US department store chain Nordstrum has stopped collecting data from shoppers’ mobile phones in store, partly because of complaints it received from shoppers.

US department store chain Nordstrum has stopped collecting data from shoppers’ mobile phones in store, according to the New York Times, partly because of complaints it received from shoppers.

Data farmed from in-store shoppers’ phones has big potential - it can show how store shoppers browse, how they use a store, how long they take to decide what to buy when standing in the cereal aisle. Mobiles could even provide retailers with a way of identifying shoppers in store, because the devices send unique ID numbers when they search for Wi-Fi networks. Data-wise, it shows a bricks and mortar retailer everything etailers have had for years.

Nordstrum started testing technology that tracked customers’ movements via their smartphones earlier this year. If a shopper used the retailer’s in-store Wi-Fi it gave Nordstrum access to information on their movements by tracking the mobile device as it moved around store. The retailer covered its back on privacy issues by displaying signs informing shoppers of what it was up to, but it still received complaints.

Smartphones aren’t the only way of tracking people - video cameras can also survey and help to analyse people’s movements.

But shoppers, perhaps inevitably, found the whole thing a bit creepy, and Nordstrum decided to stop the experiment in May following complaints.

The potential benefits are so impressive that it’s worth retailers trying again with this as shoppers’ attitudes change. They provide etailers with so much data when they browse online, it only needs a bit of a shift in awareness to know that providing data via smartphones in-store is no different.

The only way around it - aside from waiting for attitudes to relax as shoppers get used to it - is to make the benefits greater than their concerns. Strong incentives such as offers, exclusive content and well-designed cross-channel services are likely to override these issues eventually.