While retailers are starting to realize the value of biometric payment systems, understanding new types of biometric-based data intake services is a whole other ballgame.
Online ecommerce sites have always had the luxury of being able to track and segment shopper activity via cookies and other data collection devices. Meanwhile, the analysis of the demographics to brick-and-mortar have has been relatively opaque until now.
Biometrics Can Help Deliver Ads to the Right people
With up-and-coming biometric software, cameras can identify the age, race, and gender of shoppers as they browse through a store. Statistics can then be gleaned about behavior patterns of certain demographics and can be broken down by subgroup, while marketing can also be increasingly potent.
This new type of biometric software development also opens the door for measuring and comparing different locations belonging to the same retailers. Questions such as, “Is my target audience coming in?” and “What type of person tends to spend the most money?” can be quickly and painlessly answered as they allow companies to better understand what’s going on in their stores.
This year’s Retail Business Technology Expo (or RBTE) in London revealed that there are a number of systems positioned to help companies realize these types of goals. One company in particular that exhibited at the event called Mediazest presented a new tool that can roughly guess an individual’s age based solely on video footage. This data was then marketed to retailers as a better way of understanding the type of consumer who enters a store and buys an item, versus those shoppers who walk in and out without buying anything.
The in-store digital screen vendor Amscreen is even taking this idea one step further with its OptimEyes technology. This system not only measures facial characteristics such as age and gender, but also uses this information to instantly tailor in-store digital signage around the supposed needs and desires of the shopper.
The information gleaned also has a valuable security component, as in-store cameras can often identify known robbers, shoplifters, and fugitives as they enter the store.
While this technology may seem intrusive to some shoppers, the inclusion of new biometric devices offer a host of new, convenient and helpful additions. Added layers of safety are present for customers, transactions, and the store itself, and provide a more appealing customer experience.
As consumer understanding of biometrics ramps up and trust in the industry starts to crystallize, we may see more systems of marketing-driven facial recognition pop up. Businesses are undoubtedly trying to instigate their own growth, and biometrics could prove the perfect tool to leverage it.
