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Start your AI journey today and let us help you understand your business better. Send us an email or book a meeting with one click!
8th December 2025
Leo
Retail is undergoing an evolution and consumers expect seamless experiences, competition is fierce and margins are thin. To stay relevant, many companies are moving away from “big bang” redesigns and embracing a continuous cycle of small experiments and learning – a practice known as test‑and‑learn. Rather than relying on intuition alone, retailers run controlled tests on everything from shelf placement and signage to staffing and lighting, then analyse the results. The process is iterative: tweak one element, observe the impact, refine and repeat.
You can think of test‑and‑learn as the scientific method applied to retail. Instead of overhauling an entire store based on anecdotal feedback, managers implement small changes in a controlled way and use data to understand how they affect customer behaviour. In a test, one set of customers (the “control”) experiences the usual environment, while another set (the “test group”) sees a change – perhaps a new product display or a different queue system. By comparing outcomes such as dwell time, conversion rate or basket size, teams gain evidence about what works.
This approach is common in digital marketing – A/B testing subject lines, advertisements and landing pages is standard practice. However, test‑and‑learn is increasingly making its way into brick‑and‑mortar stores, where the variables are more complex. It might involve shifting a promotional display a few metres to measure the impact on sales or adjusting staff schedules to see whether shorter wait times lead to higher satisfaction.
1. Consumer expectations are rising. Shoppers want personalised, efficient experiences both online and in person. A store layout that felt fresh five years ago may seem dated today. Testing and learning help retailers continually adapt to these changing preferences.
2. Retail environments are complex. Unlike websites, physical stores involve countless variables: lighting, temperature, product adjacency, staff interactions and local events. It is nearly impossible to predict how a new layout or promotion will perform without seeing it in action. Test‑and‑learn allows for gradual adjustments and reduces the risk of costly missteps.
3. Data is accessible. Stores are no longer blind to footfall and customer behaviour. Technologies like people‑counting sensors, heat maps and dwell‑time tracking provide specific insight into how customers move and where they linger. Cloud‑based dashboards (like those offered by Merlin Cloud) surface these insights in real time, making it easier to design and evaluate experiments.
Imagine a grocery store wants to improve sales of a new brand of plant‑based milk. Instead of launching a full rebranding, they place the product on an eye‑level shelf in half of their stores while leaving the rest unchanged. After four weeks, they compare sales data. If the new placement generates higher sales without hurting other categories, the change becomes permanent. If not, they test another placement.
Long queues can drive away customers. A retailer might decide to trial a new queue‑management system in one part of a department store. The experiment could involve digital signage that directs people to the fastest checkout, or staff assigned to triage shoppers between traditional and self‑service tills. Sensors track wait times in test and control areas and if the new system reduces wait times and increases customer satisfaction scores, it can be rolled out more broadly.
Sales promotions are a core part of retail strategy, but different messages resonate with different customers. A sporting goods store could test two signage designs for the same clearance sale: one emphasises “Up to 30 % off” while the other features “Limited‑time offer until Sunday.” By randomly assigning stores or aisles to each sign, the retailer can see which message drives more purchases and use that insight for future campaigns.
How many staff members should be on the floor during lunchtime on weekdays? Instead of guessing, a retailer might assign an extra team member to half the stores while maintaining the usual schedule in the others. Data on sales, transaction time and staff utilisation help determine whether the additional coverage pays for itself in higher customer satisfaction and incremental revenue.
Running successful test‑and‑learn initiatives requires more than intuition. It needs reliable data collection, real‑time reporting and easy‑to‑understand insights. This is where platforms like Merlin Cloud come in.
Merlin Cloud’s solutions integrate people‑counting sensors, heat maps and interactive displays into a unified dashboard. Store managers can quickly see how a change to a display affects footfall and dwell time, how a new experience area influences average basket size or whether adding more staff reduces queue length at certain times.
Because the information is collected live, retailers can quickly pivot if an experiment shows negative effects. There is no need to wait months for sales data; store teams can check the dashboard daily and adjust. The ability to run test‑and‑learn cycles at speed makes stores more agile and responsive to consumer trends.
Identify a clear goal.
Are you aiming to increase dwell time, improve conversion, reduce queues or lift sales in a specific category? A narrow objective makes it easier to choose the right metrics.
Design a simple experiment.
Start with a small, manageable change that can be applied to one part of the store or a small group of stores. Make sure there is a control group that doesn’t experience the change.
Collect data consistently.
Use sensors, POS data and staff feedback to track relevant metrics. Tools like Merlin Cloud’s dashboard can automatically pull this data into one place.
Analyse and compare.
After a set period, compare performance between the test and control groups. Look at both quantitative metrics (sales, dwell time, queue length) and qualitative feedback (staff impressions, customer comments).
Iterate and refine.
If the experiment has a positive impact, roll it out more widely or move on to the next iteration. If the results are negative or inconclusive, adjust the test or try a different strategy. The goal is continuous improvement, not a single perfect solution.
Focus on incremental gains. Test‑and‑learn is about small changes that accumulate over time. Resist the temptation to implement sweeping changes based on one experiment.
Involve your team. Frontline staff often have invaluable insights into what customers need. Include them in planning and reviewing experiments. This fosters ownership and buy‑in.
Be patient. Some experiments take weeks or even months to produce clear results, especially if they relate to seasonal or infrequently purchased items. Avoid drawing premature conclusions.
Celebrate learning. Not every test will succeed, but every test offers insights. Treat negative results as valuable lessons rather than failures.
Companies that adopt test‑and‑learn thinking build a culture of curiosity and adaptability. Instead of defending the status quo, teams start asking “What if?” They become more comfortable with trying, measuring and iterating. Over time, this mindset leads to stores that are better tuned to customer needs, more resilient to market shifts and more profitable.
Test‑and‑learn also reduces risk. By validating hypotheses in a controlled way, retailers avoid costly rollouts of unproven ideas. Small experiments weed out poor concepts early and let successful innovations grow.
Merlin Cloud’s analytics and experience solutions make it easier to run test‑and‑learn experiments. Sensors installed in stores track footfall, dwell time, conversion rates and other key metrics. A cloud‑based dashboard aggregates this information so managers can see how experiments are performing. Interactive kiosks and digital signage can be updated remotely to test different messages or layouts. Combined, these tools create a feedback loop between data, experiments and decision‑making.
Because Merlin Cloud’s system is scalable, retailers can start small and expand as confidence grows. Whether running a pilot in one store or orchestrating tests across an entire chain, the same platform provides the necessary insights. And because the technology runs quietly in the background, shoppers and staff experience the benefits without even realising why the space feels better.
In a rapidly changing retail landscape, agility is everything. Test‑and‑learn is not just a technique, it is a mindset that lets stores evolve in small steps rather than giant leaps. By embracing experimentation and tapping into rich data sources, retailers can discover what resonates with customers and continuously improve. Platforms like Merlin Cloud amplify these efforts by providing the tools to measure and understand customer behaviour in real time. When test‑and‑learn becomes the golden rule, stores become smarter, customers become happier and teams feel empowered to innovate.