Skip to main content

Bionic Mannequins Spy

Bionic Mannequins Spy, Benetton Group SpA is among fashion brands deploying mannequins equipped with technology used to identify criminals at airports to watch over shoppers in their stores.

Retailers are introducing the EyeSee, sold by Italian mannequin maker Almax SpA, to glean data on customers much as online merchants are able to do. The 4,000-euro ($5,072) device has spurred shops to adjust window displays, store layouts and promotions to keep consumers walking in the door and spending.

“It’s spooky,” said Luca Solca, head of luxury goods research at Exane BNP Paribas in London. “You wouldn’t expect a mannequin to be observing you.”

The EyeSee looks ordinary enough on the outside, with its slender polystyrene frame, blank face and improbable pose. Inside, it’s no dummy. A camera embedded in one eye feeds data into facial-recognition software like that used by police. It logs the age, gender, and race of passers-by.

Demand for the device shows how retailers are turning to technology to help personalize their offers as growth slows in the $245 billion luxury goods industry. Bain & Co. predicts the luxury market will expand 5 percent in 2012, less than half last year’s rate.

“Any software that can help profile people while keeping their identities anonymous is fantastic,” said Uché Okonkwo, executive director of consultant Luxe Corp. It “could really enhance the shopping experience, the product assortment, and help brands better understand their customers.”

Eye-Level
While some stores deploy similar technology to watch shoppers from overhead security cameras, the EyeSee provides better data because it stands at eye level and invites customer attention, Almax contends.

The mannequin, which went on sale last December and is now being used in three European countries and the U.S., has led one outlet to adjust its window displays after revealing that men who shopped in the first two days of a sale spent more than women, according to Almax.

A clothier introduced a children’s line after the dummy showed that kids made up more than half its mid-afternoon traffic, the company says. Another store found that a third of visitors using one of its doors after 4 p.m. were Asian, prompting it to place Chinese-speaking staff by that entrance.

‘Changing Landscape’
A spokesman for Benetton declined to elaborate on where or why the clothier is using the EyeSee.

Max Catanese, chief executive officer of the 40-year-old mannequin maker, declined to name clients, citing confidentiality agreements. Five companies, including leading fashion brands, are using a total of “a few dozen” of the mannequins with orders for at least that many more, he says.

Burberry Group Plc (BRBY) and Nordstrom Inc. (JWN) are among retailers that say they aren’t on the list. Even so, they are helping blur the line between the physical shopping experience and Web retailing by setting up WiFi, iPads and video screens at their outlets to better engage shoppers.

Nordstrom, a U.S. chain of more than 100 department stores, says facial-recognition software may go a step too far.

“It’s a changing landscape but we’re always going to be sensitive about respecting the customer’s boundaries,” said spokesman Colin Johnson.

No Choice
Others say profiling customers raises legal and ethical issues. U.S. and European Union regulations permit the use of cameras for security purposes, though retailers need to put up signs in their stores warning customers they may be filmed. Watching people solely for commercial gain may break the rules and could be viewed as gathering personal data without consent, says Christopher Mesnooh, a partner at law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse in Paris.

“If you go on Facebook, before you start the registration process, you can see exactly what information they are going to collect and what they’re going to do with it,” said Mesnooh. “If you’re walking into a store, where’s the choice?”

So far Almax hasn’t faced obstacles to selling the dummy, CEO Catanese said. Since the EyeSee doesn’t store any images, retailers can use it as long as they have a closed-circuit television license, he said.

Some clients have asked for the Eyesee to be rigged to recognize employees so they don’t muddy the picture of customer behavior. In those cases, workers have to agree to be filmed, says Catanese. That option may be extended to shoppers, where loyal spenders would be invited to opt-in in return for rewards, he said.

Not Deaf
“The retail community is starting to get wise to the opportunity around personalization,” said Lorna Hall, retail editor at fashion forecaster WGSN. “The golden ticket is getting to the point where they’ve got my details, they know what I bought last time I came in.”

To give the EyeSee ears as well as eyes, Almax is testing technology that recognizes words to allow retailers to eavesdrop on what shoppers say about the mannequin’s attire. Catanese says the company also plans to add screens next to the dummies to prompt customers about products relevant to their profile, much like cookies and pop-up ads on a website.

Too much sophistication could backfire, says Hall, because it’s a fine line between technology that helps and technology that irks.

A promotional prompt or a reminder about where to find women’s shoes “could become a digital version of a very pushy sales assistant,” she said. “And we all know how we feel about those.”

Popular posts from this blog

Kardashian LaChapelle Christmas card 2013

Kardashian LaChapelle Christmas card 2013, Kardashians leave no stones unturned in making their annual Christmas card as larger than life as possible, but for this Christmas, they might have gone a tad overboard as it cost $250,000 for their latest move of self-glorification; obviously the Kardashian Klan didn’t shell out a penny for it. You can see big hair and high fashion but the card shows no Lamar, Scott, Kanye or Rob. Kim Kardashian was more than excited to see the concept of the new card, as she mentioned trying new things was something that excited her the most. Before the shoot, the entire family was seen sitting around in their robes and jammies, discussing the previous Christmas holidays, presents and much, sipping their favorite champagne throughout the time. The Drama The off-beat or rather intricate Christmas card shows us the five sisters Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kylie Jenner and Kendall Jenner along with their parents Kris Jenner and Bruce Jenner. They are seen in...

Ugly bridesmaid dresses

Ugly Bridesmaid Dresses Ugly bridesmaid dresses - All brides are beautiful, and all bridesmaid dresses are ugly, unless it’s Pippa’s. But some bridesmaid dresses go beyond ugly to truly hideous. Those Ugly bridesmaid dresses look like they came from the closet of my high school’s drama department. You know, the crappy, shapeless costumes that have seemingly been there since 1972? That’s what these dresses remind me of. Like a one-size-fits-all kind of thing. I’m glad they’re wearing such big smiles on their faces, because it shows that they don’t care about stupid, shallow things like that. They’re just happy for their newly wedded friend. Impressive.

'Star Trek' Actress Grace Lee Whitney Dies at 85

'Star Trek' Actress Grace Lee Whitney Dies at 85, Grace Lee Whitney, the on-screen character who played Yeoman Janice Rand on the first Star Trek, passed away Friday. She was 85. Every USA Today, child Jonathan Dweck said the star passed on of common reasons at her home in Central California. Whitney depicted Captain Kirk's collaborator for eight scenes of the first 1966 TV arrangement before she was composed out of the script. At the point when Star Trek was renewed as a motion picture establishment in 1979, the performing artist returned as a boss frivolous officer in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Her last appearance as Rand was in 1991's Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country. William Shatner, who played Whitney's onscreen manager, tweeted Monday: "Sympathies to the group of Grace. She was a consistent sparkling grin throughout the years each time our ways crossed." Every NBC News, Whitney was a customary at Star Trek traditions around the glob...