Amelia's Blog :)

For our pecha kucha we looked into 'Tracking surveillance and data analysis of shoppers.' We decided to look and see how shoppers were targeted both online and in stores so that companies can make the most profit and best ways to exploit their products.

The first thing we looked at was how shops online track your internet searches to advertise best to their customers and to make the most out of customers' shopping experiences. Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter use cookies to track and advertise to their users, so that while customers are using the social networks to share with friends, they are also being advertised to. Twitter we found also promotes accounts that you might be interested in by looking at who you 'follow' on the website. 

Websites like Amazon and Ebay look into your previously brought products to advertise what other people who brought those products also brought and advertises to you in this way. This gives the websites a chance to make more profit from it's buyers as they are advertised things they don't know they want until it pops up onto the website. 

Supermarkets like Tescos and Sainsbury's also track shoppers in the shop and advertise products to them. They use data collected instores to place products in more convenient places for shoppers to find. The aisles in the supermarkets leading you to your goods guide you through other products, which you aren't aware of wanting until you pass by them.

Products that are more expensive are put at eye level so that the buyer will see them first and consider buying them. The shops take into account average height of the customers to place these items on the shelves, before selling them.

We also found that supermarkets use smells to entice the customer, an example of this is that supermarkets often smell like fresh bakery goods, because the smells from the bakery are pumped around the store.

We looked at both problems and benefits from this:

We discussed whether it is going too far for mannequins in shops to have cameras in them to watch and see where customers go to first in shops and how long they spend in certain areas. Also if it is going to far to be able to trace customers around their stores with their mobile locators, which give the store bosses a trail of where customers head to in stores. 

Benefits we found from the ways shops and online track potential buyers include not having to browse the internet for ages to find the products you are looking for. Being able to find items of desire easier in stores, and quicker service times.

In my opinion while it can be seen as an invasion of privacy to have all these ways of tracking you both online and in stores, it also means that you are able to find things you want a lot easier, and therefore make the most out of your shopping experiences. Also these are businesses that depend on people buying things from their shops, and if they don't know what the customers want then they are not going to be able to maintain a business for themselves. It makes shopping a lot less of a chore than it could be.