Mondelez trialling shelf cameras to analyse shopper habits in-store
Consumers traipsing supermarket aisles for snacks could soon find Mondelez cameras staring back at them thanks to a pilot scheme to better understand shoppers’ in-store behaviour.
The snacks maker is planning to rig grocery stores across the US with Microsoft Kinect sensors later this year to determine a person’s age and gender as they mull over which of its snacks to purchase. The data is not saved, however, recordings of what products have been chosen and the gestures used to take them from shelves will be transmitted back to corporate offices for analysis.
It claims the insights gleaned from the cameras could deliver targeted promotions for specific stores.
Mondelez says shopper privacy is of the “utmost importance” and assures the “Smart Shelf” programme is “completely anonymous”.
The initiative is an experimental stage at the moment with no detailed rollout plan, although it will be introduced on wider scale across the region in 2015. Mondelez refused to rule out expanding the programme beyond North America to other markets should it prove successful.
It is part of a wider overhaul of how brands such as Oreo, Belvita and Cadbury are presented on the shop floor and the company is hoping the data captured can help increase impulse sales.
The snacks business is making major investments to understand how shoppers are behaving in real-time in the belief that a well-timed coupon to their mobile device or carefully placed in-store advert could boost long-term sales.
