To date, online retail has been far more advanced than the high street in using analytics to transform the customer experience. 

Wi-fi can be used to track customer behaviour in-store

However, that is likely to change according to retail technology expert Walkbase, which is billing 2015 as the year the “high street dinosaur bites back”.

It’s all thanks to smartphones. “Through the anonymous tracking of wi-fi signals emitted from smartphones, we have the ability to understand what happens to the customer in-store, where they go and what they look at,” says Adrian James, vice president of sales and UK managing director at Walkbase.

“Traditionally, we have been able to use technologies like door counters, EPoS data or cameras to gauge some understanding, but these technologies tend to be expensive or inaccurate.”

As customers increasingly use smartphones for payments or to compare prices, the devices are poised to play an even more important role in shopping in physical stores.

“By looking at both online and offline media, alongside how a customer buys a product through the use of devices, retailers are able to gain an understanding of a customer’s path from entering the store to conversion of a sale,” says James.

“This has huge implications for enhancing customer experience and measuring the impact of advertising campaigns.”

Some marketers may argue that driving footfall through advertising is proof enough of conversion success but James believes that is old-school thinking.

“We can now understand if jeans are advertised online, what it does for the footfall of that particular product in-store, what customers looked at after the jeans, what percentage of people who looked at the jeans then bought them, and what were the other traffic drivers that drove in-store visits.

“By understanding how in-store experience impacts conversion, retailers can enhance that experience further,” he says.