EqualOcean Interview | Whale CGO Kevin Guan : SDP Shows the Value of Field Data

Martech is one of the hot concepts in recent years. There are more than 1,000 Martech companies in China. In the marketing field focusing on online data, CDP, DSP and other fashionable concepts, Whale, which has been established for 5 years, has proposed the concept of SDP for the first time, to form a closed loop with online and offline data and open the [Last Mile] in the Martech industry.

What impacts can SDP have on stores and users? EqualOcean had interviewed Guan Herong, CGO of Whale, to discuss the application and future of Whale's SDP.

A well-known tea drink company has thousands of stores in China, with full of customers every day. Some customers queue up for ordering in the stores, some come to the stores and pick up their drinks ordered in App, some sit and enjoy their drinks in the stores, and some are in a hurry after picking up their drinks. Customers have their own unique consumption habits and understandings on store services. Therefore, they have different expectations for beverage stores.

Are the queues too long? Is the online order waiting too long? How to balance the numbers of single-person seats and multi-people seats in a store? Are there some ways to stop the footsteps of hurry customers and then promote their consumption? For a beverage store, to better serve customers, maximize in-store resources, and exploit more consumption opportunities, it is necessary to perceive the thoughts of consumers and respond to different consumption habits from all customers.

Of course, it is not limited to beverage stores. For retail stores of shoes and clothing or fashions, or the space scenarios of an entire large shopping mall, customers' turns when passing through the stores, stay in front of the shelves after entering the stores, movement and browsing traces, queues and settlements at cashiers and other behaviors are valuable data assets.

Due to the rapid development of online channels such as social media, applets, and e-commerce, the [Data] mentioned in the current intelligent marketing industry are mostly online customer data. However, individual consumption data are still not collected completely and used fully.

Guan Herong pointed out this market gap: "The [Space] is still rarely mentioned in the loop of [Customer-Content-Space]. However, this concept is particularly important at this stage. After building the ability to collect all online and offline data, Whale proposed the concept of SDP in the industry for the first time."

The SDP is essentially presented to the customers as an ad hoc data source. On the premise of collecting facial data [Without Feeling], Whale can use its patented AI algorithm and other technologies to convert the unstructured data obtained by edge hardware into the structured data for storage and analysis. Taking the customer trajectory analysis as an example, Whale can use ReID technology to match the positions of a customer with an interval of 10s, to confirm the shopping route of customers, and obtain the speed, gait and other data.

Improving consumer experience is one of the most mainstream needs of many Whale projects. Guan Herong shared an example of Whale's customers in the footwear and apparel industry to EqualOcean. By understanding the data of consumers during the entire process from entering a store to leaving and from browsing to trying on, Whale has helped the company optimize the store's creative design and improve the arrangement of goods in the store, to guide the consumers to extend their shopping journey as much as possible, and improve the sales and customer experience. An experienced Whale team controlled the entire implementation process.

In terms of future development, Guan Herong believed that Whale would always focus on the improvement of technical strength and industry experience.

"Our technical goal will always be the better data completeness and accuracy." The technical strength is one of Whale's prides. The [Depth] of Whale's products is based on its founder who had science and technology education background from a famous school, a technical team composed of members from well-known technology companies at home and abroad, as well as the basic technical abilities. It is just the improvement of technical strength to enable SDP to be used in a single store and further a shopping mall. In the future, more complex field data will be accessed.

Any technology needs to be implemented to reflect its value. Whale's goal is to become a leading technology provider, and to broaden the [Width] of its solutions and consulting services. Regarding the problem of whether SDP will be applied to non-consumption scenarios such as industrial manufacturing or government and enterprise services in the future, Guan Herong replied, "It will be, Whale will ensure its leading basic technologies, and constantly accumulate its know-hows in the industry. At present, Whale's SDP has supported Whale become a technology provider in the fields of industrial manufacturing, government and enterprise affairs; however, Whale will advance further in all fields."

Guan Herong finally mentioned Whale's SDP dream, "I hope Whale can become one of the most powerful technology companies in terms of data field, and I expect SDP can help new stores of all brands to improve consumer experience and provide them with more values in the future." It is believed that Whale can open its bright future with the SDP in the fierce competition field of Martech.