Transform Retail Operations with Just Two Cameras and Vision AI
Keeping tight control of operational procedures in a retail environment can be difficult due to the geographically dispersed nature of retail business. Regional and district managers are often responsible for everything from inventory to theft to sales across many different locations, requiring the manager to travel to each store multiple times a month to verify operations are running.
Emerging technologies like computer vision can monitor onsite store operations during all business hours and thus reduce the need for retail managers to be physically present at store locations, allowing them to utilize their time more effectively. There are many ways this technology can be applied, including theft and fraud prevention, stockroom utilization, and monitoring of other store areas for behaviors and patterns that provide metrics for better managing operations.
Computer vision in the retail stockroom
Overloaded stockrooms can cause many issues for retailers. First, if all the stock is sitting in the stockroom, it's not on the shelves available for customers to purchase. Second, orders arriving at already-full stock rooms can make it nearly impossible for a store to catch up while causing unneeded stress to overworked management staff. Third, overloaded stockrooms make it easier for theft to occur and more difficult to capture losses accurately.
Computer vision can help solve for all these issues by monitoring the utilization of stockrooms regularly. For example, computer vision can convert pixels in a camera image into your stockroom's square footage, allowing you score stock utilization levels on a simple scale like Low, Medium or High.
By integrating computer vision with your ordering system and other in-store operational systems, you can place stock orders on hold until stock utilization levels are reduced from High to Medium. Each of your stores can be scored against others in the region. You can notify managers when their stockrooms are reaching High utilization levels and urge for shelves to be stocked. You can also trigger alerts if stores that typically have Low utilization suddenly start to have Medium or High utilization levels, which could indicate a separate issue that requires attention.
The best part about this solution is that you can use the same camera for additional solutions like creating alerts if stock is blocking fire alarms or fire exits to ensure safety is always a priority and reduce fines from OSHA.
Computer vision in retail marketing
Retailers with physical locations are at a disadvantage when compared to online retailers. Online retailers already know everything there is to know about their customers through click tracking. It's very important for physical locations to learn more about their customers.
Vision AI can be used to track the number of entries/exits, identify demographics, and perform sentiment analysis on customers. Typically, this is done at the front entrance. However, it's also useful at the point-of-sale, which can help retailers learn more about their cash customers or whether specific demographics are more likely to engage with loyalty programs.
This type of analysis allows for the use of predictive analytics to aid in staffing decisions. Tracking the number of entries and exits over time, and pulling in point-of-sale data and employee rosters, gives retailers the ability to make more informed decisions regarding when to ramp staff up or down.
Conclusion
From strategy through execution, WWT has extensive implementation experience in deploying cameras, IoT sensors and AI-powered solutions across an array of retail settings. Our strategic guidance, certified expertise and best-in-class technical design are designed to help customers get more out of their cameras by pairing them with data analytics and visualization from EVERY ANGLE.
Advances in computer vision have enabled more customers to take advantage of data-informed decision-making when it comes to business operations. Using Vision AI in stockrooms and at the front entry can transform retail operations — and it only requires two cameras to accomplish!
If you would like to learn more about how WWT can help implement camera and AI technology at scale in your organization, we're here to help with a complementary 1-hour briefing call.