7 Best Practices for Testing and Targeting

5. Target wisely. The survey showed that merchants find targeting merchandise and promotions by segment redeems a better consumer experience. Testing by segment should yield better results than just testing alone. For best results, the study suggests doing the following:

• use website analytics to find your initial segments;
• find which segments (e.g., geolocation, time of day, visitor history, etc.) are most influential and focus on them first;
• start with a small list of important segments and improve tests accordingly; and
• test a range of different promotions and merchandising tactics.

6. Build a long-term testing vision. When starting to test you want to think of short-term wins. However, it's long-term testing that will ultimately get the job done. Build on your short-term wins in order to turn them into long-term goals. The report suggests trying the following: