While still in college, one my senior papers involved analysis of patterns of movement in a large local bar/nightclub. The owners had changed the layout of the club several times and were losing money every weekend. After spending time doing some simple observations, I made a few suggestions and after a two week period of implementation, they were making 8-10% more per weekend.
I'm always surprised when I see people who are convinced technology can solve their woes when all you need to do is make some observations. No wi-fi tracking will tell you there's a huge clearance rack blocking your view of several other items. It also won't tell you if a merchandise row is so narrow only one person can stand in front of a display.
Technology is great, but in most retail or commercial environment's, you still need feet on the ground.
It doesn't make sense for Nordstrom to hire a consultant for each underperforming store -- they can save money and make better decisions by using data collection technology. Anyone could go to a retailer on a slow afternoon, see open registers with no one in line, and determine that they could save money by having fewer cashiers. But having the data allows the company make those decisions with much more confidence.
Exactly. Wifi tracking is built into enterprise wifi systems like meraki or aerohive. It's basically already there, so it's going to be way cheaper to implement than having dedicated people eyeballing every store constantly.
The TLDR is its risk avoidance. If it doesn't work, and decisions were made by people, then people, and the people who hired their services are to blame. On the other hand, if decisions were made by numbers, and it doesn't work, no one is to blame, what are you going to do, fire the number 7.356 ?
There's a TON of intangibles that this data absolutely cannot tell you. Watch people's facial expressions as they look at the end of aisle displays. Watch where the kids go, and you can probably sell to their parents there too. Everyone wants to automate around here, and sometimes the other way is actually better.
I'm always surprised when I see people who are convinced technology can solve their woes when all you need to do is make some observations. No wi-fi tracking will tell you there's a huge clearance rack blocking your view of several other items. It also won't tell you if a merchandise row is so narrow only one person can stand in front of a display.
Technology is great, but in most retail or commercial environment's, you still need feet on the ground.