Every store, big or small, should have its own Jarvis: Atul Rai, Staqu

As advertisers grapple with shrinking budgets and scattered consumer attention, a quiet revolution is taking place—through the same security cameras once used only to catch shoplifters. Jarvis, a next-generation CCTV analytics software, is now helping retail brands slash advertising expenditure (AdEx) by up to 56%, while delivering 100% brand visibility tracking with 99.7% accuracy. Built on cloud-based AI technology, Jarvis transforms passive CCTV feeds into a real-time, decision-driving marketing intelligence tool.

Traditionally, surveillance cameras in retail were solely meant for security. But Staqu CEO Atul Rai believes the camera’s true potential lies in its similarity to a human eye—only faster and more precise.

Real-time Answers for Real Marketing Questions

For marketing heads and store managers, Jarvis is already answering questions previously left to guesswork: Is my in-mall billboard driving footfall? Did my ad at the PVR increase visits? Are people engaging with the new kurta line or just walking past it?

“The biggest challenge for marketing teams is post-campaign attribution. They only had sales data. Jarvis closes that loop by showing how many people came, who engaged with which product, and what conversion looked like,” Atul explains.

Jarvis captures unique visitor counts while filtering out employees, measures time spent per product zone, and identifies “cold” areas that get no attention despite premium displays. This is what retailers refer to as planogram and heatmap analysis—and until now, it was mostly guesswork.

It integrates with existing CCTV setups and doesn’t require any hardware overhaul. Its AI capabilities interpret customer movement, engagement levels, and product interaction—key metrics that were previously missing from physical retail spaces.

Case Studies and Real Results

The tech has already made a mark in multiple premium malls including DLF Promenade and Select CITYWALK in Delhi. A leading ethnic wear brand used Jarvis to analyze customer behavior around their festive lehenga collection in October 2024.

“They realized that while footfall was high, conversion was low. Jarvis revealed the lehengas were kept in a cold zone—foot traffic never reached them. They simply moved the rack, and conversion jumped by 22%,” Atul shares.

Another campaign with a premium eyewear brand revealed that an influencer-led activation near the store entrance spiked footfall by 38%, but purchases remained flat. Using Jarvis, they traced the bottleneck to low engagement time inside the try-out zone. Adjustments in layout and lighting led to a 31% increase in time spent per visitor and a 19% sales lift in two weeks.

Offline Gets E-commerce Powers

E-commerce platforms have always had the upper hand in tracking user journeys, clicks, and drop-offs. Offline retail, however, lacked that level of visibility—until now.

“Clicking on a hotel once shows you 20 ads. But when someone walks into a store and stares at a product for two minutes, the brand knows nothing about it,” Atul says. “We’re giving physical retail the same power that digital platforms have enjoyed for years.”

The company is currently onboarding brands in fashion, electronics, and quick-service restaurants, with new pilot projects rolling out in Mumbai and Bangalore in Q2 of 2025.

“If a brand doesn’t know what’s happening inside their store, they’re operating blindfolded,”Atul reveals. 

Jarvis helps retailers go beyond traditional sales metrics to understand nuances like footfall spikes, group behavior, and even who walks in with kids. For example, one leading apparel brand noticed through Jarvis that nearly 30% of their customers came in with children. As a result, they built dedicated kids zones—not for fun, but for function. Distracted kids were deterring shopping decisions. Once engaged, parents spent longer and shopped more.

Weekday Surprises and Happy Hour Fixes

One myth that Jarvis busted was about peak shopping hours. While most brands ran weekend campaigns under the assumption that sales spiked then, camera insights told another story. In mall-based stores, Wednesdays saw surprising footfalls, thanks to mid-week food and movie deals. Once discovered, brands realigned their campaigns to include mid-week push offers, which led to measurable lifts in engagement.

The liquor segment too had lessons to learn. Happy hours traditionally spanned from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m. But Jarvis found that the real action happened between 6 to 8 p.m. Before this insight, stores had staffed heavily early in the afternoon—racking up avoidable operational costs. The change in staffing aligned better with crowd patterns and saved thousands in man-hours.

Not Just Insights, But Action

Jarvis doesn’t just analyze behavior—it changes brand behavior. A food tech brand offering 2–7 p.m. discounts on liquor did so by gut-feel marketing. With Jarvis, they started spotting micro-trends—like a post-lunch slump in purchases or a sudden Thursday spike tied to payday cycles. These inputs fed directly into campaign dashboards, reshaping strategy.

But where this tech truly shines is in real-time personalization. A coffee chain piloting Jarvis created a seamless, futuristic customer experience. A visitor registered with the brand enters the café, is recognized by the camera, and receives a WhatsApp message: “Welcome back! Want your usual cappuccino?” With a single tap and a pre-linked UPI ID, the coffee is ordered and served at the table—no cashier, no app scroll, no verbal exchange. Think DG Yatra, but for caffeine lovers.

Bridging the Online-Offline Gap

One of the biggest wins for retailers has been Jarvis’s role in retargeting—something e-commerce giants have long enjoyed. Now, offline stores can do the same. A user walking into a store, identified through camera data and past purchase patterns, might receive a personalized SMS about a new ethnic collection, or a loyalty discount for a preferred product category.

While brands are tight-lipped about exact ad spends across digital, print, and out-of-home formats, Jarvis acts as the unified intelligence layer. Whether it's deciding which weekday to buy a hoarding, or when to drop an influencer post, it's no longer guesswork.

Beyond Numbers, It's Behavior

What sets Jarvis apart is its ability to capture context that receipts can’t. Billing data shows one sale. Camera data shows that eight people considered it before one bought. That six families left without purchasing because their kids were cranky. That a group came in but only one paid—insights that traditional systems miss.

And the best part? It’s opt-in. Like DG Yatra, where travelers choose privacy or convenience, shoppers can decide whether to register, receive messages, and engage on their terms. A face and a mobile number—that’s all it takes to unlock an entire shopping experience tailored just for you.

In this new world of retail, your store might just know you better than your favorite e-commerce app. And your next coffee? It might arrive before you even realize you wanted it.

Expanding on its vision, Atul shared how Jarvis is not just catering to large enterprises but also actively democratizing its tech for smaller retail chains. “We have 100+ customers spread across electronics, apparel, food and auto sectors (Raymond, Lenskart, Manyavar, Crocs, Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, and Porsche). We have five-store brands in Dubai using Jarvis, and even companies like Mr. DIY are on board,” he said. “Our vision is that every store, big or small, should have its own ‘Jarvis’—a personal assistant with LLM power that understands your business through just a WhatsApp message.”