Determining which marketing campaigns will resonate best with targeted consumers requires extensive testing and evaluation. This process can be complicated, costly and time-consuming for busy retail marketing teams. 

The newest version of Custora, a SaaS analytics methodologies solution, addresses this challenge by allowing trial and analysis of one-time marketing campaigns and experiments.

With Custora 4.0, released in March 2013, merchants can test ideas — online or offline — within selected customer segments. The solution predicts consumer behavior and forecasts shopping activity within the targeted segments. Users can select any customer groups for one-time testing, either with the segment builder or by uploading a list. For example, these clusters can include highest-value customers of men’s suits, teenaged customers in the Southeast, or groups making their second or fifth electronics purchases last week.

The growing prevalence of social media and smartphones has spawned a tremendous amount of consumer data. Retailers that are active in digital marketing and commerce space must tackle the challenge of managing and interpreting a constant flow of feedback that is being produced and delivered by consumers.

Reevoo, a cloud-based social business solutions provider, has addressed this problem by introducing the Insight solution. Released in January 2013, Insight is a real-time social analytics tool that was designed to analyze customer-submitted feedback, and combine these insights with internal business data, customer behavioral data and peer-to-peer conversations. With this information, retailers can gain insight into shopper trends, preferences and overall sentiments regarding marketing campaigns, offers and inventory. The solution can empower organizations to respond to feedback and react to quick-shifting demands more efficiently, leading to improved customer engagement and loyalty.

Brick-and-mortar retailers competing directly with online sellers are at a disadvantage: Offline merchants must measure store traffic, shopper activity, and SKU and promotional performance, often lacking the breadth of digital tools in place for e-Commerce.

But the gap is closing with in-aisle behavior analysis tools such as Shopperception. Shopperception technology employs 3D sensors installed directly above store shelves. The sensors, visual heat maps and proprietary algorithms detect traffic, follow people within sensor reach, and analyze actions at the shelf. With this tool, retailers can discover how spaces are performing; adjust planogram strategies; and conduct A/B testing of brand placement and promotions.