News

Mobile brain-scanning device tracks, measures shopper emotions

August 26, 2009

Retailers and marketers that wish they could get into the minds of their customers are a little bit closer to having that wish fulfilled, thanks to some cutting-edge technology being tested in the U.K.

Using a product from the neuroscience firm EmSense, the retail research company TNS Magasin is measuring brain activity of shoppers in real retail environments, with one test completed in Foot Locker.

The EmSense product is a band worn around the shopper's forehead that scans the pre-frontal cortex.

In an interview with Research Live, TNS founder Siemon Scamell-Katz explained the concept:

At last we are able to gain insight into responses to the visual stimuli that the shopper actually looks at, as well as pre-frontal cortex responses. This enables us to gauge the relative roles of emotion and cognition at each and every stage of the shopping journey to understand, literally, what is going on in shoppers' minds.