Database Analytics Change a Store's Advertising Approaches

We know when you're gonna run out of shampoo, so we might as well send you an email.

-Heather Kaminetsky, director of Internet marketing for Barneys clothing store.

As the first client of Sheldon Gilbert's software that analyzes users' site activities and predicts their shopping interests, Barney's has changed its approach to advertising. "We used to spend $90,000 on a full-page ad in The New York Times," she notes. Now targeted and tailored emails are central to Barney's concerns.

The growth and increasing sophistication of database analytics is leading more and more advertisers toward the web. The trend is beginning to move down to the level of local retailers. Newspapers are already feeling major competition of the web in the classified and automotive areas. As the practice of local data mining and analytics grows, their retail clothing display advertising will be under attack, as well.

In Arianne Cohen, "Barneys and Friend," Fast Company, April 25, 2008.