On average, 70% of retail businesses experience challenges related to store optimization, often resulting in lost sales, poor customer experiences, and inefficient operations. However, a technological advancement— video analysis, emerges as a tool of hope, promising to transform the retail landscape by handling these challenges head-on.
Video analytics powered with artificial intelligence harness the power of real-time video analytics and computer vision, empowering retailers to gain actionable insights into their stores, customers, and employees.
Imagine implementing video content analysis into traditional surveillance cameras, capturing and analyzing video footage that will provide actionable intelligence to transform and optimize retail operations.
Then, it can achieve 20% or more improvement in overall store efficiency for those retailers employing intelligent video analytics solutions.
Today's advancements in retail, in relation to store optimization, are particularly important where customer demands are constantly changing to supply these evolving expectations.
Learn deeper with us and discover how AI video analytics can effectively overcome challenges in the pursuit of store optimization.
Overview, role, and significance
Artificial intelligence (AI) has rapidly transformed various operations across many industries, reshaping how businesses operate to unlock new possibilities for innovation.
In the world of retail, AI-driven video analytics represents a significant breakthrough that allows retailers to go deeper into the complexities of their operations, offering valuable business intelligence insights that were once difficult to achieve.
The primary role of integrating AI into video analytics is to enhance decision-making processes by providing real-time and historical analysis based on the data collected. As technology evolves, features like motion detection and deep learning models are integrated to personalize the retail experience.
With the challenges of transitioning into effective store optimization due to the complexity of changing demands and operational inefficiencies, the significance of this lies in its ability to track objects and customer behavior, monitor inventory levels, and assess employee performance while identifying patterns and trends that might otherwise go unnoticed.
How Does Real-Time Video Analytics Work in Retail Settings?
For starters, it leverages machine-learning algorithms and machine learning to track specific objects within the extracted analysis of digital images and videos.
To better understand, let's go through the processes involved.
Retail settings deploy video surveillance systems that use a combination of computer vision and intelligent video to strategically monitor different areas, such as entrances, exits, aisles, and checkout counters.
Then, video analytics applied to AI video analytics software systems applications analyze the video content captured by your store's CCTV cameras.
By analyzing the footage, the system can identify queues at checkout counters or popular sections of the store. This data helps retailers allocate resources efficiently. Some retailers may implement facial recognition technology for tracking people, understanding customer demographics, tracking repeat customers, and excluding staff effectively.
Real-time video analytics can also identify any unnecessary and suspicious behaviour, triggering alerts for security personnel. Then, AI video analytics video stream observed with higher security management, gaining access control to security systems.
The Challenges with Retail Store Optimization
In the pursuit of optimizing retail store operations, several challenges arise, encompassing technological, operational, and human factors.
The complicated process of integrating various technologies, often with outdated infrastructure, can disrupt operations and hinder the seamless implementation of optimization strategies.
Meanwhile, employee resistance to change driven by factors like job security concerns or unfamiliarity with new technologies can interfere with the successful adoption of optimization initiatives in retail settings.
The accuracy and quality of data used for analysis heavily impact optimization efforts. Flawed insights and suboptimal decision-making can arise from incomplete or inaccurate data.
Our Intelligent Video Analytics Solutions in Action
The need for innovative solutions to address challenges with store optimization has led to the emergence of intelligent video analysis.
A solution offered by Mediaset goes beyond traditional surveillance systems. This advanced people-counting software technology developed by LinkRetail aims to provide retailers with more than a 10% increase in conversion rate.
LinkRetail understands the challenges associated with adopting new technology in the retail sector.
LinkRetail's people-counting solution is designed to integrate with existing critical infrastructure because it supports the lowest available hardware cost, even on the lowest-cost camera in the market. Therefore, this video analytics software can be tailored to fit whether you're using traditional CCTV cameras or more advanced video surveillance cameras, minimizing disruptions and ensuring a smooth transition.
It is based on its LinkVision— an advanced personal property of Artificial Intelligence technology.
Also, its key features are generally user-friendly and require minimal intervention from the store staff. The solution focuses on collecting data without significant involvement from employees. To address resistance, training programs can be implemented to familiarize employees with the system, emphasizing its benefits in optimizing operations and ultimately improving their work environment.
Unlike manual counting methods, LinkRetail's AI video analytics solution ensures a higher level of precision that contributes to more reliable footfall insights and better decision-making in the optimization process.
By precisely tracking the number of visitors at any given time, retailers gain valuable data to optimize staff scheduling and streamline checkout. The technology also has an advanced detection system that excludes store staff.
It also offers an AI-based object-tracking engine that enables retailers to detect movements and track objects within the scene. Its advanced algorithms have the capability to identify various common objects, including humans, shopping carts, and even baby trolleys.
The Future, Explorations, and Predictions
Looking ahead, the future of AI video analytics in retail store optimization is filled with exciting possibilities and transformative potential.
The next border of AI video analytics involves seamless integration with the Internet of Things or IoT with more advanced sensors installed. This integration will develop a holistic approach to data gathering, combining video analytics with real-time face recognition technologies.
In the coming years, the industry will likely witness the establishment of global standards and ethical best practices for AI video analytics in retail. Collaborative efforts among industry will contribute to creating a framework that fosters innovation while safeguarding privacy and ethical considerations.
As the technology matures, Mediaset aims to navigate the challenges for retailers to embrace the transformative potential to create a future where AI enhances the retail experience while respecting individual rights and privacy.
Moreover, Mediaset's goal is to provide a more adaptive algorithm capable of self-improvement and to provide a continuous learning process that will enhance the accuracy of insights, mitigate biases, and enable retailers to stay agile in responding to changing market dynamics.
