Retail Stores Borrow From The Online Marketers’ Textbook: High-Tech Shopper Tracking

Use of sophisticated technology to track customer shopping and purchasing behaviors has been a tool of online marketers for many years. But now brick-and-mortar retailers are getting into the act, putting security cameras and mobile phone tracking to work to gain consumer shopping intelligence. The sophisticated technologies give retail store – from discount chains to luxury stores – the ability to analyze collected data and adjust marketing strategies on the fly. A brand manager for premium pen maker Montblanc says such intelligence led his company to deploy more salespeople to a particular department or moving high-margin merchandise to high-traffic areas in a store. The tactics seem to be working. Brick-and-mortar retailers have been able to boost sales and retain market share.