Improved Videocart Now Talks Back to Retailers

It's a lot smaller, a lot less chatty and far more powerful than it was when it rolled into grocery stores in late 1988.In addition to offering shoppers details on product location and current sales, the latest incarnation of Videocart offers retailers a much clearer picture of how shoppers move through their stores.Videocart is a computerized display screen that attaches to the handle of a shopping cart. As the shopper pushes the cart through the store, the screen delivers customer service, advertising and sales promotion messages as the cart passes strategically placed sensors. Introduced in 1988 in limited tests, the system is in the process of nationwide expansion. An agreement with IBM to manufacture the devices has allowed the Chicago-based company to expand almost as quickly as the units roll off the assembly line.According to Bob Froetscher, vice president of marketing for Videocart, the units are in more than 60 stores, and installations of new units are taking place at the rate of 30 stores a month. By September, Videocart will be installing devices in stores at a rate of 70 per month.Current Videocart users include Kroger, Dominick's, Schnucks and Pathmark, as well as Wal-Mart and Toys 'R' Us.Expanded UsesThe question of store traffic patterns, once an enigma to manufacturers and retailers, is being answered with new data collection technology from Videocart. Sensors, which previously were used solely to pass on promotional information to the shopper, now also track the shopper as he or she moves through the store. The data include how much time is spent in each aisle or department. The information, according to Froetscher, can be used by retailers to identify problem areas, or to point out possible opportune spots for merchandising.A recent three-week study in a Midwest supermarket used Videocart's 150 sensors to verify movement through 15 departments and 20 different aisles. The length of a shopping trip was determined by the time it took a cart to travel from the sensors at the front of the store to the checkout lane.The data, explains Froetscher, can be utilized in a variety of ways. An example, he says, might be a condiment marketer looking for a way to cross-market steak sauce. The sample figures show that while 88 percent of all shoppers pass through the meat department, only 39 percent travel down the aisle with condiments.Data like these might convince the product marketer to place a display in the meat department to spur additional sales."The Videocart network allows every brand manager to become more of a tactician by building business on a store-by-store basis," says Froetscher. "The brand manager can focus on what is really happening in the market at the store level and then implement realtime solutions with immediate impact."Electronic couponing is also a part of the Videocart arsenal. As shoppers move through the aisles with couponed items, they are shown messages on the screen that inform them of discounts on selected items. If a shopper wants to take advantage of a coupon, he or she touches a button on the unit and picks up the proper size and brand. At checkout, the information is transferred electronically to the point-of-sale system (the cash register) and the discount is credited to the shopper's final tally.

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