Audience Measurement in Retail
The pandemic has profoundly impacted the retail industry, with many physical stores closing down. A big example is Inditex which announced that it will close some 1,200 stores all over the world by the end of 2021. Inditex is the largest clothing retail group in the world. Major fashion brands such as Zara, Mango, Massimo Dutti, etc. are owned by Inditex. Analysts have predicted that close to 100,000 US stores will be forcibly shut down by 2025. But is that an effective solution? In today’s blog, we will discuss footfall counter and audience measurement in retail as some metrics of the changing scenario in retail media.
What is Audience Measurement?
The term is used to measure the size of the audience. It is usually used in association with television and radio viewership. It is also extended to include newspaper and magazine readership. Audience measurement is also used to signify the time spent by the audience on the medium. There are in total three kinds of audience measurement: Demographics, Behavior, and Customer Journey. This helps marketers to correctly profile their customers and tailor their advertisements to relevant groups.
One of the vital reasons that you should use audience measurement is to measure how your brand is performing. You also must optimize the performance for better returns. It bridges the communication gap between the marketer and the audience. Earlier you would have found it difficult to gauge how well is your content performing. But now, with AI-enabled screens and algorithms, you can easily connect a huge amount of data. You can find out about the age, gender, and moods of your viewers and adjust accordingly.
Why is It so Important in the Retail Sector?
When you meet someone for the first time, you choose your words and your tone, right? Even the topics you discuss are based on their age, their patience, and what interests them. In other words, you communicate with your audience based on their traits. It is the same with audience measurement in retail.
Audience measurement is a technological way of recreating this very basic human tendency. Retail sensors, facial recognition technology, etc. will help you pick up on what customers are feeling about your brand. This increases the chances of an engaged audience and increased conversion rates for your business. But audience measurement cannot be a singular thing across all the channels. Digital platforms will probably have different metrics than retail outlets. A study by McKinsey found out that the performance metrics that retailers were using were incorrect. So, the measurement gap is a big thing in the retail world. One way that this can be redressed is by using footfall counters in retail stores.
What are Footfall Counters?
It refers to systems that help retailers keep a tab of the number of people passing through. Also known as people counters, these are sensors that can capture movements. Next, this is combined with software in order to create a host of metrics. Accurate data about footfall count in retail will provide you with vital metrics such as
- The conversion ratio of the store
- The pattern of footfall in a store
- How the store performs in comparison to others in a global network
Benefits of Audience Measurement in Retail
The retail sensor of FastEdge can help you change the game in a number of ways. A couple of them are:
1. Optimizing Retail Traffic
We can make your retail atmosphere better by ensuring that the right staff is located at the right place. With footfall tracking and facial recognition, you can provide your customers and visitors a richer shopping experience.
2. Keeping a track of digital footprints
As already mentioned, audience measurement tells you the moods, age, and gender of your viewers. It also tells you about the dwell time so that you can develop better customer offers.
3. Better Information enables Better Performance
The information provided by audience measurement will also help you better distribute your resources and increase the efficiency of your digital signage.
Changing Markets for New-Age Retailers
At present, we have a shopping environment that is a mix of online and offline worlds. A very crucial aspect of the buying process is showrooming. Showrooming means that you go to a physical store and get a feel of the products before you buy them. Many retailers ignore this. With the help of audience measurement, all these metrics can be counted for. Also, it is important that you treat your stores not just as a channel of distribution but as media channels. A retail store is a tangible and easily manageable media form. And at the end of the day, humans will always crave that human touch. A simple YouTube or Instagram ad cannot add that human value that your retail stores do. With the help of FastEdge’s retail sensor, you can provide an intimate, personalized shopping experience to your audience.
Footfall counter in retail is a way of measuring your audience count. Coupled with algorithms and software, you get to know more about audience engagement. With FastEdge’s retail sensor, you can do much more. It can recognize patterns like frequency of visits, time spent on an ad, and dwell time in an aisle. You can, thus, get more data and curate your offers for an enhanced shopping experience.
Conclusion
FastEdge LLC is an AI technology development firm dedicated to using technology to make business decisions more accurate, timely, and profitable. Find out more about us at FastEdge.ai.