This SF Tech Company Will Help Stores Stalk Shoppers

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Your online shopping habits are a goldmine of knowledge for retailers, but so are your actual footsteps into and around stores. Thanks to the ongoing development of geolocation, brick-and-mortar stores can discover nearly the same details about shoppers as an e-commerce site knows through user clicks and cookies. It all works through sensors set up around a shop that pick up pings from mobile phones. SF-based startup Bay Sensors is one company that can track customers' movements around a store—forging ahead into a relatively new field for retail analytics. Apple's iBeacon also functions in a similar manner and sends shoppers special offers based on location. The concept can be mutually beneficial from an inventory planning perspective, but it will be interesting to see if customers are willing to trade privacy for a more intuitive shopping experience.
· Geolocation is Changing the Retail Business Model Yet Again [Insead]
· Amazon Is Opening a Pop-Up Store in Westfield Centre Next Week [Racked SF]