RFID + AI-Based Visitor Analytics Will Transform the Future of Physical Retail.

Physical retail is standing at the center of a major technological shift. RFID and AI-based visitor analytics are advancing at unprecedented speed. Yet few players have managed to combine product data and customer data into one unified ecosystem.

BizLab argues that the industry has now reached an inflection point where this combination is not only possible, but essential to strengthen efficiency, conversion, and profitability in stores. “RFID tells you what your products are doing — BizLab’s technology tells you what your visitors are doing,” says Michael Lemner, board member of BizLab with long international retail experience from H&M, Bally and New Look and more.

“Retail has been missing the holistic view that ecommerce has mastered for over a decade. RFID shows how products move: what is handled, tried on, misplaced, or purchased. BizLab’s technology starts from the store visitors. Who they are, how long they stay, and how they react to different messages. When you connect these two worlds you get the full picture,” continues Michael, who believes this represents one of the largest untapped value pools in retail: the ability to see both the consumer and the product simultaneously.

BizLab’s CEO Magnus Hansson adds:
“This is a gamechanger for both visitor analytics and in-store retail media. When you know who is in the store, how long they stay, what they look at, and which products they interact with, you can optimize everything — store layouts, staffing, assortment, campaigns. But you can also create a completely new dimension of retail media where the messages on digital screens adapt to the people standing in front of them. Retailers can finally sell audiences instead of share of voice.”

Michael emphasizes the need for consolidation:
“Retail doesn’t need more systems — it needs a new ecosystem.”
A major challenge is that retailers often work with siloed tools: one for inventory, one for in-store communication, one for RFID, one for analytics.

“Only when systems talk to each other does the real potential emerge. RFID and BizLab’s technology are two halves of the same brain. Physical retail has never had this possibility before — now we can see both the customer and the product in the same frame, and finally make decisions based on real behavior.”

BizLab is therefore actively seeking partnerships with RFID vendors, retail consultants, and retail chains to explore pilot projects and further develop data-driven stores.

“This is the biggest data opportunity in physical retail since self-scanning. Retailers who combine RFID to understand products with AI-based visitor insights to understand consumers will be miles ahead of everyone else,” concludes Magnus Hansson.