Amazon offers CPG brands in-store performance measurement

Amazon aims to give consumer packaged goods (CPG) brands a sharper picture of how their products perform in its brick-and-mortar stores.

Seattle-based Amazon said Wednesday it has launched Store Analytics, a new marketing measurement service that provides brands with data-driven insights about their products, promotions and ad campaigns in Amazon Fresh supermarkets and Amazon Go convenience stores. The platform works with stores offering Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology or the Amazon Dash Cart “smart” shopping cart, both of which tally customers’ selections as they shop and enable them to complete their purchase without having to wait on the checkout line.

Amazon noted that the aggregated and anonymized data collected by Store Analytics will help its stores optimize their layout, making it easier for shoppers to find their favorite items and discover new ones, as well as improve product selection and availability of products and make promotions and advertising more relevant.

“Our physical retail and technology team has spent the past several years removing friction from in-store shopping experiences. We began by helping shoppers skip checkout lines with Just Walk Out technology and then made a quick grocery trip even quicker with the Amazon Dash Cart. These technologies transformed the in-store shopping experience at stores such as Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh,” Amazon said in a statement. “Now we’re excited to introduce a new analytics service built by our physical retail and technology team to continue evolving the in-store shopping experience.”

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The Store Analytics service works with stores offering Amazon’s Just Walk Out technology or the Amazon Dash Cart 'smart' shopping cart.

With Store Analytics, brands will have access to details on how their products are discovered, considered and purchased in applicable stores, assisting them with decisions on selection, promotions and ad campaigns, according to Amazon. The Store Analytics dashboard allows brands to see data about how their products rank and perform, and advertisers running in-store campaigns like digital signage can 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,” Amazon explained.

The Store Analytics platform will provide brands with only aggregated and anonymized data, meaning the data is presented as a grouping and doesn’t contain any personal details, Amazon emphasized. Brands will see only totals, averages and percentages about product, promotion and ad campaign performance, such as the percentage of how often their product was taken off the shelf and then purchased during a store visit or later on Amazon.com, the company said.

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“We know that shoppers care about how their information is used and shared, so we’ve put a lot of thought into how we can make this service useful for brands while continuing to protect shoppers' privacy,” Amazon stated in the Store Analytics announcement. “We never share personal information about shoppers, so the data brands receive will never include details such as their name, individual browsing data, or individual session details like the time of day they shopped or the store at which they shopped. Further, no video or images of shoppers will be shared with brands as part of this service.”

Customers can opt out of Store Analytics by visiting the Store Analytics website, where they can change their preference to exclude their shopping data. Amazon said those who opt out can still use Just Walk Out and Amazon Dash Carts in Amazon Go and Amazon Fresh stores, but data won’t be retained or used by Store Analytics or related ad measurement going forward.

Brick-and-mortar sales at Amazon come mainly from its Whole Foods Market subsidiary, which the company didn’t mention as a Store Analytics venue. Currently, Amazon’s U.S. physical stores include 515 Whole Foods specialty supermarkets, 34 Amazon Fresh grocery stores and 26 Amazon Go convenience stores.