Microsoft has announced that it has added new features to its Dev Center Insider Program for Windows Store app publishers. They will allow those developers to send special push notifications about their apps to specific customers.

In a blog post, Microsoft stated:

With this feature, you can quickly create custom notifications to send to your app's customers—all of them, or to only a selected segment that meets the criteria you define, like demographics and purchase status. Customer segments and notifications can be used to encourage desired actions (like buying something) or for loyalty and retention campaigns, maximizing cross and up-sell opportunities, identifying product differentiation strategies and discovering what each segment finds most valuable.

In other words, when you buy and use an app from the Windows Store, you might one day see a special message letting you know of an in-app discount, or for an offer to try out another app from the same publisher. Those specific notifications are based on customer data:

When defining a customer segment, you first select a specific app. Then you can create AND/OR queries that include or exclude customers based on attributes such as app acquisitions, acquisition source and demographic criteria, with options to refine further. You can also select criteria related to first time purchase status, total Store spend, and total spend within the app you've selected.