the store.

• Nearly one-in-three shoppers say they spend more when digital is part of the shopping process.

• Thirty-nine percent of shoppers report spending more when receiving a personalized coupon, promotion, or recommendation.

• Mobile influence on in-store sales goes beyond price comparisons – consumers turn to digital devices for ideas on what to buy and online reviews.

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Digitizing Footfall to Increase Physical Store Competitiveness

IoT Innovations Boost Sales Through Full Contextual Digital Engagement

38 | 2016 | 14 th Edi t ion | Embedded Innovator | inte l .com/embedded-innovator

These findings show that by strategically using digital IoT technologies, physi-cal-store and omni-channel retailers could increase sales and build customer loyalty. In fact, with a little investment and effort, they may be able to outdo online retailers at their own game – digital engagement.

Competing in the New ParadigmAccording to the U.S. Census Bureau, people still buy most goods at physical stores. The Bureau reports that physical stores handled more than 90 percent of U.S. sales in 2014. However, this per-centage is falling, and one reason is the limited use of digital tools in physical stores. These stores need new ways to uncover customer preferences and better engage people in and outside the store.

SEMSeye offers an end-to-end IoT customer analytics platform to help physical-store and omni-channel retailers increase conversion levels and revenue.

Figure 1.

inte l .com/embedded-innovator | Embedded Innovator | 14 th Edi t ion | 2016 | 39

The key to maintaining sales volume is full contextual digital en-gagement. Physical stores need to deploy digital technologies that combine internal and external data to provide deeper insights on shopping habits. Similar to how online sites track customer visits, purchases, and even the movement of cursors on screens, physical stores need to employ technology that reveals hot spots in their stores. They need to track the effectiveness of promotions, iden-tify the best products to suggest to individual customers, and an-ticipate when it’s time to bring in store associates to close and expand a sale. They need to deliver comprehensive digital-physical shopping experiences to compel customers to visit more often.

A Platform for Customer Insight and EngagementTo help retailers implement full contex-tual digital engagement, SEMSeye offers an end-to-end IoT analytics platform. The platform integrates footfall record-ing, loyalty programs, internal and ex-ternal data collection, and digital promo-tions to empower powerful in-store solu-tions for increasing sales and improving operations (Figure 2).

The SEMSeye platform uses a unique cloud-based people-counting service and mobile location analytics (MLA) to enable retailers to track and analyze in-store consumer behavior. (MLA products use Wi-Fi* or Bluetooth* sensors to capture the unique 12-digit MAC address assigned to specific hardware devices.) Optical people counters and MLA technologies monitor customer movements and interest in items throughout a store, proactively engaging customers through their smartphones and tablets.

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The SEMSeye platform integrates footfall recording, loyalty programs, data collection, and digital promotions to help physical stores increase sales and improve operations.

Figure 2.

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To deliver comprehensive business insight, SEMSeye’s cloud-based analytics and reports combine people tracking with external factors. These factors can include weather, time of day, traditional and digital marketing, and ongoing loyalty and social programs. Depending on the comprehensiveness of the deployment, platform elements can in-clude a variety of SEMSeye products and other digital devices. Let’s look at the key components.

SEMSeye Optical SensorsCompact, easy-to-mount sensors designed by SEMSeye connect via LAN or Wi-Fi to perform anonymous people counting and supply data for identifying store hot spots, display effectiveness, and other insights (Figure 3). Sensors transmit data (not images) to the SEMSeye cloud to protect customer privacy, as well as minimize bandwidth and cloud storage demands.

SEMSeye Optical Sensors Embedded with Eddystone* BeaconsSEMSeye optical sensors integrate the Google Eddystone beacon de-sign to combine sensing and communications. The sensors perform people counting, digital promotion broadcasts, and MLA. Units can is-sue targeted digital coupons based on a customer’s in-store location.

The beacon component uses the Physical Web, an open-source ap-proach to enabling wearables, mobile point of sale (POS) devices, tab-let computers, smartphones, and other intelligent devices to receive proximity-based information. Beacons can differentiate between cus-

tomers and store associates. Retailers can use these beacons to push instant notifications of sale and clearance campaigns, as well as alert store associates to sales opportunities based on customer time spent in specific locations.

SEMSeye Customer AnalyticsNear-real-time analytics are essential to seizing in-store oppor-tunities as they arise. SEMSeye’s customer analytics use cloud-based open software to collect, process, and transform raw data on visitor flows, MLA, and external parameters such as local weather into clear, informative charts providing in-depth insight. This information is refreshed many times per hour so store as-sociates and managers always have the most up-to-date view of in-store activity.

Employee Smartphones, Tablet Computers, and Handheld POS SystemsMany stores employ intelligent devices to improve store associate productivity. These devices provide an ideal platform to access SEM-Seye’s customer analytics from the cloud and identify the customers most likely to make a purchase and the products they may be inter-ested in buying.

IoT-based Digital Signage and KiosksA growing number of physical stores use digital signs and kiosks to de-liver advertising and product information. Through content management solutions like Intel® Retail Client Manager (Intel® RCM) software, these

digital platforms can be integrated with SEMSeye components to display better targeted content based on analysis of external and internal data by SEMSeye cloud analytics.

SEMSeye Wireless Optical Sensors with Intel® RealSense™ TechnologyCurrently in development, SEMSeye‘s newest optical sensors will use advanced anonymous video analytics based on Intel RealSense Technology – a three-camera solution that enables finer grain analysis of customer behavior. Collected data can include gender, age bracket, dwell time, and degree of inter-est in store items and displays. With appropriate software, the solution can also communicate with nearby digital signage to enable targeting promotions based on customer demograph-ics. These advanced sensors will also be able to gather data on employee-customer interactions to monitor staff effectiveness and identify training needs.

How SEMSeye WorksThe SEMSeye platform is the digital glue for the physical store experience. The best way to appreciate its stickiness is to consider a typical scenario.

A retailer posts notice of a sales promotion on their web-site. Customers encounter it through a website visit or online search. Subscribed customers receive email, text alerts, or digital coupons. Beacons at store entrances notify any nearby smartphone users with the appropriate application and pro-vide proximity alerts on deals and promotions.

SEMSeye optical sensors are compact, easy-to-mount, and connect via LAN or Wi-Fi to perform anonymous people counting.

Figure 3.


While the promotion is in progress, SEMSeye optical sensors track its effectiveness and offer many other useful insights by measuring the number of customers visiting the store before and during the pro-motion (Figure 4,). The sensors also provide data on the number of customers who visit the location of promoted products.

Optical sensors embedded with Eddystone beacons engage loyalty pro-gram customers in the store, repeat-ing the promotion and offering cross-sell and upsell item discounts. The beacons provide store monitor with information on specific customers on the sales floor, their past purchas-es, and the average expenditure per store visit. Based on this data, store associates apply their efforts to the most promising customers.

SEMSeye’s customer analytics plat-form gathers and analyzes data from all these endpoints continuously, issu-ing frequent data refreshes. This data helps store associates track customer traffic moment-to-moment and iden-tify where customers are showing the greatest interest (Figure 5).

To determine promotion results, managers access analyzed data on:

• How factors such as weather, time of day, social events, and promotions affected store traffic and shopping habits

• What products and displays customers spent the most time visiting

• Effectiveness of displays, in-store promotions, and store layout in supporting sales

• Employee-customer ratios and engagements for use in perfecting optimal staffing levels

Powered by Advanced Intel® Processors and TechnologiesIntel® processors and technolo-gies play key roles in the SEMSeye customer analytics platform. For example, the SEMSeye optical sen-sors with or without the Eddystone beacons use an Intel® Atom™ pro-cessor. The processor provides 3G, Wi-Fi 802.11bgn, Bluetooth* 4.0 low energy (LE), and GPS and GLONASS connectivity, enabling interaction

with customer and employee devices, as well as identification of a sensor’s location within a store at all times. SEMSeye software run-ning on the processor analyzes the video in real time, converting it into data for customer counts at each beacon’s location.

SEMSeye optical sensors with Intel RealSense Technology – target-ed for late 2016 release – will use the 6th generation Intel® Core i3-

SEMSeye’s customer analytics platform continuously gathers and analyzes data from endpoints, issuing frequent data refreshes to store associates to help them monitor customer traffic moment-to-moment.

Figure 5.

SEMSeye optical sensors track promotion effectiveness and offer many other insights by measuring the number of customers visiting the store, where they go, and many other factors.

Figure 4.

Predict futurevisitor flowsand incomes

Find out and promotebest performing stores

Plan cleaning or other servicesbased on actual people flow,not past historical experience

Compare attendanceof different stores

Optimize salesmenand other staff schedules

Estimate averagevisitor and clientbasket size

Optimize opening/working hours

Understand how manypeople use each entrance,escalator

Weather impacton visitor flow

Measure marketingeffectiveness

Measureattractiveness ofobjects or zones

Countconversion rate

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6100H processor and Intel® RealSense™ R200 camera. The R200 consists of three cameras that together provide RGB (color) and stereoscopic active infrared technology to produce depth. Capturing VGA-resolution depth information from surroundings at 60 frames per second (fps), the camera can record eye, face, finger, hand, arm, and leg motion that the SEMSeye software can immediately convert into data and analyze using the powerful Intel Core i3-6100H pro-cessor. The result will be richer insights on customer interactions with store products, displays, floor plans, and associates.

Recent architectural and design improvements to Intel’s 14 nm pro-cess enable the Intel Core i3-6100H processor to deliver superior performance and energy efficiency in space-constrained environ-ments compared to previous generations. Enhanced with Intel® Hyper-Threading Technology (Intel® HT Technology), this dual-core processor can process four threads simultaneously and deliver nearly instantaneous local analytics of video data before transmis-sion to the cloud.

Build Sales with Full Contextual Digital EngagementThe SEMSeye platform with its cloud-based analytics, optical sensors, and optical sensors with integrated beacons enables retailers to deliv-er the full contextual digital engagement that today’s customers seek from physical-store and omni-channel vendors. Improving customer engagement in and outside the store, SEMSeye helps retailers employ

digital promotions, footfall data, and proximity awareness to increase the effectiveness of their physical stores in capturing sales, improving customer loyalty, and optimizing operations.

For information on the SEMSeye platform, see intel.com/SD-semseye.

To learn more about bringing intelligence and manage-ability to retail, see intel.com/embedded-retail.

Contact SEMSeye SEMSeye (intel.com/MR-semseye is a General member of the Intel® Internet

of Things Solutions Alliance. The company provides a robust, statistical, real-time footfall-monitoring platform to enable retailers, smart cities, hospitals, airports, and museums to increase responsiveness and deliver improved customer and visitor experiences. The SEMSeye system combines plug-n-play, smart optical sensors with a cloud-based, open platform providing sophisticated people-flow data analytics. The system can be installed and provisioned in a few minutes, and is available for a low monthly subscription fee. Headquartered in Lithuania with lean manufacturing partnerships in Ireland, SEMSeye partners with large telecom operators to sell and support the system. The company was a recent winner at a ChallengeUp! competition co-sponsored by Intel, Cisco, and Deutsche Telekom.


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