YCD Latest Digital Signage Company To Add In-House Shopper Analytics

November 2, 2018 by Dave Haynes

Retail analytics seems to now be a thing in digital signage, many years after companies like Cognovision (Intel bought) and VideoMining popped up and tried to make the case for software partners doing integration for their  screens.

Many things have, of course, changed in the ensuing years – notably cloud computing, cheaper and faster hardware, and much easier access and integration with retail systems and the data they generate.

While there are many third-party software companies with camera and sensor-based analytics platforms, at least some trying to partner and integrate with digital signage CMS companies, we’re also now seeing companies directly in this business either develop or buy their own capabilities.

The latest is Israel-based YCD Multimedia, which announced this week the launch of YCD INSIGHT. The integrated platform is described as “a new real time analytics tool that provides demographic statistics on in store visitors. YCD Insight counts the number of in-store visitors and provides data on shopper age, gender and viewing angle. When combined with YCD Cnario content management system, retailers can now adjust the marketing message in real time to the audience in the store and suit the message to specific segments at specific time.”

YCD, says a press release, “sees a growing need in new ways to measure audience in store in the retail industry. And launched YCD INSIGHT as an answer to this need. With the new real time analytics tool retailers can compare conversion rates between stores, optimize placement of displays for maximum exposure and maximize effectiveness of in-store advertised content by displaying targeted content based on customers demographics.”

The retail analytics capability was added to the YCD line-up via an acquisition earlier this year of an Israeli company.

The announcement comes on the heels of NEC Display announcing its own retail-centric analytics platform, called ALP. You can listen to a podcast with Rich Ventura, who drove ALP’s development.

STRATACACHE last year acquired and has since integrated the Finnish company Walkbase.

When I was in New York this week, I had a chat and a glimpse at a Taiwan-based company, SkyRec, that has a slick retail analytics program it is integrating with ComQi. The connective tissue there is that Taiwan’s AUO acquired ComQi earlier this year, and has an investment stake in SkyRec. Expect to see ComQi talking more and more about retail insights.