How can retailers utilise data from wearable technology?

By Laurence Armiger, Sales Director, Zizo.

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: How can retailers utilise data from wearable technology?.

With the recent influx of wearable technology comes the opportunity for businesses to capitalise on the human data captured by this new breed of personal devices. But amidst the rise of wearables as useful accessories, is it possible to harness the information collected by wearable technology in order to enrich business data and increase business success?

The value that data gathered through wearable technology can offer is one to be noted, since enriching the connections made through such data may be the next step in understanding consumer behaviour. In particular, the retail industry may see huge benefits in applying wearable technology extraction and interpretation to information collected through store users.

Beacons for example, which identify and track smart phones, can be placed within shops to monitor the longevity of a customer's visit, and which areas are being frequented. Once analysed to identify correlations, this data could prove fundamental in terms of maximising sales and generating fine grained consumer profiles. In this instance, wearable technology would provide insight into shopping patterns to accurately track movement in store at an even higher level of detail. Similarly, this technology could provide details about how long someone has been actively shopping and measure fatigue, in order to suggest a break in a coffee shop or restaurant. These small interactions with the customer have the ability to enhance the shopping experience.

Human data could also measure reactions to a product by using technology to monitor changes in the body, such as heart rate. This could be beneficial within the retail sector as businesses have the ability to monitor reaction and customer opinions through meaningful anonymised data. Furthermore, fast payment systems that link to personal devices could be installed to streamline checkout, making for an efficient payment service for both the retailer and consumer.

These examples of data extraction and enrichment through analytics demonstrate the opportunity to transform the way in which businesses engage with their customers.

So is it time to review this new data course? I think it is. Data enrichment is fast becoming an essential sidebar to every big data strategy – and every business should accept the need for a new analytics model that enables fast, effective and affordable data experimentation.