Shoppers, the store is tracking your cell

Updated: 2013-07-28 08:28

By Stephanie Clifford and Quentin Hardy(The New York Times)

  Print Mail Large Medium  Small

Like dozens of other brick-and-mortar retailers, Nordstrom wanted to learn more about its customers - how many came through the doors, how many were repeat visitors - the kind of information that e-commerce sites like Amazon have in spades. So last autumn the company tested technology that allowed it to track customers' movements by following the Wi-Fi signals from their smartphones.

But when Nordstrom posted a sign about it, shoppers were unnerved.

Nordstrom ended the experiment in May, in part because of complaints, a spokeswoman said.

Nordstrom's experiment is part of a movement by retailers to gather data about shoppers by using video surveillance and signals from their cellphones and apps.

"Way over the line," one consumer posted to Facebook in response to a news story about Nordstrom's efforts.

Physical retailers argue that they are doing nothing more than what is routinely done online.

"Brick-and-mortar stores have been disadvantaged compared with online retailers, which get people's digital crumbs," said Guido Jouret, the head of Cisco's emerging technologies group, which supplies tracking cameras to stores.

"The idea that you're being stalked in a store is, I think, a bit creepy, as opposed to, it's only a cookie - they don't really know who I am," said Robert Plant, a computer information systems professor at the University of Miami School of Business Administration.

The companies that provide this technology offer a wide range of services. RetailNext, of San Jose, California, uses video to study how shoppers navigate. It differentiates men from women, and children from adults.

RetailNext adds data from shoppers' smartphones to deduce even more specific patterns. If a shopper's phone is set to look for Wi-Fi networks, a store that offers Wi-Fi can pinpoint where the shopper is in the store, within three meters, even if the shopper does not connect to the network, said Tim Callan, RetailNext's chief marketing officer.

The store can also recognize returning shoppers, because mobile devices send unique identification codes when they search for networks.

Brickstream, based near Atlanta, Georgia, sells a $1,500 stereoscopic camera that separates adults from children, and counts people in different parts of a store to determine which aisles are popular and how many cash registers to open.

Realeyes, based in London, analyzes facial cues for responses to online ads, monitors shoppers' so-called happiness levels in stores and their reactions at the register. Synqera, a start-up in St. Petersburg, Russia, is selling software for checkout devices or computers that tailors marketing messages to a customer's gender, age and mood, measured by facial recognition.

"If you are an angry man of 30, and it is Friday evening, it may offer you a bottle of whiskey," said Ekaterina Savchenko, the company's head of marketing.

Nomi, of New York, uses Wi-Fi to track customers' behavior in a store, but goes one step further by matching a phone with an individual.

When a shopper has volunteered some personal information, either by downloading a retailer's app or providing an e-mail address when using in-store Wi-Fi, Nomi pulls up a profile of that customer - the number of recent visits, what products that customer was looking at on the Web site last night, purchase history.

Nomi then follows the customer throughout the store, offering coupons for products the customer seems especially interested in.

At least some consumers seem happy to trade privacy for deals.

"I would just love it if a coupon pops up on my phone," said Linda Vertlieb, 30, a blogger in Philadelphia, who said that she was not aware of the tracking methods, but that the idea did not bother her. Stores are "trying to sell, so that makes sense," she said.

The New York Times

(China Daily 07/28/2013 page10)

主站蜘蛛池模板: 狼色精品人妻在线视频免费| 69堂在线观看| 欧美一区二区三区综合色视频| 公侵犯玩弄漂亮人妻优| 国产精品你懂得| 在线不卡免费视频| 中文字幕av无码无卡免费| 果冻传媒电影在线| 人人添人人澡人人澡人人人人| 花传媒季app| 国产的一级毛片完整| 9自拍视频在线观看| 成年女人18级毛片毛片免费| 亚洲Av高清一区二区三区| 浪货一天不做就难受呀| 台湾佬中文222vvv娱乐网在线| 黑人操亚洲美女| 国产精品欧美激情在线播放| www.欧美com| 成年女人永久免费观看片| 久久精品国产精品亚洲毛片| 欧美成人免费香蕉| 伊人久久大香线蕉亚洲五月天| 色中色在线视频| 国产小视频在线观看网站| 1313mm禁片视频| 在线看亚洲十八禁网站| 一本到视频在线| 日本三级片网站| 二个人看的www免费视频| 欧美日韩中文国产一区| 亚洲高清毛片一区二区| 精品欧美一区二区在线观看| 国产亚洲人成网站在线观看| 欧美人与动性xxxxbbbb| 国产精品福利尤物youwu| 99精品国产高清自在线看超| 小泽玛利亚一区二区| 丰满熟妇乱又伦| 日本高清va在线播放| 亚州1区2区3区4区产品乱码2021|