Shelving Unit Layout Impact Assessment via Visitor Behavior Visualization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Franchise stores with similar merchandise exhibit varying sales due to differences in location, staff, and shelving unit layouts, making it difficult to assess the impact of shelving unit layout on sales while controlling for other factors, leading to suboptimal business strategies and potential revenue drops.
Innovation Solution
A system that displays a store screen with shelving unit objects and overlays graphic items representing merchandising information, such as statistics on visitor actions, allowing for comprehensive analysis of shelving unit layout's influence on sales by visualizing visitor behavior and sales data.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Loss of information
If multiple factors (location, staff, shelving unit layout) are considered together to explain sales differences, then the analysis becomes more comprehensive, but it becomes very difficult to individually assess the influence of shelving unit layout while excluding other factors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and isolates the shelving unit layout factor from the complex mix of sales influencing factors. By using virtual reality technology to create a simulated store environment with only shelving unit layout variations, the system separates this specific variable from location, staff, and other confounding factors, enabling independent assessment of its impact on sales.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the physical store environment using VR technology. This virtual replica allows repeated experimentation with different shelving unit layouts without altering the actual store, enabling comprehensive analysis of layout effects while controlling for other factors through simulation.
2Productivity
If conventional franchise chain business strategies are used, then existing stores are left as they are without improvement plans, but this may result in a great drop in revenue due to increased number of low sales stores
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary analysis of shelving unit layout effects through VR simulation before implementing any changes in actual stores. By pre-testing different layout configurations in the virtual environment and identifying optimal layouts, the system enables proactive improvement of low-performing stores rather than reactive fixes after sales decline.
Solution Approach 2:
The system incorporates feedback loops where VR simulation results directly inform store improvement strategies. Sales data from actual stores feeds into the VR model, which then generates optimized layout recommendations, creating a continuous cycle of measurement, simulation, and improvement that maintains revenue stability.
Data Source
AI summary
An MD management device manages action statistics associated with each of a plurality of shelving units. Action statistics for one shelving unit indicate actions that store visitors make near the shelving unit. An information terminal device acquires, from the MD management device merchandising information for each shelving unit. Merchandising information for one shelving unit includes a value of statistics for the shelving unit. The information terminal device displays a store screen including one or more shelving unit icons each representing one of one or more shelving units located in a store. Further, the information terminal device displays a graphic item in the vicinity of each shelving unit icon. The graphic item is displayed in a display state that is in accordance with the value of statistics for the corresponding shelving unit.