By Julian Chu, Demandware Client Success

On December 2nd, Demandware hosted a webinar with Mark Matiszik, President of Sextant Consulting. The topic was one that should be high on everyone's mind these days: How do you maximize the return from every dollar spent on marketing? Mark provided a very practical discussion on how to define appropriate customer segments and track how they migrate from one segment to another, and then how to use insights about customer behavior to assess marketing ROI and Customer Lifetime Value.

As online retailers assess the outcome from this, shall we say, less-than-stellar holiday shopping season, and plan their budgets for next year, having a solid analytical foundation on which to base decisions will be critical. No doubt, your CEOs and CFOs will be asking difficult questions like:

• Did we get the return from Q4 marketing investment that we expected?
• Which campaigns and tactics provided the better returns?
• Are you still confident about your projections for Q1 and 2009 as a whole?
• Should we still spend as much as we have budgeted? (Or maybe, should we spend more???)

How prepared are you to answer such questions? The recorded webinar, Customer Acquisition and Retention, and accompanying slide presentation are available on Demandware's web site. Have a listen sooner rather than later!