Business Channel 2006-12-02&04

Smile, you're on consumer behavior camera. No surprise that you'll likely be videotaped while holiday shopping, but it's not all for security. Some of it is for market research. Retailers² are tracking you to learn how you shop.

"Where people, shoppers, are spending time? What is grabbing their attention? Are they having to wait too, too long for customer service at different points?"

Consumer behavior analysis, it's part observation, part science, part technology and a bit of psychology³. Rajeev Sharma's software turns images of customers working their way through stores into hard data, allowing retailers to take fast action if things aren't working out.

"You can move around the merchandise to position of products so that it, it, it creates the right sequence, and right products in front of the right people in the right time."

With the holiday shopping crunch⁴, retailers know their customers have short fuses, and crowd hassles don't help.

"And you can create this kind of maps, the hot spots and the cold spots. These are extremely important because there's no number. By just looking at this, this color-coded map, you can see which portion of this store is receiving more attention."

And that helps retailers decide where to place display units.

"After browsing⁵, decided⁶ to interact with it, as in read labels or, or, or you know, experience it more. And finally, of course, what every product and retailer¹, er, the product manufacturer and retailer want you to drop it into your basket."

But it's not all creative marketing⁷; traffic jams at checkout⁸ are often the biggest problem.

"What this shows is a, is a line-forming, and something that you are very familiar with in this, this season."

Best Buy is using its own research to try to shorten those lines.

"We now deploy⁹ a queuing system in our stores, where all customers, they wait in a queue, and we have somebody there directing traffic, so you don't get caught in the wrong line, which drives people crazy."

Ali Velshi, CNN, New York.


a short fuse
if someone has a short fuse, they get angry very easily
You may find your temper on a short fuse when confronting your child or teenager for the umpteenth time

1 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

2 retailers   

零售商，零售店( retailer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• High street retailers reported a marked increase in sales before Christmas. 商业街的零售商报告说圣诞节前销售量显著提高。
• Retailers have a statutory duty to provide goods suitable for their purpose. 零售商有为他们提供符合要求的货品的法定义务。

3 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

4 crunch   

n.关键时刻；艰难局面；v.发出碎裂声

参考例句：

• If it comes to the crunch they'll support us.关键时刻他们是会支持我们的。
• People who crunch nuts at the movies can be very annoying.看电影时嘎吱作声地嚼干果的人会使人十分讨厌。

5 browsing   

v.吃草( browse的现在分词 )；随意翻阅；（在商店里）随便看看；（在计算机上）浏览信息

参考例句：

• He sits browsing over[through] a book. 他坐着翻阅书籍。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Cattle is browsing in the field. 牛正在田里吃草。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

7 marketing   

n.行销，在市场的买卖，买东西

参考例句：

• They are developing marketing network.他们正在发展销售网络。
• He often goes marketing.他经常去市场做生意。

8 checkout   

n.（超市等）收银台，付款处

参考例句：

• Could you pay at the checkout.你能在结帐处付款吗。
• A man was wheeling his shopping trolley to the checkout.一个男人正推着购物车向付款台走去。

9 deploy   

v.（军）散开成战斗队形，布置，展开

参考例句：

• The infantry began to deploy at dawn.步兵黎明时开始进入战斗位置。
• The president said he had no intention of deploying ground troops.总统称并不打算部署地面部队。