On the Spot Shopper Data Mining

This blog emerged from connections nurtured at our innovation centers. One of the topics we covered for years was how to talk to the shopper as they roamed the aisles. It has covered topics like smart carts, specialized hand-held devices, simple cart handle displays and most recently shopper-owned cellphone applications.

One of our longest connections started with tests originally done with Motorola that we did with shoppers in the early 00s. Early on these and similar devices, now being used in 260 stores, were mostly used for self-checkout and information delivery. The ultimate goal for any of these solutions is to do real-time data mining based on both the immediate behavior of the shopper and their historical purchasing actions. Huge opportunity for mining analytics, from simple to sophisticated. It seems we are getting closer to the ability to do that in real contexts.

The successor of this work is outlined in a Technology Review article that breaks open the Modiv Media device that is a successor to those tests. Includes a view of the hardware involved that is revealing. Much more to be done, follow this space for more information.