Watching Social Networks for Clues about Promotions

摘要

Before people began making their lives public on social networks, retailers had to figure out their likes indirectly. Companies like Oracle and Siebel provided huge database programs that analyzed consumer demographics in search of patterns that might lead to more sales. But the retailers couldn't directly observe the connections between individual consumers, or watch them chat online about products. CalmSea, a company founded in 2009, adds consumers' social-network activity to the mix of what retailers can analyze. Moreover, the company takes advantage of cheap large-scale database computing to crunch numbers nearly in real time, and to experiment on the fly with new analysis methods that would have required serious database retooling in the past. Clients include the sneaker company Puma and Tobi.com, an online clothing retailer.