SHELTON, Conn. — TABS Analytics Tuesday announced that it acquired Decision Insight, a Kansas City, Mo.-based global shopper marketing research and analytics firm with expertise in both brick-and-mortar and online shopping environments. Decision Insight is a pioneer in virtual shopping research, providing shopper insights and retail strategies about shopper behaviors and motivations for manufacturers, retailers and restaurants.

TABS will enhance its current service offerings with the integration of the Decision Insight SimuShop virtual shopping platform, providing research across food and beverage, pet needs, household goods, durables, toys and gaming, pharmaceutical, alcoholic beverage and restaurant categories to deliver even greater insights. Decision Insight brings more than 35 years of trusted expertise across multiple retail channels, including eCommerce, grocery, mass, club, drug, dollar, electronics, convenience stores, hypermarkets, auto, casual dining, quick service restaurants and other specialty stores.

“Decision Insight is a leading innovator in virtual store research. They have a visually compelling platform that provides retailers and manufacturers with quick answers on arrangement, assortment, pricing, merchandising and packaging,” said Kurt Jetta, TABS executive chairman and founder. “What is most compelling to TABS, however, are the rigorous steps Decision Insight takes to ensure that its results are statistically robust and reliable. Decision Insight’s analytical approach and culture will be a good fit with our company.”

“We are very excited about the tremendous possibilities of combining the power of TABS’s data analytics with our virtual shopping platform to enhance the ‘what if’ scenarios for our clients in brick-and-mortar and eCommerce,” said Decision Insight president and chief executive officer Cathy Allin, who will remain president and join the TABS board of directors. “Looking at any industry today, we must better understand the shopper and continue to support the innovation, design and marketing efforts of our clients, including social learning and sustainability.”

In addition to growing organically, TABS has been actively pursuing strategic transactions, which include the acquisitions of Pivotstream, Hybrid Intelligence and now Decision Insight. These acquisitions have enabled TABS to add incremental content, intellectual property, new customers and channels of business to its portfolio. The acquisition increases TABS’s employee and revenue base by almost 50%. The company now has more than 60 employees and over 135 corporate clients.