Cosmetic company invests in emotion-reading checkouts

The Minority-Report​–like devices will be launched in stores this July and can be used to collate databases of information about consumers. This can be combined with other sources of data including purchase records and loyalty cards.

The combination of real-time analytics and stored information will then be used to fire targeted adverts and discounts to consumers, sometimes via SMS messages as soon as they leave the store.

The facial recognition technology can detect attributes like age, race and gender and is roughly 85 per cent accurate, according to Synqera. It can also incorporate external data like weather conditions.

Synqera COO Filipp Shubin said: “If someone looks at a certain cosmetic product and is smiling, we can detect that they are enjoying that particular product and send them a personal recommendation or coupons for it.”​

“We can do data analysis to sort through the information about customers, which not very many companies are doing at the moment.”​

“It will allow us to create personalized communications for each customer and send them special offers. It will also provide some statistics on customers and on how effective advertisements are.”​

Strategy​

In an interview with Fast Company​, Shubin said that part of the project’s goal was to: “make the consumer experience more compelling than shopping online.”​

Because of competition from online shopping, Ulybka Radugi and Synqera intend to create a face-to-face purchasing experience which has features which cannot be duplicated over the internet.

Facial recognition​

Japanese, Russian and Chinese chains have been ahead of the game when it comes to facial recognition technology, with many of the most up-to-date facial recognition devices being developed in Asia or Eurasia.

However, US-based companies such as RetailNext and Euclid Inc are already using security camera data and mobile phone signals to analyze consumers’ patterns of movement in retail stores.