Remarketing in the real world

ANYONE WHO REGULARLY uses the internet has undoubtedly experienced highly targeted advertising messages that seem to follow them around cyberspace for days – even weeks – on end.

Most don’t stop to think and realise that this is actually a highly calculated, intentional way for a business to reconnect with a potential client or customer; not some kind of online trickery or internet conjuring.

Even fewer know that this strategy has a dedicated name in advertising jargon, known as ‘remarketing.’

When a user interacts with a business website or app a detailed log is kept of the pages they view, the duration they view them, their navigation through websites and search engines, any items added to a shopping cart….the list goes on…

Every aspect of a user’s online behaviour is stored, building a detailed profile for future marketing purposes.

Remarketing serves to persuade and influence positive brand association and purchase decisions so that online retailers give themselves the highest possible chance of making each individual sale to minimise marketing budget waste.

For decades now, businesses have sought to bring aspects of the real world shopping experience online.

In having a functional website that recreates the browsing, information gathering and purchase transaction phases of physical shopfronts, businesses recreate the real world customer experience – and create the opportunity for 24/7 sales, 365 days of the year.

And additional online tools of persuasion such as saved cart reminders, ’can we help’ chat-bots, push notification technology and invites to mailing lists and social media channels all serve to inform and influence positive brand association and purchase decisions.

However, one key difference is that once a potential customer leaves a physical shopfront without purchase, the likelihood of making a sale diminishes exponentially with time.

This is simply because contact with the potential customer cannot be maintained.

In cyberspace, phone numbers for sales calls or home addresses for marketing mail outs are not needed to maintain this contact.

Salvaging online sales from website visits by reengaging with potential customers can lead to significant revenue increases and once someone actually places an item in their cart the possibility of making the sale can actually increase with targeted messages and incentivisation.

By negating the need for actual contact details, remarketing online allows a business to maintain this all important avenue of contact with those who have shown any interest in their goods or services.

What if this approach could be reversed; what if certain aspects of the online world such as remarketing could be applied in real life, in real time? Well, Foresense Technologies has actually achieved this.

Now. Today.

Foresense Technologies have developed a platform to empower brick and mortar stores with the pinpoint accuracy of online marketing.

A global leader in real time presence detection AI and behavioural data analytics technology, Foresense brings traditional ways of thinking about online behavioural data and remarketing into real world settings.

For decades now, behavioural data has been collected and analysed in the virtual world in minute detail.

Bounce rate. Dwell time. Impressions. Unique and return visitors. Session duration. All of these small parts of information combine to form a highly detailed body of knowledge that can improve strengths and address weaknesses in the online space. Using smartphone technology and proprietary sensors and AI systems, Foresense applies these types of highly specific parameters into the bricks and mortar physical world - a real- time quantification of human behaviour at any site in its day- to-day operations to provide invaluable insight supporting commercially important decisions and increase revenue at low investment.

And it allows accessibility in real time so highly-informed, proactive decisions can be executed as trends are actually emerging.

Foresense monitors and logs individual customer behavioral activity and builds a detailed user profile of their time in-store.

It can identify customer characteristics such as if the customer is a new or return visitor and interaction time spent with staff.

Because the platform is accessible in real-time, additional staff can be deployed when and where they are needed most in specific areas to ensure customers are not left unattended or waiting excessively – or if they are about to leave the store without purchase.

And if a customers does leave the store without making a purchase, detailed AI behavioural analysis can determine reasons as to why from logged data parameters.

The platform can also use customer data for tailored advertising messages on the smart phone screen or via instore digital signage and integrate with loyalty and rewards programs and membership and customer relationship management software.

In this way, highly appropriated messages can be sent to store visitor in-store and after they leave.

Membership sign-ups for new unique visitors, invites to mailing lists and social media channels, discount incentives for those who show signs of immediate intent to purchase, reminders of items they were looking at, sale catalogues – the exact same tactics that online remarketing employs can be replicated in real world settings.

And with Foresense proprietary AI platform, the whole process is automated based upon in-store individual behaviours.

With online remarketing such a proven success in today’s retail world, it’s replication with Foresense in real world settings is poised to revolutionise the retail world of tomorrow.