Perhaps most well know is Paco Underhill and his Envirosell crew. Since the 80’s they have been researching, cataloging, tracking and evaluating shopping habits.  Now they have taken the observers with clipboards out of the aisle and placed them behind video screens in adjacent rooms or on the other side of the country. Much like unmanned military aircraft, they hover overhead, collect data, formulate plans and ATTACK! An overstatement perhaps, but they certainly do collect very specific data about how you shop, use the data to formulate plans to alter your shopping behavior and ultimately target you more specifically as a shopper.

While this process currently occurs over an extended time frame (assortment planning, store fixture remodels, visual resets) it’s conceivable that observers could one day have tools (weapons) to deploy immediately to adjust your shopping behavior and interest in real time. Here are some techniques that we might see.

Retargeting: You entered the store, pause for a minute to run your hand over the stack of cashmere sweaters on the front table, hold one up to yourself and look at the price tag. Interested but not sold.  As you move about the store, video screens in other displays keep showing you images of those cashmere sweaters, (always on beautiful people like you of course!)   This technique is used extensively in online display advertising, presenting you with ads about products you viewed on other sites. A good store associate will do something similar as they keep bringing you that cashmere sweater as part of an ensemble of other items to try on but observers could target more shoppers.

Customization:  As you enter the store, your phone identifies you to the store’s WiFi system. Instantly, your interests, shopping history and other personal information are gathered from Facebook, Blippy, and your favorite online retailers. As you move about the store you are presented with a changing array of visual, olfactory, aural and physical cues that highlight and entice you to select items the data says you are predisposed to buy. Perhaps this is an automated process but more likely highly skilled observers in distant “observation centers” would watch your movements and use the collected data on their screen to direct complex store fixtures and displays to create a customized experience for you. (Perhaps these observers would work on commission…)

Collaboration: Observers might share information about your activity in one store with observers and sales staff in another. Good information leading to a sale, perhaps a tip about your interest in cashmere, might earn a commission or other compensation for the supplier of the information. Information about your shopping habits from many stores might be combined to create a more detailed and effective profile of your interests and buying habits.

Eavesdropping: We generally think of the “eye in the sky” type of observation via overhead cameras capturing visual images. Observation will surely expand beyond this rudimentary level to include watching facial expressions and listening to personal conversations. Cameras and microphones in store fixtures will capture your reaction, emotions and conversations at every display station. Talking with your friend about that dress you saw on your favorite show last night? A sales associate carrying something in the same color or style might approach you. How did she know? If this sounds creepy, or if you say you would never allow a store to listen in on your private conversations, then you had better try and close that Facebook account and stop using Gmail. Those are just two examples of companies that actively listen to your conversations and track your activities so that they can offer you goods and services tailored to your interests. If we allow it online, why not allow it in the store?  Biometric software might identify your look of horror as you read the price tag on an item and instantly offer you a discount if you purchase before leaving the store.

Group Think: On a less personally invasive note, music, lighting and graphics are tools every retailer uses to set the mood and style of their retail environment.  Through observation of the mix of customers in the store at any given moment, these tools could be manipulated to increase sales. The mix of ages, genders and even ethnicities in the store at any moment might be used by observers to alter music mixes and volumes, lighting levels and focus areas, graphic components, text sizes and images. Prototypes are very static in many ways and reacting to the mix of people in the store more dynamically could increase the enjoyment and interest level of shoppers and consequently drive sales.

Do observational technologies and initiatives promise shoppers a loss of privacy or more opportunities and a more engaging shopping experience? Could automated and remote responses to customer activity in a store trump the power of well-trained and motivated in-store staff? Does crossing the threshold into a store waive your right to privacy or do you retain your rights until you opt-in to being observed and approached. These are important questions both in online commerce and in the brick and mortar retail environments. What do you think?

And by the way, dont miss this NYT article…

As Mr. Underhill pointed out, people are taped dozens of times each day doing routine chores like pumping gas. Cameras, it seems, are pervasive. Stores are merely the latest frontier.

“We live our lives surrounded by them,” he said.