Don't be surprised if you are videotaped at a mall. This may not be for security reasons, but to understand your behaviour while shopping, for market research.

The need to understand specified consumer behaviour has forced retailers to track consumers in the mall, to get an idea, about the most popular counters, most picked up brands, how much time customers spend in the mall, and how long they wait for customer services.

The software directly converts this into statistical data, take action wherever needed. Hozefa Attari, director GMT India, which has tied up with US-based company, VideoMining Corporation, said, "When Indians visit malls they spend 2-3 hours shopping, while people in other countries spend 20 minutes. There is a need to know their behaviour. We will soon be in few retail stores in India."

This will not only help retailers understand a psyche and merchandise their products better, but will also help them understand the hot and the cold spots in the store.

Future Group, one of the biggest retail store lines, will soon have this software installed. Kishore Biyani, group chief executive officer, Future Group, said, "We are looking forward to forecast consumer behaviour which will be beneficial for the company."