Wifi Revolution

Rautakesko Limited has selected Ekahau’s (News - Alert) Wi-Fi-based RTLS solution for customer behavior analysis in its retail stores.

 

Ekahau is a provider of Wi-Fi-based Real Time Location Systems (RTLS).

 

Rautakesko supplies hardware required by builders and interior decorators through the K-rauta, Raitia, Byggmakker and Senukai retail store chains. The company manages the business, combines their purchasing power, arranges efficient logistics and ensures marketing and development support to the stores.

 

Rautakesko will employ Ekahau’s RTLS technology for capturing data regarding customers’ shopping patterns. Customers will have a special tag (News - Alert) associated with them when they are shopping. This tag will enable the Ekahau RTLS system to locate them besides deciphering the duration of time they spend within the store.

 

“The analysis of visitor behavior, including their walking routes, stopping patterns and wait times, produces invaluable knowledge about consumer habits and motivation,” said Konsta Kuokkanen, project manager at Rautakesko. “This information helps us to arrange the store layout optimally and develop retail concepts.”

 

The RTLS system was used previously at Rautakesko’s Byggmakker Trondheim in Norway and at K-rauta Orebro in Sweden for collecting customer traffic data.

 

RTLS systems generally use proprietary Infrared (IR), Ultrawide Band (UWB) wireless infrastructure or by using wall mount video cameras. Ekahau RTLS makes use of the stores’ existing Wi-Fi network which is being used for data and voice services. Retail stores also use Wi-Fi handheld barcode and RFID scanners. Rautakesko does not have to install new infrastructure for behavior analysis purposes as the existing Wi-Fi network will be used by the Ekahau system.

 

Antti Korhonen, Ekahau’s president and CEO, pointed out that the process of understanding how customers behave in the store, including what sections they visit and the time spent there, helps retailers improve their store layouts. This enables them to increase their revenue and also enhance customer satisfaction.

 

The same concept can be used in hospitals to study patient flow or to keep tag of work-in-progress processes in a manufacturing facility. Ekahau’s RTLS technology enables users in retail, healthcare, manufacturing and other industries to visualize the entire process which was not possible before.

 

The Ekahau RTLS system includes a “rail tracking” method which helps the retailer to analyze the process flow paths accurately along the retail store aisles. The performance of Wi-Fi-based RTLS solution tends to vary depending on what types of algorithms are being used for location tracking.

 

U.S.-based Ekahau’s partners include wireless software developers, system integrators and international OEM partners, involved in the development of wireless enterprise applications.

 

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