There are 8 video technologies that can help retailers make the customer experience safe and engaging right from people counting to mask detection to queue management.
The most elegant solution is a real-time video analysis, which counts the people in the entire area or a part of it and automatically notifies you when the maximum number of people has been reached. You can set up appropriate measures in advance for this situation. This way, you can easily avoid overcrowding or excessive numbers.
You can regulate the number of customers in your store, not just by people counting, but also with video-based access control. You determine how many customers you let in at the entrance. Thanks to the video management system, which functions with a “one in, one out” policy, waiting customers are notified when they are allowed to enter in front of the store. This can be done with a “traffic light,” for example.
Automated door control goes hand in hand with access control. This technology is attractive if you have automatic doors, because it allows you to control your doors from an integrated door control system. If the video management system detects that the allowed number of people in your store has been exceeded, either with people counting or access control, the automatic doors will no longer open for additional customers. Only when enough people have left the store will the doors be unlocked, and others allowed to enter.
Protective masks ensure the safety of employees and your customers. Video software can detect whether someone is wearing a protective mask or not. The intelligent technology of facial recognition lies behind it. If somebody enters your store without a mandatory face mask, the video management system notifies you and you can take immediate action.
You know how it goes. You’re shopping and you’re absorbed in looking at the products on the shelf and suddenly it happens. You’re standing right next to another customer. Under normal circumstances, this is not a problem, but during a pandemic, it’s urgent you avoid it. How can you prevent a situation where customers stand too close to each other without affecting the customer experience? The answer lies in the help of an application based on video technology. It detects when people overstep the prescribed safe distance and immediately sets off an alarm.
An intelligent video management system helps you locate highly frequented areas in your store and avoid crowds. Thermal maps, or so-called heat maps, are created from the footage supplied from your cameras. These show where customers especially tend to linger in your store over a period of time.
By visualizing the customer’s dwell time on certain products, you can identify hotspots in your store, determine the most effective routes, and identify which products are popular and which are not.
To avoid close contact or traffic jams in a limited space, you can guide your customers through your sales floor on defined “one-way routes”. Modern video management systems detect when people are moving against the prescribed walking direction and can, for example, trigger an acoustic signal via the loudspeaker system to remind customers of the correct walking route.
To prevent this, an intelligent video management system records the number of waiting customers and informs your staff in real time. This enables them to react to customer demand as quickly as possible and keep your cash registers running efficiently.
Intelligent video technology can solve problems in these difficult times since the same solutions that help us comply with the Coronavirus regulations can provide us with interesting insights into customers’ buying behavior both during and after the crisis.
