英国零售数据反弹（零售商观察消费者情绪提高销售额）

FOR eight months up to this April, a French bookstore chain had video in a Paris shop fed to software that scrutinises shoppers’ movements and facial expressions for surprise, dissatisfaction, confusion or hesitation. When a shopper walked to the end of an aisle only to return with a frown to a bookshelf, the software discreetly messaged clerks, who went to help. Sales rose by a tenth.

2016年8月至2017年4月期间，法国一家连锁书店在巴黎的一家分店内安装监控摄像头，并将监控视频实时上传至软件，通过软件捕捉并分析视频中购物者的动作和面部表情，以此监测购物者的惊喜、不满、困惑或犹豫等情绪。 当消费者走到书店过道的尽头，皱着眉头回到一个书架时，软件会提醒店内员工去帮忙。在此期间，该书店的销售额增长了10%。

The bookseller wants to keep its name quiet for now. Other French clients of the Paris startup behind the technology, Angus.ai, are testing it in research shops that are not open to the public. They include Aéroports de Paris, an airport owner; LVMH, a luxury conglomerate; and Carrefour, a chain of hypermarkets. In a test at a Mothercare shop in Tallinn, Estonia, software from Realeyes, an emotion-detection firm based in London, showed that shoppers who entered smiling spent a third more than others.

这家书店目前还不想曝光自己。不过，这家书店所使用的情绪识别技术的研发公司，巴黎的初创企业Angus.ai的其他一些客户正在他们的一些实验性门店里测试这项技术，还没有对外开放。这些客户包括巴黎机场、奢侈品集团LVMH以及连锁超市家乐福等。一项在爱沙尼亚塔林的母婴店中进行的测试中，伦敦的情绪监测公司Realeyes开发的软件显示，微笑进店的消费者平均比其他消费者的消费额多三分之一。

Simple video yields a lot of insight. But there are far more sophisticated and initmate ways of learning about emotions of shoppers. Thermal-imaging cameras can detect the heart rate. Wirelessly captured data from smartphone accelerometers can suggest when shoppers become fascinated (movement often stops) or are fretting over prices (a phone is repeatedly raised to search for cheaper products online).

一段简单的视频可以提供很多信息。 不过，有更为精细和更为细致的方式来了解消费者情绪。通过热成像相机，商家可以检测到消费者的心率。通过智能手机加速度计上传到无线网络上的数据，商家可以知道消费者是否为产品所吸引（如果顾客对产品感兴趣，通常会停止走动）或嫌价格太贵（这种情况下，消费者会反复拿起手机，搜索更便宜的产品）。

For even more insights, shoppers are sometimes asked to don special kit, typically in exchange for a discount or other reward. Wearable “galvanometer” gadgets, for example, measure moisture and electrical resistance on hand skin to reveal arousal.

为了更深入地识别消费者情绪，商家有时会以提供额外折扣或其它奖励，要求消费者穿戴特殊设备。例如，戴在消费者身上的“电流计”小装置可以测量顾客手部皮肤的水分和电阻，从而辨别消费者的情绪冲动。

All of this could be a chance, some say, for bricks-and-mortar retailers to trim the advantage that data have long given online sellers. A race is on to work out how best to collect and use emotions data, be it to improve packaging, displays, music, or the content and timing of sales pitches, says Rana June, chief executive of a firm in New York called Lightwave. It measures shoppers’ emotions for retailers, for malls, and for consumer-goods firms such as PepsiCo, Procter & Gamble and Unilever.

有人认为，所有这一切可能为实体零售商在与长期拥有数据的网络卖家的博弈中带来优势。纽约Lightwave公司首席执行官Ranna June表示，无论是在改进商品包装、商品陈列、背景音乐、销售内容和时机安排上，一场关于如何更好地收集和使用情感数据的竞赛已然开始。这场竞赛通过监控消费者情绪，为零售商，大型商场和百事可乐、宝洁、联合利华等日用品公司带来新的销售增长机会。

Not everyone is impressed. Some find it all a little creepy. Nielsen, a consumer-research giant, deems using technology to work out shopper emotions en masse too “avant-garde” for now, says Ricardo Gutiérrez, head of shopper insights at Nielsen Colombia in Bogotá.

不过，不是所有人都欢欣鼓舞。有人感到毛骨悚然。消费者研究巨头尼尔森公司设在波哥大的消费者研究中心的主管里卡多·古铁雷斯（RicardoGutiérrez）就认为，使用技术识别消费者情绪现在还太过“超前”。

But it is much cheaper than old-fashioned interviews. Nielsen charges roughly $10,000 to interview 25 shoppers about three products. Angus.ai’s service costs just €59 ($66) a month per camera. For $15,000 or so, iMotions, based in Copenhagen, gives retailers an EEG cap that detects brain activity, an eye-tracking headset that notes when an attractive object dilates pupils, and a galvanometer. iMotions’ 150 or so consumer-goods clients include Mondelez International, Nestlé and Unilever, which use them in mock-up stores and real ones.

不过，超前与否先不说，情绪识别的成本可比过去的消费者调查低得多。以尼尔森公司为例，每对25位消费者进行3款产品的调查收费1万美元。Angus.ai公司每台摄像机的服务费用只有59欧元（450人民币）。只要15,000美元（102,000人民币）左右，总部位于哥本哈根的iMotions公司就可以为零售商提供一个能够检测消费者大脑活动的帽子，一个能够检测消费者因感兴趣而瞳孔扩大的头戴式耳机，以及一个电流计。iMotions在全球有150多个客户，包括亿滋国际，雀巢和联合利华。这些公司在模拟商店和实体店中都使用了iMotions的产品和技术。

What’s more, conventional market research can mislead. People typically “edit” verbal responses to make themselves sound rational, when purchases are often driven by subconscious emotions. The key is in tracking the unconscious things that shoppers do, says Jeff Hershey of VideoMining, a firm in Pennsylvania whose software also analyses store video. And surveys can also ask the wrong questions—such as how much people like a product when what really matters, notes Simon Harrop of BrandSense, a consultancy in Britain, is whether, say, it makes them feel attractive.

更重要的是，传统的市场研究并不准确。消费者在做口头消费者调查时，往往会“修饰”自己的回答，使自己听起来很合理，而购买往往是由潜意识情绪驱动的。宾夕法尼亚州的企业VideoMining也做分析商店里的监控视频的软件。员工Jeff Hershey认为，关键是要跟踪消费者所做的无意识的事情。英国咨询公司BrandSense的Simon Harrop指出，消费者调查还可能会问错误的问题，例如，问消费者对某样产品的喜欢程度，而正确的问法应该是该产品是否对其有吸引力。

The notion of “retail therapy”, consumers driven to spend when they are feeling blue, is an obvious example of shopping’s emotional side. Whichever store is first to work out how to spot mildly depressed customers could make a bundle.

“消费治疗”，即消费者在心情低落时更容易花钱，是购物情感方面的一个明显的例子。任何销售商只要能先于别家想出办法，找出心情不好的顾客，一定能赚大钱。

编译：吴越

编辑：翻吧君

英文来源：经济学人

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