Amazon Launches Physical Retail Store Analytics

In an effort to improve the in-store shopping experience, Amazon has launched its Store Analytics service to provides brands with aggregated and anonymized insights about the performance of their products, promotions and ad campaigns at Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores in the United States with either Just Walk Out technology or Amazon Dash Carts.

With Store Analytics, brands will have access to details on how their products are discovered, considered and purchased in applicable stores to help them make decisions related to selection, promotions and ad campaigns. Through the secure Store Analytics dashboard, brands can access aggregated and anonymized data that includes averages, percentages and rankings on their product performance. Additionally, advertisers running in-store campaigns such as digital signage will see associated performance metrics in their ad campaign reports. These data-driven Store Analytics insights allow brands to better understand the path to purchase for their products, helping them to evolve and refine their assortment, merchandising and advertising over time.

At this time, Amazon doesn’t have plans to allow brands to target ads based on Store Analytics data.

Gathered insights from Store Analytics will also help stores continuously improve the shopper experience by making the store layout easier for shoppers to find their favorite items and discover new ones, improving selection and availability of products, and delivering value through relevant promotions and advertising.

For shoppers worried about privacy issues, Amazon said that Store Analytics won’t share any data that can be linked back to an individual shopper. Instead, the service will provide only aggregated and anonymized data to brands. Store Analytics will offer only totals, averages and percentages about product, promotion and ad campaign performance — for example, the percentage of how often a product was taken off the shelf and then purchased either during that store visit or later on Amazon.com.

The data that brands receive from Store Analytics will never include details such as shoppers’ names, individual browsing data, or individual session details like the time of day they shopped or the store at which they shopped. Additionally, no video or images of shoppers will be shared with brands as part of the service.

Shoppers can opt out of sharing their data with Store Analytics by following instructions on the Store Analytics website. Notice of the opt-out is included on in-store signage and in email receipts from Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores when shoppers use Just Walk Out or Amazon Dash Carts to check out.

Amazon’s Store Analytics offering comes at a time when in-store shopping is again on the rise among Millennials, high-income consumers, urbanites and parents, as reported by Morning Consult.

“Walking through the store gives shoppers the chance to browse end caps, displays and other sources of inspiration that enable real-time meal planning using on-sale items,” wrote Emily Moquin, food and beverage analyst at Washington, D.C.-based Morning Consult. “Even if there are no fees for online orders, shoppers may feel like they can get better deals and save more by shopping in-store.”

Seattle-based Amazon is No. 2 on The PG 100, Progressive Grocer’s 2022 list of the top food and consumables retailers in North America.