Who's in your store right now SAP's new data service can tell you

The company on Thursday unveiled a new service that offers demographic data in near real time about the people currently inside a store or at a particular venue or event. Called SAP Digital Consumer Insight, the service taps consumers' mobile data to deliver details on where they're coming from, their age groups and gender, and the devices they're using. 

Marketers can also benchmark one store location against another, compare two potential new locations, or see how well their marketing efforts stack up against the competition.

Data is anonymized and aggregated, so individual privacy is protected. Equipped with the result, marketers can tailor their advertising, proximity marketing, location planning, and sales strategies and campaigns to the people currently present at a particular location. 

“A crowd can change from night to night," said Emma Matthieson, director of marketing for Brooklyn Bowl, an entertainment venue with locations in New York, Las Vegas, and London. "We want to be able to customize the overall experience as much as possible -- from music to menu to drink specials."

The service is currently based on U.S. mobile data, but SAP plans to add data from additional locations by the end of the year. Available through the SAP Store, the offering is priced starting at US$439.

SAP also offers the Consumer Insight 365 mobile service for those who want access to more comprehensive behavior and location data for the U.S. and other locations.