Verint tailors video analysis software for retailers

Verint Systems Inc., a Melville-based video analytics software maker, has adapted its technology for the retail store marketplace.

Using video feeds from store surveillance cameras, Verint's software will analyze customer traffic, cash register lines and waiting times, patterns of shoppers' movements through the aisles, and other visual data. It can help create highly accurate shopper volume measurements and compute customer waiting time at the register -- allowing schedulers to improve staffing decisions, Verint says.

Verint's global marketing chief for the software, Debjit Das, said the company used its video analytics expertise, which are in wide use in other corporate and commercial settings, and applied them to the consumer shopping model. Verint's goal, he said, is "provide retail organizations with simple, relevant and actionable business metrics that are otherwise hard to obtain real data on."

The software can network the video analysis, linking individual retail outlets with corporate headquarters for executive decision-making.

The software, which channels visuals and analysis on Internet Protocol networks, is titled Nextiva Video Business Intelligence.

It is "designed to help forward-thinking retail organizations capture and analyze shopper movement patterns to increase conversion rates and improve operational efficiency," Verint said in a Monday news release.

The Nextiva software suite includes focused functions such as Retail Traffic Analytics, People Counting and Queue Management.

The Verint system used video "extracted from existing surveillance cameras to provide accurate and holistic data about customer behavior patterns" which it then serves up with "real-time metrics and advanced, user-friendly dashboards that can drive further enhanced business value in retail environments."