# Retail, proximity and IoT marketing for small business buyers: what AI models recommend, October 2026

Gane Index, October 2026 Edition. Asked as "proximity marketing platform" and as "location-based and in-store marketing tool", six framings each, to fourteen models with search on, on behalf of a small B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/retail-proximity-and-iot-marketing/2026-10/smb

This is the permanent record of the October 2026 Edition, published October 1, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/marketing/retail-proximity-and-iot-marketing/smb/index.md

**Standing:** Radar leads with 11% of first choices; verdict contested. 57 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Radar](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/radar/index.md) | 11% | 6% | 34 |
| 2 | [GroundTruth](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/groundtruth/index.md) | 9% | 0% | 14 |
| 3 | [Foursquare Proximity](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/foursquare-proximity/index.md) | 7% | 16% | 19 |
| 7 | [Estimote](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/estimote/index.md) | 5% | 29% | 17 |
| 9 | [CleverTap](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/clevertap/index.md) | 2% | 21% | 19 |
| 37 | [PlotProjects](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/plotprojects/index.md) | 0% | 17% | 12 |
| 40 | [Kontakt.io](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/kontakt-io/index.md) | 0% | 27% | 15 |
| 118 | [Airship](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/airship/index.md) | 0% | 42% | 12 |
| 120 | [Gimbal](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/gimbal/index.md) | 0% | 38% | 13 |
| 154 | [Braze](https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/vendors/braze/index.md) | 0% | 47% | 19 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 155 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: CleverTap, Foursquare Proximity
- GPT-5.4 mini: Foursquare Proximity; alternatives Insider, Paige
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Propellant Media; alternatives Beambox, Choozify, Propensity, Radar
- Perplexity Sonar: Geofli; alternatives Foursquare Proximity, Radar
- Grok 4.20: Radar; alternatives Airship, CleverTap, Gimbal, PlotProjects
- Mistral Small: Foursquare Proximity, PassKit; alternatives Estimote, PromoInCloud
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Estimote; alternatives Beacon Factory, Kumulos, Woosmap
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Google Ads, Simpli.fi; alternatives Adwave, Wi-Fi Login Pages
- Kimi K2: Proximity Hero, Uniqode; alternatives CleverTap, Radar
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Proximity Hero, Whats-out! Proximity Platform; alternatives Aislelabs, Braze, CleverTap, Radar
- MiniMax M2.5: Estimote, Radar; alternatives Braze, Kontakt.io
- GPT-6 Luna: GroundTruth, LinkedIn Ads' Company Targeting
- Muse Glimmer 30B: Estimote; alternatives Foursquare Proximity, Geofli, InMarket, Radar

## Sources the answers cite

77 of 84 answers came back with a source list, from 14 of 14 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- thecmo.com: 53 answers, 78 citations
- g2.com: 49 answers, 85 citations
- worldmetrics.org: 40 answers, 56 citations
- zipdo.co: 29 answers, 49 citations
- sourceforge.net: 25 answers, 49 citations
- f6s.com: 25 answers, 35 citations
- gitnux.org: 24 answers, 39 citations
- clicksgeek.com: 23 answers, 32 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://thecmo.com/tools/best-proximity-marketing-software (52 answers)
- https://g2.com/categories/location-based-marketing (38 answers)
- https://worldmetrics.org/best/proximity-marketing-software (31 answers)
- https://f6s.com/software/category/proximity-marketing (23 answers)
- https://thecmo.com/tools/best-local-marketing-software (22 answers)
- https://zipdo.co/best/proximity-marketing-software (21 answers)
- https://clicksgeek.com/best-local-advertising-platforms (20 answers)
- https://coldiq.com/category/location-based-marketing (15 answers)
- https://sourceforge.net/software/location-based-marketing/for-mid-size-business (15 answers)
- https://zipdo.co/best/proximity-advertising-software (14 answers)

## Warned against

- Braze: 9 of 19 labels negative. "Avoid committing to beacon hardware rollouts, enterprise omnichannel suites like Braze/CleverTap/Airship/Xtremepush for a single location" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Gimbal: 5 of 13 labels negative. "Shuttered or Dying Beacon Giants (e.g., Swirl, Gimbal, Estimote's retail line) Avoid entirely" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, negative prompt)
- Airship: 5 of 12 labels negative. "Avoid committing to ... enterprise omnichannel suites like Braze/CleverTap/Airship/Xtremepush for a single location" (Muse Glimmer 30B, negative prompt)
- Estimote: 5 of 17 labels negative. "Require physical hardware in a store; B2B clients won't install beacons at their offices" (DeepSeek V4 Flash, paraphrase prompt)

## Movement since September 2026

Floor: 11 points of share, measured on the calibration repeat.
New leader: Google Business Profile (12%) to Radar (12%). Margin 10 points, within noise.

- Radar: 2% to 12%, +10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 9 → 1 of 142.
- Google Business Profile: 12% to 2%, −10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 1 → 10 of 142.
- PlotProjects: 10% to 0%, −10. Inside the floor by 1 point · rank 2 → 31 of 142.
- Foursquare Proximity: 2% to 8%, +6. Inside the floor by 5 points · rank 10 → 2 of 142.
- Propulso: 5% to 0%, −5. Not named this edition · was rank 3 of 140.
- GroundTruth: 2% to 6%, +4. Inside the floor by 7 points · rank 12 → 3 of 142.
- Gimbal: 2% to 0%, −2. Inside the floor by 9 points · rank 29 → 112 of 142.
- Estimote: 5% to 4%, −1. Inside the floor by 10 points · rank 4 → 8 of 142.
- CleverTap: 2% to 2%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 16 → 9 of 142.
- Kontakt.io: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 30 → 32 of 142.
- Airship: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 43 → 40 of 142.
- Braze: 0% to 0%, ±0. Inside the floor by 11 points · rank 137 → 113 of 142.

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/gtm/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, October 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/gtm.