Mobile location analytics (MLA) is a type of customer intelligence and refers to technology for

retailer Retail is the sale of goods and services to consumers, in contrast to wholesaling, which is sale to business or institutional customers. A retailer purchases goods in large quantities from manufacturers, directly or through a wholesaler, and t ...

s, including developing aggregate reports used to reduce waiting times at checkouts, improving store layouts, and understanding consumer shopping patterns. The reports are generated by recognizing the

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

Bluetooth Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...

addresses of cell phones as they interact with store networks. By seeing the movement of devices, retailers can gather data that will help them optimize such things as floor plan layouts, advertisement placement and checkout lane staffing. MLA products work by capturing a device's

MAC address A media access control address (MAC address) is a unique identifier assigned to a network interface controller (NIC) for use as a network address in communications within a network segment. This use is common in most IEEE 802 networking techno ...

, the unique 12-digit number that is assigned to a specific hardware device. This number can be detected by Wi-Fi or Bluetooth sensors. There are separate MAC addresses for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Beacons are also used for MLA purposes and they work with Bluetooth. Through this technology, they are also able to send push notifications. Recently companies started using the combination of Wi-Fi and Bluetooth to improve accuracy and reliability of the MLA devices. The technology works as people walk through stores; the tracking companies find their wireless signal and assign the device a random number. They monitor that number as it moves across the screen and analyze patterns in the data.

Characteristics

Because of the use of the automatically transmitted MAC address, the customers need not be logged into the shops' Wi-Fi or website. This feature is highlighted in the alternative term "offline tracking" (as opposed to online tracking) that is sometimes used for "MLA" e.g. in Germany.

Uses

A number of industries can benefit from MLA services including retail,

real estate Real estate is property consisting of land and the buildings on it, along with its natural resources such as crops, minerals or water; immovable property of this nature; an interest vested in this (also) an item of real property, (more general ...

energy In physics, energy (from Ancient Greek: ἐνέργεια, ''enérgeia'', “activity”) is the quantitative property that is transferred to a body or to a physical system, recognizable in the performance of work and in the form of heat a ...

insurance Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to hedge ...

, manufacturing,

healthcare Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

, government, planning, and public safety. For example, retail businesses can compare

sales revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive revenue ...

and evaluate marketing campaign effectiveness. Businesses can determine where to open stores and distribute their products. MLA is also beneficial for emergency cases. Hospitals can determine demand for new vaccines or make sense of sudden disease outbreaks. This is possible because every information system, desktop solution, or

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...

can take advantage of the location. The physical stores have tools to collect data on their shoppers by monitoring their movement and their pauses.

Video monitoring Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly t ...

can provide up to 10,000 data points per store visitor. This allows stores to develop heat maps so they can put the items they want to sell in high traffic areas. If a

mobile device A mobile device (or handheld computer) is a computer small enough to hold and operate in the hand. Mobile devices typically have a flat LCD or OLED screen, a touchscreen interface, and digital or physical buttons. They may also have a physical ...

is stolen by theft, this can be found by police by

tracing Tracing may refer to: Computer graphics * Image tracing, digital image processing to convert raster graphics into vector graphics * Path tracing, a method of rendering images of three-dimensional scenes such that the global illumination is faithf ...

the mobile number.

In-store analytics

According to a study,

brick-and-mortar Brick and mortar (also bricks and mortar or B&M) refers to a physical presence of an organization or business in a building or other structure. The term ''brick-and-mortar business'' is often used to refer to a company that possesses or leases r ...

s accounts for 93% of sales. Therefore, the retail store remains a critical focus. In-store analytics has become more like

online store Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce which allows consumers to directly buy goods or services from a seller over the Internet using a web browser or a mobile app. Consumers find a product of interest by visiting the website of the r ...

analytics Analytics is the systematic computational analysis of data or statistics. It is used for the discovery, interpretation, and communication of meaningful patterns in data. It also entails applying data patterns toward effective decision-making. It ...

. Using MLA, stores can see where shoppers go and where they linger, detect whether they are shopping alone or with friends or children, and match shopping to weather. One company with small stores located in malls found that the space just inside the entry was a dead zone, so they moved the popular items further inside the store. Another store couldn’t tell which display sold more effectively because they had duplicate inventory. They were about to remove the wall displays when they decided to check traffic with a Mobile Location Analytics company. After creating a heat map, they made the floor displays smaller and easier for customers to walk through to reach the wall displays. The stores want analytics to see if the displays erected at the end of aisles eat away the sales of the same item stacked halfway down the aisle or if they contribute to additional sales. MLA-based counts can help ensure stores are staffed appropriately for the traffic at all times of the day. It helps businesses make correlations between transaction data and traffic.

Privacy concerns

The privacy agreement comes at a time when brick-and-mortar retailers are eager to have access to the kind of information about consumer behavior that can match Web retailers like Amazon. The move also reflects how industry is responding to public concern over the

collection Collection or Collections may refer to: * Cash collection, the function of an accounts receivable department * Collection (church), money donated by the congregation during a church service * Collection agency, agency to collect cash * Collectio ...

personal data Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person. The abbreviation PII is widely accepted in the United States, but the phrase it abbreviates ha ...

. As companies increasingly use data in more robust ways such as targeting

online ad Online advertising, also known as online marketing, Internet advertising, digital advertising or web advertising, is a form of marketing and advertising which uses the Internet to promote products and services to audiences and platform users. ...

s or

tracking Tracking may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Tracking, in computer graphics, in match moving (insertion of graphics into footage) * Tracking, composing music with music tracker software * Eye tracking, measuring the position of t ...

physical location, they are realizing the need to give users more control over how data is used. Although products dealing with mobile location analytics do not record

personally identifiable information Personal data, also known as personal information or personally identifiable information (PII), is any information related to an identifiable person. The abbreviation PII is widely accepted in the United States, but the phrase it abbreviates ha ...

about specific customers, they have generated concerns about

customer data Customer data or consumer data refers to all personal, Behaviorism, behavioural, and demographic data that is collected by marketing companies and departments from their customer base. To some extent, data collection from customers intrudes into c ...

integration and consumer privacy. Several MLA companies have worked with United States Senator, Charles Schemer and the

Future of Privacy Forum The Future of Privacy Forum is a Washington DC based think tank and advocacy group focused on issues of data privacy. It is jointly supported by corporate sponsors and foundations. Corporate members include AT&T, Comcast, Facebook, Google, Inteli ...

to develop a smart phone tracking code of conduct. Under the voluntary code of conduct, MLA vendors and retailers will inform customers when they are being tracked and allow individual customers to opt out.

Problems reusing Wi-Fi access points

Nowadays most Wi-Fi router or

wireless access point In computer networking, a wireless access point (WAP), or more generally just access point (AP), is a networking hardware device that allows other Wi-Fi devices to connect to a wired network. As a standalone device, the AP may have a wired co ...

vendors provide an API for listening the device's MAC address of the signals to identify smartphones, this is the base of solution vendors of Wi-Fi tracking and

systems, but almost all new smartphones emit more than one MAC address when they are not connected to the Wi-Fi. An iPhone can produce a lot of different and/or false MAC addresses when visit a venue during 30–40 minutes, because every time you touch the screen and awake from

sleep mode Sleep mode (or suspend to RAM) is a low power mode for electronic devices such as computers, televisions, and remote controlled devices. These modes save significantly on electrical consumption compared to leaving a device fully on and, upon resu ...

the MAC address changes. Wi-Fi tracking solution vendors are dealing with data based on these false MAC addresses if they try to detect not associated devices, and only if the smartphone connects to the Wi-Fi access point to have free internet access (then it is associated) they can detected the true MAC address of the iPhone. But few customers use the free internet service - in general less than 10-20%.

References

External links

* * {{cite web , title=The Internet of Things - An introduction to privacy issues with a focus on the retail and home environments , website=Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada , date=2016-02-17 , url=https://www.priv.gc.ca/en/opc-actions-and-decisions/research/explore-privacy-research/2016/iot_201602/ , ref={{sfnref , Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada , 2016 , access-date=2019-06-24 Analytics Indoor positioning system