Industry-focused tradeshows are great. There's no better way to get a concentrated dose of the real challenges that customers face day after day.

Last week, Cisco participated in the National Retail Federation's tradeshow in New York City. At our booth, we provided an in-store experience showing how Cisco technology can help optimize the experience for customers and retailers. As part of that experience, we presented presence and locations analytics. And after dozens of presentations to some of the largest retailers in the world, it's clear that customers see CMX analytics as a key tool for making meaningful business decisions.

In presentation after presentation, it was clear that several real-world use cases from CMX customers really resonated with retailers. While there were several provided, two uses case in particular stood out.

A/B Testing: Even in today's digital world, advertising campaigns are still critical to retail success. But what campaigns really work? With CMX Analytics, retailers can apply one advertising campaign to one set of stores and another advertising campaign to a second set of stores. CMX can track the numbers of visitors and dwell times in the store to determine which campaign delivers the better results.

High Traffic and Wholesale Negotiation: CMX analytics can graphically display the most highly trafficked areas of a store. Assume a grocery store has two entrances. The grocer can use this insight to negotiate better wholesale terms from a manufacturer for placing that product in the high traffic zones.

Both of these use cases are currently being employed by CMX customers. And, judging from the interest expressed by the retailers we spoke with at NRF, they won't be the last.