Smart Aisle Management is key to increase customer basket size

Aisle management is a science that challenges many retailers. To fill customers' shopping carts, they need to make the customer journey in their stores as stimulating as possible. Goods must be presented attractively and easy to find. Plus, shopping paths must be enriched with inspiring offers to stimulate impulse purchases. All this happens in a dynamic and complex environment.

In order to increase in-store sales, retailers should constantly monitor and analyze buying behavior to adapt store layouts and aisle management to customer requirements based on valid data. But how to achieve this? Retail staff usually neither have the time nor are they trained to systematically observe and analyze customer behavior…

Here are the good news: AI-enabled video technology can help retailers take aisle management to the next level, without assigning more staff or special training. At Azena we aim to make the latest AI technology available for networked security cameras in stores so that technology can take over important tasks in retail business (beyond security & safety).

Smart aisle management in retail combining IoT Security Cameras and AI video analytics helps businesses to systematically monitor and understand customer behaviour, to gain valuable insights from video data and optimize customer experience, automatically and in real-time.

What smart video technology can do for your retail business - some examples for inspiration:

These are just a few examples to show that there is much more in security cameras than just video surveillance. The possibilities are almost limitless, it’s worth thinking outside the box.

Worth reading: The secret of major retail chains to boost sales using AI and IoT

How smart cameras can help with aisle optimization

Security cameras are designed to take videos and make it available for evaluation. To get more out of video footage, cameras need video analytics capabilities, for example, to distinguish people from objects, analyze behavior and characteristics. In our Application Store you find a wide range of Apps, easy to install on Security Cameras to perform a variety of business tasks.

Detect customer footpaths and improve store layout

Rental costs for retail space are rising, especially in city centers and popular malls. That's why retailers must make optimal use of every store square meter and create outstanding customer journeys through their offerings. Blind spots cost money as they don't contribute to sales success.

Heat mapping is a form of video analysis that enables retailers to analyze customer movement patterns on sales floors over time and identify weaknesses or potential in store layout. This provides businesses with the data they need to systematically adapt store layouts to customer requirements and to control customer behavior through smart aisle management. Networked security cameras equipped with AI apps can help with this, here is an example:

RetailFlux Shopper Flow analyzes and visualizes customer activities on the floor in your entire store by using multiple cameras as well as including the number of passers-by and dwell time. Shopper flow helps retailers to identify “hot”and “cold” zones in stores by measuring customer movement by analyzing and visualizing all customer activity on a digital floor plan.

Learn more about and get RetailFlux Shopper Flow

Recognize gaps in stock and keep shelves filled

You cannot sell goods customers can’t find on your shelves. It's a major challenge for retailers to identify gaps in their assortment and refill them quickly. Where employees reach their limits, especially in peak times, smart video technology can help to keep shelves in order. 

Neurala Brain Builder allows camera owners to train neural networks (AI) to understand any object-of-interest from camera input fast and without any AI expertise. The app enables Security Cameras available in every store to distinguish between shelves filled with objects and those with gaps in stock using object recognition. If the system detects a gap, appropriate measures can be taken, e.g. informing staff to fill gaps quickly.

Extra: Detecting objects, security cameras equipped with Neurala Brain Builder can also help identify fallen or broken products on the floor to ensure customer safety in stores.

Analyze customer emotions to eliminate flaws in shopping journey

Customer behavior is manifold. Besides movement patterns on sales floors, customer emotions can be analyzed to gain insights into how well merchandise and store layout work. Smart security cameras using facial motion detection can help analyze customer reactions to specific conditions or changes in stores, from window design to personalized in-store promotions.

FaceEmotions is an AI App analyzing video streams on faces. When a face is detected, emotion is recognised as anger, disgust, fear, happiness, neutral, sadness or surprise, providing statistical insights into problems in store layout, for example, when customers have difficulty orienting themselves or are unable to find products easily.

Learn more about and get FaceEmotions

Worth reading: How smart video analytics helps retailers survive in tough times

Drive sales through personalized in-store promotion

What e-commerce has already mastered, stores still have to learn: recognizing customers by individual characteristics and automatically creating individual offers. AI technology can assist staff to provide more personalized customer service or take action themselves, such as sending customized sales messages tailored to customers' age, gender and in-store behavior.

AI Bio DEEP is an AI App enabling Security Cameras to recognize customer types in real time based on demographic characteristics such as age and gender and, for example, to deliver individual messages in connection with LED displays in stores. If additional systems such as dynamic pricing are connected, very individual campaigns can be realized. Mute aisles become interactive experience lines.

Get to know more about our smart retail solutions.

Why wait? Take action now!

There are many ways to take aisle management to the next level and boost retail sales using smart video technology. Just have a look around our Application Store, you'll find the right application for your business. Get more out of your video technology now with just a few clicks!