The Growing Importance of Video Analytics in Digital Signage for Retail

Video Analytics in Digital Signage

Video analytics are becoming an increasingly important aspect of many industrial and commercial operations and nowhere is this fact made clearer than within the retail industry. The use of cutting edge digital signage, coupled with advanced video analytics software is transforming the way in which retailers utilize big data and engage their customers.


The driving force behind this integration of digital signage and analytics is the way in which modern technologies are allowing retailers to connect with their customers, gather insights and information about their purchasing habits, and analyse this data in order to generate actionable business intelligence that can be used to improve retail performance.

In this article, we’ll be looking at why video analytics have become so important within the retail sector as well as take a look at a few of the benefits these systems could bring to those looking to invest in video analytics for digital signage.

So, let’s jump straight in.

Video Analytics & Digital Signage

The use of video analytics within retail digital signage is something that has quickly become an industry “must have”, with a vast number of retailers striving to better understand their customers and their behavior. In order to do this, they need to be able to turn the data they collect into actionable steps towards improving their services.

By combining video analytics with digital signage, retailers are able to track certain trends both within and at their store fronts such as customer traffic, age range, gender, and more recently, emotional and socioeconomic factors such as weather customers appear happy or annoyed, for example.

These kinds of insights can be invaluable to stores looking to improve their targeted marketing efforts as it allows them to see where certain marketing campaigns could work best as well as which are not as effective and enabling intelligent decision making with regards to selling strategy and staff requirements.

There are even solutions available that allow retailers to generate insights into how their digital signage is being engaged with, showing factors such as how long on average people spend looking at the sign and the length of their attention, as well as other factors such as age bracket and gender.

Let’s now take a look at a few of the benefits that video analytics for digital signage can bring to the retail industry.

5 Benefits of Video Analytics in Digital Signage

Improved Customer Service

Digital signage is a big part of the customer experience and, when visiting a store, the majority of customers will want informative and eye-catching displays to enhance their shopping experience.

To this end, video analytics can enable an intelligence-based placement strategy in order to ensure that digital signage is located in the best possible place. Analytics can also allow for special offers to be promoted in more efficient ways by utilizing the data gathered by these systems.

Identify Staff Needs

Video analytics systems can also be used to further improve internal operations as well as selling strategies and targeted marketing. For example, using advanced video analytics within digital signage can allow retailers to determine when and where staff resources would best be allocated as well as which days prove to be the busiest and at which times. This helps to further improve customer service as customers are not put off by the busiest shopping times due to adequate staffing and resources.

Anticipate Customer Trends

Using analytics within digital signage can also help to analyse customer trends and, when coupled with predicative analytical technologies, can even help to predict future customer trends. By utilizing the historical and transactional data these systems collect, retailers are able to make predictions as to future purchasing trends, which then allows them to act accordingly and cater for predicted future tastes. This ability is likely to become a key tool in retail as other technologies such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) become more widely adopted.

Targeted Marketing

As video analytics become increasingly intelligent, so will the targeted marketing efforts of those using advanced video analytics within their retail digital signage. As we’ve previously briefly mentioned, video analytics are enabling retailers to identify the age, gender, emotional and socioeconomic status of their customers, all while complying with personal privacy laws. These insights can be used to enhance and refine targeted marketing efforts so as to produce significantly improved results.

Reduce Costs

Reducing costs is something all retailers would have an interest in doing. With video analytics for digital signage in retail, savings could be made in several areas including printed and location-specific media. This is due to these systems being able to analyze which deals would be applicable to customers in specific areas, without the need to individual customization at the specific location.

The Growing Importance of Video Analytics

As we’ve now seen, video analytics within digital signage for retail is becoming an increasingly important aspect of the retail experience, and for good reason. As the widespread deployment of these systems slowly increases, further developments in the technology are likely and, with other relevant technologies such as artificial intelligence making great strides in their applicability to certain industries, further advances with these technologies incorporated seems almost inevitable.

With Internet of Things devices generating more data than ever before, retailers, and those operating in other industries, will need to know how best to utilize all of this information. Using video analytics within their digital signage systems will help to make that process that little bit easier.


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