What to expect from heatmap manufacturers in 2021? Solution overview

About 70% of buyers make the final purchase decision in the store. Experts’ analytical studies in the field of advertising prove this trend. This is why it is important to use marketing tools that impact shoppers at the point of sale. And today we will talk about heat maps building as the current trend of 2021 for retailers.

What is a heatmap for a store?

In the conventional sense, the term “heat map” means a colour image of data.

Interestingly, this definition first appeared more than 100 years ago (1873) and was intended for Paris’s statistical atlas. But the heat map trademark was registered 30 years ago. The author was software developer Kinney Corman, who used a heatmap to represent the real-time financial market.

Today, a heatmap is actively used to force people to buy more. The movements of customers within the store are tracked with video analytical surveillance and/or thermal imaging cameras. This data is converted into heat maps – a visual tool for understanding how consumers move around the store.

Goals and objectives

The global purposes of using the maps are:

1. Prevention of losses.
2. Optimization of the store daily activities.
3. Improving the enterprise marketing strategy.
4. Profit growth.

The tactical objectives of using heat maps are as follows

1. Determination of the buyers’ movement density in the observation area.
2. Identification of points of consumers’ attention.
3. Promotion of sales.
4. Increasing the efficiency of merchandising (product display).
5. Determination of brand popularity.
6. Spot identification of the results of marketing campaigns.

Also, thermal imaging video surveillance systems contribute to a more efficient organisation of the store’s work in a problematic epidemiological situation and the need to use non-contact thermometry without increasing staff workload.

Overview of solutions from leading manufacturers

The principles of building heat maps from different manufacturers can differ significantly. Some use a thermal imager to read temperature differences (between the human body and the environment). Other manufacturers rely on the coordinates of moving objects, and others keep their developments in strict secrecy.

However, the main common denominator of all known solutions in the video surveillance market is the following: customer observation results are issued in a multi-coloured graphic image and a quantitative terms report.

Wisenet

The Wisenet brand belongs to Samsung’s subsidiary Hanwha Techwin. A video surveillance system for a store from this manufacturer generates heat maps based on moving objects’ coordinates. The frequency is set when configuring the camera. After collecting information, the data is plotted on the retail premises map: different colours (density) will show the number of objects per 1 unit of area.

This technology provides accurate statistical results of changes and customers’ distribution in the sales area at different times.

Bosch

The German company presents technologies for solving business problems under the names “In-Store Analytics” and “Intelligent Video Analytics”. Committed to modern cloud services, Bosch sends the entire video stream to the cloud storage, where data is already generated into reports (quantitative and visual). Technologies are provided to users (managers, merchandisers, analysts) as web interfaces.

Axis

The Swedish manufacturer Axis brings to the market effective complex solutions that have a straightforward interface, are easy to install, configure, scale and integrate.

It uses the thermal imager principle to create heat maps. The visual representation of a heat map differs based on temperature elevations and temperature differences. Accordingly, a higher concentration of objects gives more intense radiation, and a higher temperature difference between different items gives a brighter and more contrasting image.

Faceter

The list of additional analytical options for the smart Faceter system includes:

• search for an object by photography;
• face recognition (up to 99.8%);
• maintenance and support of visitors’ black and white lists;
• quick notifications about events to the operator’s phone;
• time tracking (service detailing);
• reading the buyer’s emotions;
• tracking the movement route in the store;
• heat maps building.

The company uses technologies based on artificial intelligence and blockchain (a decentralised network of miners). This solution makes the product available to businesses of all sizes, allowing them to streamline their day-to-day store operations, attract new users and increase sales.

Conclusion 

Modern store camcorders are not only a tool for reducing financial losses and ensuring security. For the most part, video surveillance for trade has become the most popular due to the availability of analytical capabilities for marketing. Cloud video surveillance for stores has many advantages, one of which is the heat maps construction.