This number may be shocking to you – there will be one billion of surveillance cameras installed and running worldwide in 2021, according to a report from IHS Markit1 (2019). Most of them are used in commercial buildings and stores. Wecan see a lot of benefits from video surveillance, whichhas become a popular solution for security, fire prevention, etc.The question is, besides the original purpose of the camera system, are there any other ways that the CCTV systems can bring more added values for businesses?Let us explore now!
Analyzing Customer Traits and Behaviors
Commercial buildings often install cameras in common locations for security purposes such as entrance, counters, and shelves. With the ability to monitor a large area and gather by-minute images and videos per day, a camera system has contained informative databases.
The AI-powered camera system, along with video analytics technology, will easily extract customers' data from the captured images. This smart camera system now can:
- Count the number of in/out customers per day, identify peak and off-peak timeslots, detect irregularitiesin daily traffic.
- Calculate the wait time at the counter,average waitingtime per customer, time of payment, etc.
- Categorize and count the number of customers by age, gender, preferredcolours, number of orders, etc.
With this information, businesses will gain quantitative insights about customers and their buying habits. The number of staff and their active positions can be adjusted so that customers always have the maximum support. Businesses also easily find golden times to organize events for targeted audiences. At shopping malls or convenience stores, defining wait times and customer behaviours will help arrange the checkout flow & counters, enhancing the experience with sales or and entertainment along the aisle.
Related reading: Your Business Fails to Adopt Artificial Intelligence? Here’s Why
Improving Shelf Assessment
With the retail industry, product placement is a critical point that affects the customer's buying decision.
In most cases, the store will rely on employees' experiences and observations to decide the look and feel of the activation space. However, this manual work will be time-consuming and costly to collect and analyze data as well as to make modifications.
AI will help evaluate the shelves’ performanceand improve customer experience, thereby. From a technical perspective, computer vision uses deep neural networks to detect objects in images and classify them based on categories, brands. Thus, instead of employees needing to count and sort goods manually, all the necessary information is sent to the manager's computer, minute by minute. Managers, therefore, can quickly make decisions about stocking, sorting and shelf placement.
Support Operation Excellence
Thanks to image analysis technology, video insights are automated to help increase profits and improve workflow. The data collected from the video can help the operator understand specific situations with precise timeframes for performing many traditional tasks.
Especially in the case of restaurants or museums, where customer satisfaction is often difficult to measure, image analysis can calculate the exact duration, and frequency visitors stop by. Knowing this, they can consider adjusting outstanding artworks to get the highest attention. A restaurant, likewise, can calculate peak and off-peak food wait times, as well as staff cleaning times for effective shift arrangement.
There are no stores hiring staff to note down customers’ license plate numbers,although it is beneficial to understand customers' demographics. Video analytics can make it an easy task. License plate recognition is used widely today, combined with other video analytics to maximize the benefits for physical security. Cameras can provide customizable identification model to adapt with different license plate fonts.
To sum up
Imagine when these quantitative metrics turn qualitative, and managers can have sophisticated analytical reports on customer behaviour in hand? With the rapid development of AI and Machine Learning, this will be possible shortly. Currently, image analysis can provide specific customer insights, helping businesses adjust quickly for the best customer experience.
Introducing uniSense, a Video Analytics Platform
We now all agree that CCTV system can bring great values to businesses. To meet the rising demands in this digital era, uniSense - Video Analytics Platform has aimed to provide various typical analysis which is possible to apply for many other industries.
Currently, uniSense provides a wide range of analysis such as quantity report generation, detect age and gender, read license plate code, etc., adapting to different business needs. This Video Analytics Platform has been applied as a potential solution to analyze customers' traits and behaviours, shelves assessment, and restaurant operation.
For more information about uniSense, please contact FPT Software.
Reference:
Video Surveillance Installed Base Report – 2019, HIS Markit, 2019
