Former Nokia chief backs new retail analytics venture

Businessman Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo participated in the €3m financing alongside SBT Venture Capital.

The company, Walkbase, detects the wi-fi signals given off by shoppers’ mobile phones to track visitor numbers, visit length, user position, visit frequency and other metrics.

This data can be used by store owners and marketers to test and optimise shop window displays, marketing campaigns and other means of driving traffic into stores, the company said.

Walkbase CEO Tuomas Wuoti said: “In online stores, everything can be optimised in real time for the best possible shopping experience. Thanks to new technology, this ability is now spreading to offline retail.”