New Technology will Gauge Shoppers’ Emotions

TNS Magasin is combining its eye tracking technology, which records what shoppers are looking at in-store, with technology that will help understand what is going on in their minds as well.

The new technique uses EEG (electroencephalography), which measures the brain’s electrical activity via electrodes placed on the scalp. Combined with respiration, heart rate, temperature and head motion measurements, this captures shoppers’ emotional and cognitive responses.

It is being used in conjunction with TNS Magasin’s own eye tracking technology with the aim of providing unparalleled shopper insight.

TNS Magasin reports it has just completed a project with an undisclosed blue chip retailer and claims the results reveal the power of this approach and the potential of bio-sensory research.

TNS Magasin’s eye tracking enables every single eye fixation of every individual shopper to be recorded and analysed.

A fixation is defined as 3/25th of a second or the point at which the brain registers a piece of information.

According to TNS Magasin, instead of just recording what was in front of shoppers, it measures precisely what attracts them and at what stage in the decision-making process.

Siemon Scamell-Katz, founder of TNS Magasin, said: “The combination of these two powerful methodologies is fundamentally challenging many received ideas about in-store decision-making.

“At last we are able to gain insight into responses to the visual stimuli that the shopper actually looks at, as well as prefrontal cortex responses. This enables us to gauge the relative roles of emotion and cognition at each and every stage of the shopping journey to understand, literally, what is going on in shoppers’ minds.”

Scamell-Katz said the technology has fundamental ramifications for marketing and new product development.

“Brands really need to go back to basics and redefine what they are trying to achieve in the light of what is nothing less than a whole new dimension of knowledge about their customers,” he said.

Scamell-Katz: understanding shoppers’ minds