Dive Summary:
- Retailers attempting to collect intricate in-store shopping data on consumers could face public backlash despite the growing number of retail outlets currently utilizing or seeking to initiate the service.
- Nordstrom’s in-store tracking program using cellphone Wi-Fi signals to gather information on shopping habits, which began in fall 2012, ended the ‘experiment’ in May due to consumer complaints and social media backlash.
- The backlash could deter some retailers from utilizing the full potential of omnichannel, even with the best intentions in regards to consumer privacy. “Watching where people go in a store is like watching how they looked at a second or third Web page” (for an online merchant), says Ralph Crabtree, CTO for Brickstream.
From the article:
If these methods seem intrusive, at least some consumers seem happy to trade privacy for deals. Placed, a company based in Seattle, has an app that asks consumers where they are in a store in exchange for cash and prepaid gift cards from Amazon and Google Play, among others. More than 500,000 people have downloaded the app since last August, said a company spokeswoman, Sarah Radwanick, providing information like gender, age and income, and agreeing to be tracked over GPS, Wi-Fi and cellular networks.
