News

Malls tracking customer behavior via cell phones

November 27, 2011

Shopping malls in the U.S. have started collecting data about shoppers via their cell phones.

The technology, designed by Path Intelligence, is called Footpath, according to Ars technia, and uses monitoring units distributed throughout the retail environment to sense the movement of customers by triangulation. It then runs the data through analytics, and sends it to retailers through a secure website.

Options include tracking response to mailers and other advertising by providing the equivalent of Web metrics such as unique visitors, page impressions and click-through rates.

The technology, according to Path CEO Sharon Biggar, can help retailers boost revenue.

"Now we can produce heat maps of the mall and show advertisers where the premium locations are for their adverts," she said, "and perhaps more importantly we can price the advertising differently at each location."

Two malls in the U.S., Promenade Temecula in Temecula, Calif., and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va., are testing the technology through New Year's.

In a written statement, Forest City's spokesperson Lindsey Cottone said that Forest City was being "totally transparent" about the trial, posting signage to "inform customers that the survey is taking place."

From the story:

Forest City's senior vice president of marketing, Jane Lisey, emphasized that the company was not collecting personally identifiable information about shoppers from their phones, and that customers' phone numbers and other information were protected by their wireless carriers. "Before agreeing to test this technology it was essential to determine and guarantee that the personal information of our shoppers would be completely anonymous to all parties," she said.