As more people research and purchase products online, consumer feedback such as comments, ratings and reviews have become critical to retailers and their marketers. In today’s interactive social networks, responding to user-generated feedback helps retailers drive customer engagement, brand loyalty and buyer confidence.

A newly announced, next-generation solution is aimed at helping marketers deliver more relevant and customized messages across interactive channels, including email, mobile, social, the web and display. The updated tool is a collaborative effort between Responsys, Inc., a provider of email and cross-channel marketing solutions, and Bazaarvoice, a social software and data analytics company.

Gamification offers retailers the opportunity to integrate game mechanics into digital experiences to influence and motivate engagement. By incorporating gaming tactics into online communities and user-generated content, retailers can deliver more compelling brand impressions and establish customer loyalty.

Retail demand for gamification platforms is deepened today by a technology-driven shopping environment in which users expect relevant, targeted offers, not a one-size-fits-all approach.

In response, Bunchball launched Nitro Flamethrower in March 2012 to help retailers create personalized gamification programs aimed at meeting the interests of specific users. Flamethrower currently serves up to 70 million unique users and 2.3 billion actions each month.

Today’s online shopping capabilities have put brick-and-mortar retailing at a disadvantage. eTailers are empowered to present a variety of customer-facing conveniences for shopping. Moreover, they can utilize data to optimize their store operations. From customer acquisition — via channels such as AdWords — to checkout at the bottom of the funnel, online merchants have greater visibility into the steps of the purchase process and can better test assumptions to improve results.

Euclid, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based analytics software company, launched a solution in November 2011 to provide brick-and-mortar retailers with the tools necessary to operate more effectively as a data-driven business. Aimed at providing “Google Analytics for the physical world,” the platform offers retailers visibility into key performance indicators (KPIs), including capture rate of visitors versus walk bys, shopper visit frequency, engagement time span and more.

Progressive retailers seize customer engagement opportunities to initiate positive shopper experiences and cultivate a role in spreading brand awareness. This approach ultimately helps retailers impact consumer mindshare, as well as their bottom lines.

Retailers with multiple brick-and-mortar locations face specific customer engagement challenges, particularly streamlining and clarifying venue location data on Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter.  Within these networks, customer-facing inaccuracies, omissions, duplications and other inconsistencies regarding venue locations undermine search, discovery and overall in-store performance.