System and method for monitoring retail store performance

• US 8,170,909 B2
• Filed: 11/10/2009
• Issued: 05/01/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 11/03/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Target Brands Inc. (Target Corporation)
• Inventors: Brown, Robert Kruger, McDonald, Gregory Allen, Slettedahl, Caroline Louise, Foster, Robert Francis, Post, Richard Scott
• Primary Examiner(s): Jasmin, Lynda
• Assistant Examiner(s): Koneru, Sujay
• Application Number:
  US12/616,078
• Publication Number:
  US 20100131340A1
• Time in Patent Office: 903 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 705/7.42
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063 Operations research, analysis or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06311 Scheduling, planning or task assignment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063116 Schedule adjustment for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063118 Staff planning in a project environment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06312 Adjustment or analysis of established resource schedule, e.g. resource or task levelling, or dynamic rescheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06315 Needs-based resource requirements planning or analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06398 Performance of employee with respect to a job function
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/02 Marketing; Price estimation or determination; Fundraising
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0205 Location or geographical consideration

Abstract

A system for monitoring the performance of at least one task associated with operation of a retail store. The system includes at least one monitoring device positioned and adapted to provide images of at least one location within the retail store, with each image showing at least one factor related to performance of the at least one task. A controller is adapted to obtain and store images from the at least one monitoring device. An interface is adapted to enable a user to selectively view stored images and to manually analyze the at least one factor shown in the viewed images to evaluate the performance of the at least one task.

Claims

1. A method for actively monitoring activities in a retail store enterprise, the method comprising:

capturing, with a plurality of image capture devices positioned at a first plurality of positions at a first retail store location, a first plurality of images reflecting activities occurring at the first retail store location, wherein the first plurality of positions include at least customer checkout lanes, a customer service desk and a receiving area of the first retail store location;

capturing, with a plurality of image capture devices positioned at a second plurality of positions at a second retail store location, a second plurality of images reflecting activities occurring at the second enterprise location, wherein the second plurality of positions include at least customer checkout lanes, a customer service desk and a receiving area of the second retail store location;

associating each of the images with a unique identifier comprising time, position and location data;

receiving user access credentials and selectively presenting, at a terminal positioned at a location remote from said first and second retail store locations, a user interface including a first region and a second region based on permissions associated with the credentials, the first region including an array of input areas each associated with at least a time and at least one of the first or second pluralities of positions, the second region including an output area to display an image;

receiving user input selecting a location and one of the input areas;

simultaneously displaying i) in the second region, in response to the user input, one or more output images associated with the selected location and the time and the at least one position associated with the selected input area, and ii) in the first region, the array of input areas, the output images showing at least one factor relating to employee performance of at least one task associated with operation of the first or second retail store;

analyzing the at least one factor and evaluating the employee performance of the at least one task, the at least one factor including one of a number of employees and an amount of unloading time required when unloading an incoming shipment received at the receiving area, a number of customers in the customer checkout lanes, a length of time customers wait before being served, and a number of customers at the customer service desk; and

adjusting the employee performance of the at least one task based on the step of analyzing the at least one factor, the adjusting being practiced at least by adjusting staffing requirements at a corresponding one of the first or second plurality of positions, the adjusting comprising adjusting a number of cashiers on duty at a specific time of day based on the number of customers in the customer checkout lanes at said specific time of day or based on the length of time customers wait before being served at said specific time of day.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the location remote from said first and second retail store locations comprises an enterprise headquarters.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

presenting, at a terminal positioned at the first retail store location, a user interface including said first region and said second region;

receiving user input selecting one of the input areas; and

simultaneously displaying in the user interface located at the first retail store location i) in the second region, in response to the user input, one or more output images associated with the time and position associated with the selected input area, and ii) in the first region, the array of input areas.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface further includes a third region that includes one or more user selection input areas to receive input selecting a date and a retail store location.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein said one or more user selection input areas are displayed simultaneously with the output image and the array of input areas.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, at the remote location, user credentials and authenticating said credentials to determine the images to which a user has access.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining permissions to retrieve and view stored images based on the retail store location from which access is initiated.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the displayed images are frames of video.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the user interface comprises a secure website.

10. An enterprise monitoring system comprising:

video monitoring devices located at a plurality of locations within each of a plurality of retail stores in a retail enterprise, at least some of the locations having fields of view covering areas in which retail point of sale activity occurs, the plurality of locations including at least customer checkout lanes, a customer service desk and a receiving area;

a local video management system at a first retail store operatively coupled to the respective video monitoring devices, wherein the local video management system transmits video for storage at predetermined time intervals;

a local display device at the first retail store operatively coupled to the local video management system, wherein the local display device selectively displays video based on access credentials for a local user of the local video management system and wherein the display device presents a user interface that simultaneously displays a collection of user selectable input regions associated with a plurality of different times and locations and a video area to display one or more frames of a video associated with a selected input region; and

an enterprise video management system remote from and communicatively coupled to the local video management system, wherein the enterprise video management system receives users'"'"' access credentials and selectively displays the one or more video frames from one or more of the plurality of retail stores based on permissions associated with the credentials, the one or more video frames showing at least one factor relating to employee performance of at least one task associated with operation of the plurality of retail stores, and each of the plurality of retail stores being identified by a unique identification number,

wherein the enterprise video management system locally presents a user interface that simultaneously includes a collection of user selectable input regions associated with a plurality of different times and locations and a video area to display one or more frames of a video associated with a selected input region, wherein each of the user selectable input regions is associated with one of a plurality of predefined time periods, and wherein each of the predefined time periods is associated with a plurality of video frames over time intervals within the respective time period,

the enterprise video management system enabling an analysis of the at least one factor and evaluating the employee performance of the at least one task, the at least one factor including one of a number of employees and an amount of unloading time required when unloading an incoming shipment received at the receiving area, a number of customers in the customer checkout lanes, a length of time customers wait before being served, and a number of customers at the customer service desk, and the enterprise video management system further enabling adjustment of the employee performance of the at least one task based on the analysis, the adjusting comprising adjusting staffing requirements at a corresponding one of the plurality of locations, and the adjusting comprising adjusting a number of cashiers on duty at a specific time of day based on the number of customers in the customer checkout lanes at said specific time of day or based on the length of time customers wait before being served at said specific time of day.

11. The system of claim 10, further comprising a local video management system at a second retail store and a local display device at the second retail store that selectively displays video based on access credentials of a local user, wherein the display device at the second retail store presents a user interface that simultaneously includes a collection of user selectable input regions associated with a plurality of different times and locations and a video area to display one or more frames of a video associated with a selected input region.

12. The system of claim 10, wherein each of the input regions comprises an icon that is uniquely associated with video taken at a predetermined time at a particular location within a given retail store.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the display presents video in response to a user'"'"'s selection of an icon.

14. The system of claim 10, wherein the video captured by the video monitoring devices is stored at a central repository communicatively coupled to the enterprise video management system.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein frames of video accessed for display at the user interface at the first retail store are transmitted from the central repository under the control of the enterprise video management system.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein access permissions for a user are determined based on enterprise level credentials.

17. The system of claim 11, wherein access for users at the first and second retail stores is restricted to video taken at the respective stores.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein access for users at the enterprise video management system includes substantially all stores in the retail enterprise.

19. The system of claim 10, wherein the video monitoring devices capture still images at predetermined intervals.