Over the years, marketers have done lots of research on shopper behavior. including eye tracking and facial recognition. Now, we can add shoe (foot) tracking to the list of research techniques used by retailers.
As Oliver Smith reports for The Memo:
“Now, there’s a novel new technology that can figure out your age, gender, and social class, just by looking at your feet. Hoxton Analytics has created a small camera unit which, placed close to the floor near the doors of a shop, watches people’s shoes as they walk by.”
“As well as counting the sheer number of people walking past (the ‘footfall’ of the store), the cameras use artificial intelligence to figure out the kind of people who are walking. Hoxton can deduce gender, age, social class, and whether people are alone or in a couple, all from looking at their shoes. What makes Hoxton so unique is that retailers get all this data without any ‘creepy’ privacy invasions, like tracking your smartphone or watching your face.”
