Brick-and-mortar store owners, this is what you’re missing out on

Ecommerce might be all the rage in the tech world, but don’t be fooled – 94 percent of total retail sales are being generated in brick-and-mortar stores, according to market research firm eMarketer. Considering that business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce sales worldwide are estimated to reach $1.471 trillion by the end of this year, the size of the offline market is mind-boggling to say the least.

Strangely enough, the number of startups that focus on brick-and-mortar stores are far fewer than those in ecommerce, and this can be incredibly frustrating for a generation of shoppers who have feet planted in both the online and offline world. Shoppers are pampered with personalized recommendations and offers every time they head online to shop, since etailers have access to a proliferation of tools for online analytics and customer data, yet on the flipside brick-and-mortar stores have close to nothing – except their sales numbers – to optimize their performance.

The exuberant co-founders: Shye Kang Loh (left) and Lim Chee How (right)

Suffice to say, an offline store armed with the right data would be able to snag a larger portion of the enormous pie. This is what Lim Chee How, founder of Malaysia-based Tapway, is counting on. He dubs Tapway the “Google Analytics for the offline world”, and believes that this is something store owners sorely need. Lim explains:

Whenever I purchased something through Amazon, they were really awesome at identifying who you are, what you have purchased, and giving you really personal recommendations. I’m a rock fan, so I always purchase CDs through Amazon, and when I returned to Malaysia [after studying abroad] I always shopped at this record store, but despite being a repeat customer, they couldn’t remember me at all. They couldn’t give me good offers, and it was always the same boring welcome and goodbye message. That’s why I created this.

Actionable data

According to Lim, offline stores simply don’t have access to actionable data that they can use to improve the customer experience. “Most stores only have sales data – and only care about that – but what they don’t know is what actually contributes to those sales,” he explains. “They might have a traffic counter, and some loyalty program data, but that’s about it.”

Much like Google Analytics, a lot of insight on shopper behavior and activity can be drawn from the data captured on Tapway’s platform, but it is up to the store owner to act on them. The startup’s basic package – which captures metrics such as walk-by traffic, visitor traffic, and average visit duration – relies on wi-fi presence and triangulation technology. It’s currently charging MYR100 (US$30) per month for this service.

The second tier involves video analytics captured through CCTV cameras, which naturally provides a suite of more advanced data, such as footfall, demographics, and heatmap analytics. Footfall analytics would cost retailers an additional MYR150 (US$45) per month, while heatmap analytics cost about MYR80 (US$24).

Heatmap analytics tells you how many shoppers are in each part of your shop.

All these data points give store owners and their staff a better overview of what’s happening in their store. In particular, such data would be a boon to those involved in marketing for these stores, as it would give them firm empirical data to inform their strategies and campaigns.

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