3 questions to … Thomas Fehn, Fehn IT Solutions

Customers are the highest priority to retailers. But how do retailers find out what appeals to their customer base and what doesn’t? In the future, sensors and web analytics platforms will be designed to help analyze consumer behavior at the store window and in the store. Thomas Fehn, Managing Director of Fehn ITSolution explains what makes his product so unique in the offline segment.

Mr. Fehn, what are you presenting at EuroCIS 2016?

We were successful in developing a fully integrated optical sensor. It is set up like a camera and able to identify a person’s gender, age, and emotions. This information is subsequently sent by the sensor to our server in the form of metadata. We developed the product while it will be presented at the EuroCIS under the brand Pyramics, which is also in charge of distribution in the future.
After the images have been recorded, they are processed by a special software that detects faces. If faces are detectable on the image, information on age, gender and emotions is being extracted. After the metadata extraction, the image is discarded; the images are not permanently stored. They are only temporarily kept in storage for short-term analysis. Once on the server, the data can be viewed using a web analytics platform and utilized for further analysis.

The second product we are going to introduce is said type of web analytics platform. Aside from analyzing numerous segments, it also offers a special display solution. The sensor mounted in the store window makes it possible to detect passing pedestrians based on their facial profile. This enables us to analyze whether people stop to look at the window display or whether they just glance at it as they walk past. Our analytics platform allows us to illustrate this in a series of steps, like a type of funnel. This highlights the varying interests of customers at the display window.

What differentiates your product from competitive products?

To the best of our knowledge, a technology like ours that also conforms to German data protection regulations is globally currently not available yet in this form. This makes it a unique product in the offline segment.

What added value does your product offer retailers?

There are a variety of possible application scenarios. If you attach the sensor to an advertising display, for example, you can measure the advertising effectiveness based on the collected data. As I have already mentioned, you can also categorize different customer groups by mounting it in the display window.

If you attach the sensor in the entrance area, you are able to identify which customer groups are visiting the store. You can also install the sensor at the checkout counters. Combined with sales receipts, you are quickly able to determine the customers with the highest sales.

What’s important to note is that this only pertains to the offline segment. Many companies offer similar products in the online area, but as far as the offline segment is concerned, we are pretty much the first company that’s able to offer this kind of product.

Interview: Kilian Spelleken, EuroCIS-tradefair.com