[January 13, 2014]

LightHaus Mobilizes Retailers with Advanced Tools to Analyze the In-Store Shopping Experience and Fuel Innovation that Drives Store Performance

LightHaus™ today introduced new in-store insights features for the LightHaus Visual Customer Intelligence™ (VCI) system, including enhanced traffic-based in-store performance measures that will help retailers garner deeper insights into shopper behavior and store performance. LightHaus offers brick-and-mortar retailers, from small specialty chains to global brands, continuous measurement tools and in-store insights reporting to help them drive sales productivity and store performance. LightHaus made the announcement at the retail industry's flagship event, the National Retail Federation (NRF) 103^rd Annual Convention & EXPO (Retail's Big Show 2014), being held this week in New York City, from booth 2238.

The need to enhance marketing initiatives, ensure consistency in customer service and boost revenue are the top priorities for retailers today. With the addition of this advanced set of functionality, the LightHaus VCI system offers the broadest suite of video analytics and critical insights into the in-store customer experience to help retailers fuel innovation that drives performance.

Chief executives at leading retailers realize that constant innovation is necessary to survive and in-store customer insights hold the key. Online, retailers have been able to glean customer insights from various digital sources, from social to mobile, to get a statistical view of website traffic, shopping history, and other information to help close the gap between data collected and understanding the needs of the customer. On the other hand, in their brick-and-mortar stores, retailers play a guessing-game, where the only data comes when the customer makes a purchase. The ability to understand the customer experience inside the physical store is much harder to come by, but critical to maintaining a competitive advantage.

"Retailers are in a constant battle to find the right innovations for their customers and for their business, without putting the business at risk. This presents a strong market opportunity that is ripe for tools to measure key elements of the customer experiece," said Virginia Balcom, President & COO, LightHaus. "Our partnerships in markets such as India, Japan, the Middle East and Italy, provide clear evidence that retailers around the world are seeking ways to keep a pulse on customer needs and ensuring they are meeting those needs every day. These new LightHaus VCI features put timely in-store insights in the hands of the people who can make a difference - the store teams."

It's crucial for retailers to invest in tools to quickly measure the in-store sales funnel, including in-store customer traffic, browsing by product, category or department, and conversion to purchase, to see the impact of product, marketing and merchandising programs. LightHaus VCI arms brick-and-mortar retailers with the additional context needed to maximize their traffic and conversion programs.

Today, LightHaus announced three new additions to the comprehensive suite of in-store insights in the LightHaus VCI system, supported by advanced video analytics, to fill in the blanks to provide retailers with a deeper understanding of customer shopping behaviors.

Sales Intercepts Measure - This performance indicator allows retailers to drill deeper into specific customer service interactions. With the LightHaus VCI ability to differentiate between employees and customers, retailers can now measure sales associate interaction with customers. For example, retailers can measure how long it took for an employee to greet a customer, or how many customers browsed without receiving sales assistance. In the dynamic retail environment, retailers can determine if associates are delivering consistent customer service or flag situations where customer service targets are not being met, and then make the necessary adjustments in staff scheduling or mix of skills.

Store Insights Reporting - This new web-based reporting feature puts key store performance indicators, including sales transaction, traffic and conversion, into store and regional operations managers' hands. Specifically designed for busy store management teams that need immediate insights into store performance, LightHaus VCI gives store managers the ability to see and react to what is working in their store, based on specific indicators they need to improve sales productivity and performance. District managers will be able to see how well stores are performing, and can drill down into individual stores to view the in-store shopping funnel: traffic, browsing and conversion, by product, category or department.

Shopping Groups - This component is a new traffic-driven measurement for deeper shopper insights that adds another dimension to current visual analytics that helps retailers determine purchasing power and sales opportunity in the store. Retailers can now get not only a view of the number of people in the store, but also the number of shopping groups and the size of each group. By measuring both individual traffic and shopping groups, retailers can better understand traffic and conversion trends and gain deeper customer insights that allow them to optimize staffing, marketing and merchandising.

These new features will begin rolling out in the first quarter of 2014.

About LightHaus

LightHaus™ fills a previously unmet industry need with its in-store video analytics solutions for retailers. The LightHaus Visual Customer Intelligence™ (VCI) system examines in-store shopping behavior and provides the granular, highly accurate business intelligence retailers require to improve customer service, merchandising and marketing strategies. Anchored by a veteran team from its headquarters in Vancouver, LightHaus supports customers and partners from strategic sites throughout the globe. It brings deep expertise in pioneering innovative technology rollouts to global retail brands.

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