A tour bus is depositing 50 or so passengers on the pavement next to the grands magasins — Paris’s fabled¹ department stores, Galeries Lafayette and Printemps.

一辆旅游大巴停在巴黎传奇的百货商场——老佛爷百货公司(Galeries Lafayette)和巴黎春天(Printemps)旁边，下来了大约50名乘客。

As they stream into the stores, any brand would love to know who they are and what makes them notice one product over another.

当他们鱼贯走入商场，所有品牌商家都会迫切地想知道，他们是什么人？他们为什么注意某款商品而不是其他？

A new batch² of French entrepreneurs is hoping to make that dream a reality for luxury houses.

一些法国企业家希望可以为奢侈品商家实现这一梦想。

Tech start-ups and luxury retail³ consultants⁵ say top brands across the luxury sector⁶ are quietly pushing to bring the advantages of the web into their retail stores.

科技创业企业和奢侈品零售顾问称，在奢侈品行业，各大顶级品牌正悄然将互联网的优点应用到零售店中。

Parisian grands magasins and flagship stores on the Champs-élysées have been testing smartphone frequency detectors⁷ and connected merchandising displays to experiment with collecting data from shoppers as soon as they approach their retail store — much like online retailers⁹ have for years used cookies planted in web browsers¹⁰.

巴黎的百货商场，还有香榭丽舍大道上的各家旗舰店，一直在试验智能手机频率检测装置以及联系式商品展示技术，从顾客走近商店时开始，在他们身上收集信息——就像在线零售商多年来使用植入浏览器的Cookie（小型文本文件）。

Such customer intelligence could be the key to understanding why a particular shopper gets back on the bus with a parcel from Gucci rather than Louis Vuitton, or vice¹¹ versa,

这类顾客信息很关键，有助于理解某个顾客回大巴时为什么拿着古驰(Gucci)包装袋，而不是路易威登(Louis Vuitton)的袋子，或者相反。

and gives brands an edge in a fiercely competitive luxury sector.

掌握了这类信息，品牌商家能在竞争激烈的奢侈品行业占据一个优势。

A lot of brands want to break down the barriers between their digital and physical presence, says Clémence Dehaene, co-founder of Retail & Digital 2.0, a start-up that integrates motion sensors¹², screens, and other high-tech¹³ elements in luxury retail displays.

许多品牌都想打破数字业务与实体业务之间的壁垒，Retail & Digital 2.0联合创始人克莱门丝.德阿纳(Clémence Dehaene)表示，这家创业企业将动作传感器、屏幕及其他高科技元素融入到奢侈品零售展示中。

The start-up’s interactive¹⁴ retail stands — which have been used for fragrances¹⁵ by Dior and Armani — use motion-activated screens to tell customers about the products they pick up.

该公司的交互式零售柜台(interactive retail stand)采用动作感应屏幕，向顾客介绍他们拿到的商品，动作传感器再将顾客与机器交互产生的信息反馈给商家。

Motion sensors feed data about the customers’ interaction back to the brand.

迪奥(Dior)和阿玛尼(Armani)已经采用了他们的柜台来展示香水。

Ms Dehaene says metrics like these could revolutionise the craft of merchandising, allowing retailers to modify ineffective displays without waiting to register a drop in sales.

德阿纳表示这些度量技术或许会彻底改变商品陈列技巧，零售商家不必等到销售下滑，就能够对没有效果的陈列进行改进。

If a brand manages to mix the efficiency of digital with the emotional aspect of a physical store then they have a real card to play, she says.

她说：如果一个品牌设法将数字化的效率与实体店铺的感性一面结合起来，那他们手上就有了一张好牌。

Another start-up, Retency, provides retailers with antennas¹⁶ that detect the unique frequencies of individual smartphones.

另一家创业型企业Retency向零售商供应能检测智能手机独特频率的天线。

The firm can use these antennas to track a customer’s movements through a retail store and even to identify them on future visits as soon as they walk through the door.

企业可以用这些天线来追踪顾客在零售店中的行动轨迹，甚至在他们下一次走进大门时识别他们。

One French leader in luxury leather goods recently used the technology to track all the people who passed their window display at one of Paris’s department stores.

法国某高档皮具品牌最近就在巴黎一家百货商场的门店采用了该技术，对所有从他们的橱窗前经过的人进行追踪。

The brand did not want to be named as it could be perceived by some shoppers as intruding¹⁷ on their privacy.

该品牌不想透露自己的名称，因为部分消费者可能会认为这侵犯了他们的隐私。

The smartphone frequency detectors enabled the brand to estimate the proportion of people who entered the department store after seeing the display, as well as how many ended up making a purchase from their brand’s point-of-sale.

利用手机频率检测器，该品牌可以估算看到他们的橱窗陈列后有几成顾客进了店，以及有多少人最终在这一销售网点买了东西。

Luxury brands have a lot of information about their clients — both through cookies gathered during online shopping and information collected at the register —

Retency联合创始人伊莎贝尔.博尔德里(sabelle Bordry)表示：（通过收集顾客在线购物时产生的Cookie，以及他们的注册信息）奢侈品牌能掌握客户的大量信息。

but don’t make the connection [between a shopper and their customer profile] until checkout¹⁸, says Isabelle Bordry, co-founder of Retency.

但在他们结账前，不要在购物者和客户档案之间建立联系。

It’s essential for physical retailers to have access to the same information as they would online.

对于实体零售商来说，像在网络上一样获得顾客信息是非常重要的。

Other companies can track visitors anonymously¹⁹ using the unique fingerprint²⁰ emitted by smartphones, but Ms Bordry’s retail ambitions go much further.

其他公司可以用智能手机发射的独特指纹对访客进行匿名跟踪，但博尔德里的目标远远不止于此。

Retency claims it can identify the smartphones of shoppers who make a purchase by cross-referencing sales records with the data from the smartphone frequency antennas.

Retency声称，凭借从智能手机频率天线获得的数据，依据交叉参照(cross-referencing)销售记录，其可识别购买了某件东西的顾客的手机。

But French regulations require authorisation from customers for brands to use this de-anonymised data.

但根据法国监管规定，品牌商家要获得消费者授权才能使用这些去匿名数据。

Ms Bordry says Retency is working with stores to get this permission included in the agreements for store loyalty²¹ programmes.

博尔德里表示，Retency正与一些百货商店合作，以获得这些商店的忠诚顾客计划相关协议中包含的此类许可。

For customers with a loyalty card, brands could know about shoppers’ presence as soon as their smartphone is detected in any of the brand’s stores.

对于持有会员卡的顾客，一旦他们的手机在一个品牌旗下任何门店被检测到，这个品牌就能立刻得知顾客光临了他们的店。

The technology gives brands feedback on their retail efforts, and helps them fine-tune promotions²² in real-time.

该技术能把营销举措的效果反馈给商家，并帮助他们及时调整促销活动。

Ms Bordry says large screens in stores could soon be programmed to match shoppers’ known preferences.

博尔德里表示店铺里的大屏幕可以被迅速编程，以符合购物者的已知偏好。

The screens could even adapt to the interests of first-time visitors to a store without identifying them, based on the time they spend in different departments or looking at a particular product (as tracked by Retency’s antennas).

根据消费者在不同区域花费的时间，或浏览某样商品的时间（利用Retency天线追踪），屏幕甚至可以在消费者初次进店时就迎合他们的兴趣，而无需识别他们。

The technology will be in stores by December, she says.

博尔德里表示该技术将于12月份投用到店铺中。

While such tools could improve the retail experience for customers as well as brands, the reluctance²³ of Retency’s luxury clients to be identified is telling,

虽然此类工具可以改善顾客和品牌的零售体验，但可以感到Retency的奢侈品客户不愿被识别出来。

given that the sector depends on discretion²⁴.

在这个行业关键要看客户心意。

Clients may be uncomfortable about such aggressive use of their personal data.

客户可能对个人信息遭到过度使用感到不舒服。

I don’t mind when a salesperson²⁵ contacts me personally from the stores where I’m a client, but that’s because I gave them my information, says Adrienne Joseph, a customer at the LVMH-owned department store Le Bon Marché.

LVMH旗下百货公司好商佳(Le Bon Marché)的顾客阿德里安娜.约瑟夫(Adrienne Joseph)表示：在商店里，作为顾客，我不介意销售人员与我直接接触，但这是因为是我自己给了他们我的信息。

But if a retailer⁸ were collecting data about her behaviour without her knowing it? I would really not like that, she says.

假如商家在她不知道的情况下收集有关她购买行为的信息呢？她说：说真的我不喜欢那样。

While she has accepted that online retailers may collect a lot of information about her, she says she would miss the feeling of anonymity²⁶ she has when she goes into a department store.

虽然她承认在线零售商可能会收集她的大量信息，但她表示，她会怀念逛商场时没人认识她的感觉。

The respect of privacy is a key aspect of the luxury business, says George-Edouard Dias,

欧莱雅(L’Oréal)前高管乔治-爱德华.迪亚斯(George-Edouard Dias)表示：尊重隐私是奢侈品行业的关键要素。

a former L’Oréal executive whose start-up, QuantStreams, works with luxury brands on managing data and customer relationships.

他的创业型企业QuantStreams致力于与奢侈品牌合作管理数据和客户关系。

If customers receive too many messages from a store, or the messages become too precisely²⁷ targeted, they may feel like a brand has been spying on them, he says.

他说如果顾客收到商家发送的太多信息，或者这些信息针对性过于准确，他们可能会觉得该品牌一直在监视他们。

Brands will also need to be careful not to misinterpret the information provided by new technologies.

各品牌还需注意不要误读通过新技术收集的信息。

Smartphone frequency detectors and connected displays could identify that one point in the store is a hotspot where traffic tends to halt.

智能手机频率检测器和联系式商品展示可以识别店中某个地点是人流驻足的热点。

That could be because the clients like the display, or because they are lost and confused, says Mr Dias.

迪亚斯表示：这可能是因为顾客喜欢那里展示的某件商品，也可能是他们迷路了或感到困惑。

There is a lot of room for error in the interpretation²⁸.

在解读上有很大的误读空间。

Brands should also beware of misusing²⁹ information on previous spending to divide customers into the rich and the poor, said Paul Duffour, a luxury retail consultant⁴ with the MAD Network.

MAD Network的奢侈品零售顾问保罗.迪富尔(Paul Duffour)表示，各品牌也应注意不要凭着消费记录，错误地将顾客划分为富人和穷人。

The luxury business has historically understood that a small customer will grow into a big one.

奢侈品行业向来知道，一个小顾客可以成长为一个大客户。