Radar Launches New Competencies For Brick-And-Morter Retailers

Radar is expanding its Radar + platform with AI merchandising and
analytics tools that can transform stores into real-time data engines, according to Spencer Hewett, founder and CEO of Radar. “New AI capabilities reveal what shoppers touch, try and consider, giving retail executives and store teams real-time intelligence to act faster, prevent lost sales and improve conversion,” he said.

Hewett, who launched the company in 2013, said Radar’s new tools, such as Fitting Room Intelligence, Floor Set IQ, and Real-Time Availability Analytics, build on Radar’s continuous sensing technology, to transform physical stores into places retailers can measure and manage with precision.

Viewed together, these capabilities can help retailers understand not only what sells, but what customers want to buy and consider, unlocking a deeper view of the factors that shape in-store conversion.

Hewett said the quality of data retailers capture, depends on their inventory accuracy. “If you have poor data, you’re in a garbage in-garbage-out situation where you’re feeding bad data into an AI that’s making bad decisions,” he said. “You don’t know if one item was tried on 100,000 times, while another item only converted 10,000 times and another item might have been tried on 10,000 times and converted 5,000 times. Conversion is really important data that we’re able to provide.”

Radar can help retailers make better decisions about what they should focus on. FIT IQ surfaces high-intent shopping moments by analyzing what customers bring into the fitting room and how those try-on sessions convert. By identifying size-trial patterns, substitutes and cross-category pairings, FIT IQ helps associates anticipate shopper needs and bring items to the fitting room to increase average basket size and conversion. The same data also guides merchandising teams on size curves, assortment decisions and product placement.

“Associates can see signals in real time and they can step in at exactly the right moment, bringing a size to the fitting room or fulfilling an omni-channel order,” Hewett explained. Radar + helps store teams act quickly on replenishment, misplaced items and recovery opportunities.”

*Radar has the ability to generate, for example, a merchandising floor plan that will optimize a floor plan that will in turn optimize conversion in a particular store at a particular time. Floor Set IQ uses shopper movement and interaction data to generate layout recommendations that reflect how customers naturally browse and buy.

“Floor Set IQ identifies when products compete or complement each other, highlights intuitive multi-category groupings, and visualizes both current and optimized layouts through an interactive 3D map, helping retailers design store flows that improve discovery and boost conversion,” Hewett said.

Hewett said 80% of all sales in the U.S. still happen in stores, despite the massive growth of e-commerce. Physical retailers can get a read on shoppers’ behavior and see signals as they’re happening.

“Associates can see signals in real time and they can step in at exactly the right moment, bringing a size to the fitting room or fulfilling an omni-channel order,” Hewett explained. Radar + helps store teams act quickly on replenishment, misplaced items and recovery opportunities.

Real-Time Availability Analytics delivers prioritized, 15-minute alerts that help store teams act quickly on replenishment, misplaced items and recovery opportunities. By combining behavioral signals with conversion likelihood, the platform leads teams to the actions most likely to prevent lost sales and ensure key items stay available where shoppers expect to find them.

Radar + uses RFID sensor technology to track and precisely locate in-store inventory with 99%-plus accuracy, Hewett said, adding that Radar+ is cost-effective because it primarily uses radio frequency. Radar’s sensors are used in over 1000 stores, including American Eagle and Old Navy, among others.

“For years, stores have been a blind spot and a data desert, compared to e-commerce,” Hewitt said. “Retailers could see what sold but not what happened before the sale. With these new resources, we’re giving store executives a clear and real-time view into the moments that shape demand.”

“I think they’re thrilled with this,” Ben Bryce, managing director and cofounder of Align Ventures, said of sales associates. “Over time with Radar +, there’s the possibility of rewarding sales associates based on their performance, and how quickly they’re replenishing.”

“Radar + is the first time you’re bringing e-ccomnmerce-level intelligence to the physical store,” added Bryce, noting that Align has invested in Radar. “It’s just a massive category. I saw it in the early days when Radar was in a lab, it was just one fixture on the ceiling and a TV screen, with two tables full of inventory. I spent many years running brands for retailers, and the implications of that was enormous, the breadth of these contracts.”

“The amount of products Radar + sees is staggering. “We have 75 billion tag reads per day. In the future, we’ll have an AI agent helping run a store,” Hewett said. “The consumer says the product is not where it’s supposed to be. The store team member gets the errant product and gives it to the consumer.”

“When you combine intelligence with prioritized task lists that guide teams to the actions each day that actually move the needle such as bringing the right size to a fitting room, restocking a bestseller before it runs out, you’re not just managing inventory more efficiently, you’re capturing sales that would otherwise walk out the door,” said Glenn Burwell, VP of product and customer experience at Radar. “When stores run this level of precision, you see the lift in higher conversion, fewer lost sales, and better customer experience at every touchpoint.”

Hewett said benefits for retailers of Radar +, include streamlined technology. “The foundation of everything is being able to measure the store in real time,” he said. “We obviously have a hardware and software platform. Once you get data, you feed it into AI.”

Hewett started the company after he got stuck in a line in a store. It was annoying enough that he wanted to create a system that would be able to locate items quickly and accurately and it would eliminate checkout lines for everybody. It was an 11-year passion project that drove him to build Radar. Early on, he was named a Thiel Fellow, and was a YCombinator participant.

“Radar + can help make a better decision about what should be actioned,” Hewett said. “ You can drive more intelligent store recommendations to associates. As AI gains traction, you will need real time data to feed it and get ROI out of it. Today, there’s no conversion metric for stores, just sales per SKU. We’re just scratching the surface.”