How Do Retailers Get Our Purchase Information?
Retailers are constantly seeking information about their customers to understand their preferences and motivations.
When shopping, customers unknowingly provide data through technological devices such as sensors placed in stores that gather information like age, gender, and more.
Fingerprint Data
One example of this is RetailNext, the creator of the Aurora sensor, a device specifically designed for the needs of today’s retailers. It collects data using computer vision, functioning similarly to human eyes, but automating algorithms in the process.
RetailNext cameras allow retailers to identify the type of customers entering their stores, helping salespeople recognize their best customers and focus their attention on them. Meanwhile, other analytics companies have taken facial recognition to the next level, with systems that can detect micro-expressions while customers are shopping.
This technology helps identify which products or services are most accepted by consumers and which are rejected. Although cameras are useful tools for retailers, the most important tool of all is the smartphone that every shopper carries in their pocket.
Read Also: IFA 2018: LG Signature Bets on Smart Connectivity
For stores, our cell phone is like a fingerprint. It tells them whether we’ve visited the store before and when we were last there. This device is transforming how companies view us, enabling them to track our location, what we’re reading, where we’re spending money, who we’re talking to, and which websites we visit.
The data gathered by RetailNext’s sensors is completely anonymous unless the buyer opts in and allows the company to know exactly who they are, enabling real-time tracking and targeting.
How Cookies Are Used to Collect Information
Online retailers don’t have cameras or sensors to track people’s movements; however, they do have cookies, a quick way to understand a user’s online behavior.
Lou Montulli, who created this tool in 1994, developed cookies as files that people can’t read but websites can each time they visit. Companies place cookies on computers to help websites remember users.
An example is when we shop on Amazon. Cookies store our information, so when we return to the site, it shows us related items based on our previous searches and even suggests products we’ve clicked on.
Building an Online Profile
The set of cookies forms part of the process of creating an online profile. Every movement we make online contributes data that helps induce purchases.
Online profiles include information that users may not even realize they’re filtering. In this process, Google plays a key role, generating millions of pop-up ads based on data from users’ search activity. Millions of companies worldwide buy ad space where they only pay if the customer clicks on the ad.
This is why Google bought YouTube, owns its own Chrome browser, and has its Android operating system. These platforms provide more ways for Google to gather user information. In fact, 90% of Google’s revenue comes from ads, a business that will continue to grow in the coming years.
But, How Much Can Companies Know About Our Interests?
Experts warn that everything we purchase will become a tool for others to listen to and observe us. Smart cars, smartphones, voice assistants, and many other devices are no longer just objects; they’re starting to feel like personal representations that interact with us on an equal level.
This article is originally from Perú Retail.
Architecture
Phygital
Business