Innovative approach to analysis of the movement of customer flows

When planning the activities of a trade organization, information is required on the attendance of the store and its changes over time, on the trajectories of the movement of visitors and buyers on the trading floor, on their interaction with goods, on the impact of layouts, promotions and other events on consumer behavior. The collection of relevant data and their qualitative analysis are among the most important tasks facing the heads of trade structures. Modern digital technologies are changing established approaches to trading activities and, in particular, creating fundamentally new opportunities for analyzing the movement of customer flows. In this regard, the purpose of the article is to substantiate the possibility of increasing the efficiency of trade and economic activities based on the introduction of innovative technologies in the collection and analysis of data on the movement of consumer flows. As a result, three key areas were identified in which the use of RFID, POS technologies and big data generated with their use allow trade organizations to increase the efficiency of their activities, namely: increasing the efficiency of interaction with visitors and buyers; increasing the efficiency of the sales staff; improving the efficiency of assortment management. It seems that in the future, the drivers for the spread of the practice of analyzing the movement of customer flows based on big data generated using RFID and POS will be: the interest of trade organizations in the maximum possible personification of product and price offers, in improving the quality of service; the interest of trade organizations in replenishing and extracting information about visitors and buyers in real time; gradual reduction in the cost of technologies, reduction of the payback period for investments in them.