VCA, a retail analytics product company, has introduced a Public View monitor designed to help retailers achieve much more than deterring thieves, the firm says. VCA says that its Intelligent Public View Monitor (IPVM) has features which offer benefits to retail marketing executives, as well as loss prevention managers.
The IPVM has a high definition camera, supported by facial detection software, to record the faces of everyone entering a store. The face images captured by the built-in Full HD camera which is discreetly located within the IPVM’s housing, can be used to verify where people have been within the store.
VCA refers to the IPVM as being ‘intelligent’ because the camera incorporates its analytics. With its people counting and tracking, the analytics can produce heat maps as well as data on how long a customer dwells in parts of a store or how long they have queued, when used with its Ucountit cloud based software. It therefore provides what the makers call a multi-purpose business intelligence tool offering potential ROI when installed at shopping aisles, as well as at store entrances.
Kevin Waterhouse, Executive Vice President, Global Sales for VCA, said: “Retailers have long understood the value of positioning a Public View monitor at a store entrance to make shoplifters aware that they are on camera. Our IPVM takes this concept to a much higher level, with built in powerful analytics to allow store management and marketing personnel to gain a greater understanding of customer behaviour.”
The IPVM is supported by uCountit, VCA’s cloud based analytics reporting product that can be accessed via a web browser such as Internet Explorer, Google Chrome or Firefox. As it’s cloud based, it offers users the convenience of access to the dashboard from any location on the network. This presents the analysed metadata in the form of charts, heat maps and reports, allowing retail managers to monitor activity at stores and make comparisons with other stores.
The IPVM comes also with a built-in SD card slot for displaying welcome messages and advertisements in support of in-house promotions. The internal SD can hold the messages so each monitor can have different and specific message depending on the location in the store. And using the built in camera and analytics, areas of particular interest can be set up as zones or tripwires and when events occur, the images can be recorded and or sent to a mobile for review. When an event does take place the monitor can switch into live mode to show the real time activity.
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