I work for a marketing company doing market research for clients. Quite often we get requests for recommending ad placement locations in grocery stores. For example, Kraft may want to know what other location, besides the pasta aisle, may be a good place to put its macaroni and cheese banner advertisement. Foot traffic is an important part in making a recommendation; clients want high trafficked areas so their ads have more impressions...makes sense. One of the data sets that my company works with when making recommendations is the Sorensen PathTracker aisle traffic data, which utilizes RFID technology. Before this technology, market research firms gathered such foot traffic information by placing trained observers around the stores to watch shoppers' movements and noted them on clipboards. Today, smaller stores may use video cameras to track movements, and in larger
stores RFID is being used.
stores RFID is being used.
The PathTracker system places RFID tags on shopping carts and baskets. A series of antennae are implanted in a store's ceiling and communicate with the RFID tags. The system tracks individual shoppers as they travel around the store, in real time. With these tags, PathTracker can identify the "hot spots" and "cold spots" throughout the store where shoppers most often travel and where they don't. Some important findings from PathTracker are: shoppers prefer to go down aisles starting at the back of the store and moving to the front, and shoppers prefer to shop counter-clockwise.
Using RFID in tracking shoppers is more advantageous than manual tracking or even video tracking. With RFID the exact location of the shopper is known as well as how long they stayed in that area, and is transmitted instantaneously. With the insights provided by RFID tracking, both clients and retailers can more effectively advertise with the hope of getting more eyes on their product/advertisements and thus a higher return on their investment.
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