Styrbjörn Torbacke, Head of iRetail – Europe, Advantech
It’s a common misconception that retail customers are invisible as soon as they step into a store. Using IoT, edge computing and smart applications, we can now extract as much data from in-store shoppers as online customers, and turn it into actionable insights for retailers. But what are the modern methods retailers can use to extract this data, and what challenges do they present?
Every retail business knows how important it is to cater to customer expectations, wants and needs, and data ultimately provides a holistic picture of the shopper. Retailers are in possession of a vast amount of information on the shop floor, but it is rarely put to good use. This information can come from point-of-sale, inventory, rotas and other sources, and it’s vital to combine, compare and correlate to glean the best insights from it.
Heat-mapping, basket analysis, campaign analysis and measuring rotas against sales are all technologies that can be hugely beneficial to retailers, along with calculating dual conversation rates by comparing passers-by and paying customers.
Advantech pulls information from various sources together into a framework where they can speak to each other, creating valuable insights that retail businesses can take advantage of. Importantly, this also enables employees to contribute to the performance of the company as a whole, creating a more connected company culture and raising employee satisfaction.
Advantech is developing a framework for the retail sector using its WISE-PaaS solution, creating products that allow businesses to gather data and send it to the cloud, ensuring they are using technology to their advantage.
Technology should be seen as an investment, not a cost, and ultimately it aids retailers in freeing up time for interpersonal communication on the shop floor.
Explore Advantech’s WISE-Paas platform and its retail capabilities here.