When I first heard about Shopper Tracker, I batted the idea of posting it around like a cat with a dead mouse. The concept sounds great, but the technical details weren't quite there to back it up. I just assumed it was either fake or that developers wanted to keep their secretes close to the chest. An understandable stance, especially during initial beta testing and early proof of concept demos. I continued to think about the video and kept struggling with the idea of how they'd actually capture the analytics.

Thankfully, a new video was posted that actually demonstrates how the system captures information that could be useful to venders. Think of Google Analytics for you grocery store. When a user is tracked, a timestamp is added to that specific moment and a running clock starts. This allows venders to see how long a potential shopper is interested in a product and how long it takes before they decide to pick something up, or walk away. Another conversion example is set in place when a customer actually grabs a box and examines it.

If you're obsessed with web site analytics, you'll know that introducing this type of finely grained statistical data is extremely valuable to vendors and market analysts. If the end result of Shopper Tracker is anything close to the data that google analytics provides, you'll have stats relating to how many people visited a particular shelf, how long they stayed, how many products they interacted with or if they simply took a brief glance and then walked away. Applying this data to shoppers in any type of retail setting could open up a lot of avenues in terms of refining product placement and knowing what products need an extra push getting them into the hands of consumers.

As it stands, the prototype seems to be great for comparing sales metrics in relation to the location of a product on the shelf. We already know that eye level is where it's at for adults and if you want to sell to kids--or have them drive their parents crazy for a box of cereal--you put that product on the bottom shelf.

A live feed of snapshots that pertain to certain trigger points is available as well; handy if you'd like to visit all occurrences of product interaction at the end of the day. Every time a potential customer is tracked, a snap shot is taken. This happens when a product is touched or picked up and when it is placed back in it's original spot as well.

For more, check out the video below and visit their official site at http://www.agileroute.com/shoppertracker/