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Fujitsu Introduces SPATIOWL People Flow Analysis Service to Improve Store Operations
Uses data on number of people in store and foot-traffic patterns to increase customer satisfaction
Fujitsu Limited
Fujitsu today announced the addition of SPATIOWL People Flow Analysis Service, an indoor position-sensing solution that analyzes the movement of customers and staff through a store, to its FUJITSU Intelligent Society Solution SPATIOWL, a cloud service that utilizes location information. The new service, which is designed for commercial facilities and large-scale retailers, is available in Japan starting today.
This service uses a variety of advanced sensing technologies to gather data on the number of customers in a store and their movements through the store, and then analyzes and visualizes that data. From the data, retailers can grasp such patterns as the areas in stores where customers tend not to go, and the seasons and times when stores tend to be crowded. These insights can then be used to improve store operations, such as to optimize the selection of merchandise on, or the layout of, the sales floor, or to deploy staff more efficiently.
Fujitsu plans to continue leveraging SPATIOWL's strengths in the integrated management of different kinds of data, and in the future will incorporate data beyond the store to encompass external factors, such as surrounding traffic, weather, and nearby events, in order to provide integrated analyses.
Figure 1: Overview of SPATIOWL People Flow Analysis Service
Background
Retailers have long worked to understand their customers better through sales records and surveys, but there has been a growing demand of late to use ICT to analyze their customers' tendencies and patterns of foot traffic in more detail so as to operate stores more effectively.
Fujitsu is meeting this demand with the SPATIOWL People Flow Analysis Service for retailers, which uses very small beacons and other advanced sensing technologies to gather data on the number of customers in stores and their traffic patterns, which is analyzed and visualized. This allows retailers to understand important patterns, such as customer tendencies, trends among their salespeople, the places in the stores where customers tend to cluster, and the hours when the stores tend to be busiest.
Features of the SPATIOWL People Flow Analysis Service
1. Puts data to work to improve store operations
This service uses sensors placed throughout the store to ascertain the number of customers in a store and their movements through it. For example, by placing a beacon on shopping baskets, the signals emitted by those beacons can be detected by receivers in the store and compared with a SPATIOWL positioning-information database to determine the customer's location in the store. This is used to collect data on customers' foot-traffic patterns through and time spent in-store to ascertain places in the store that get crowded and places where customers rarely go, all of which can be used to improve the store's layout. Furthermore, having staff wear beacons will reveal differences in their movement patterns, which can be used for staff training and improved store operations.
Picture 1: Images of beacons in use
In addition, by collecting data over longer periods of time, retailers can predict the time periods in each season when stores will be the most crowded, and can increase staffing and inventory or optimize their layout to meet the needs of busy seasons, thereby avoiding stock shortages and reducing congestion.
Figure 2: Data Analysis Results
Larger View (52 KB)
2. Includes comprehensive support for data usage, from sensor placement to analysis
Fujitsu, through in-store inspections, provides complete support, including the appropriate placement of sensors and receivers, and data collection, analysis, and reporting. For data collection, Fujitsu uses sensors that are not personally identifying and that gather only the location of a body, so the service can be used in any context.
The sensing technology used in the SPATIOWL People Flow Analysis Service uses indoor position-sensing technology developed by Fujitsu Advanced Engineering Limited.
Future Plans for the SPATIOWL People Flow Analysis Service
In the future, Fujitsu plans to tie in data on surrounding traffic, weather, and nearby events in order to perform more detailed analyses of the factors underlying store visits and purchases, and to help retailers further improve their stores' operations.
Pricing and Availability
| Service Name | Price (incl. tax) | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| SPATIOWL People Flow Analysis Service | By individual quotation, based on a store's floor area and measurement periods | Starting today |
Sales Target
Cumulative sales of JPY 300 million by fiscal 2018 (Fujitsu's fiscal year ends March 31).
For More Information
About Fujitsu
Fujitsu is the leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company, offering a full range of technology products, solutions, and services. Approximately 159,000 Fujitsu people support customers in more than 100 countries. We use our experience and the power of ICT to shape the future of society with our customers. Fujitsu Limited (TSE: 6702) reported consolidated revenues of 4.8 trillion yen (US$40 billion) for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2015. For more information, please see http://www.fujitsu.com.
All company or product names mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. Information provided in this press release is accurate at time of publication and is subject to change without advance notice.
Date: 13 January, 2016
City: Tokyo
Company:
Fujitsu Limited
