Madrid-based startup Proximus has developed a chip-based technology, embedded into shopping carts and baskets, that maps customers' in-store movements and allows retailers to better understand how products can be located so as to maximize purchases.

The system can determine, for example, if a customer pays attention to special offers, which route they take in the store and which products they stop and look at. "In our first test, we realized that clients in a supermarket didn’t walk down a certain aisle because the pet food was located too close to the [middle]," says Jorge Bueno, CEO of Proximus. "When we changed the pet food for muffins, people went down that aisle again and the cross-sales of breakfast foods skyrocketed."

The sensors that are installed in carts and baskets emit a short-wave signal via Bluetooth to a set of receivers located in the ceiling, which in turn send the information to the cloud. In this way, it is possible to know each shopper’s position and the amount of time they stay in one place, giving information in real time about the section of the store where the most people are or how fast the checkout lines are moving, for example.

More than 30 customer behaviors are analyzed via a chip embedded into shopping carts. Image credit: Pixabay. All of the information that the system generates is stored on a web page where flow diagrams can be found to analyze the movement of carts within the store and where there are heat maps with specific information regarding the traffic in each section of the store. More than 30 parameters of customer behaviors are analyzed.

“We are focused on providing new information to these chains so that they can improve their strategic decisions on a daily basis, physically in their stores. This is like Google Analytics for physical space," says Bueno.

The system has already been tested in the Carrefour chain, and Proximus is working with several other large European retailers. In addition, the company has just signed an agreement with Unilever in Singapore to monitor its brand in supermarkets.