iGoDigital

iGoDigital Launches Ink Finder for Amazon Europe

Tuesday, August 31, 2010 by Kristi Smith

Earlier this month, our Data Services team launched a new Product Finder for Amazon Europe. This launch was one of several new customer projects going on in Europe. Our team is always energized to deliver our solutions to customers who operate across multiple countries.

The Amazon UK Ink & Toner Finder is designed to assist consumers with the selection of replacement Ink & Toner for their printer. The tool is designed to be simple - asking the consumer 3 questions to help identify the brand, make, and model of their printer.

With just a month of data to report, the initial results have surpassed Amazon's internal estimates for success. The tool has generated 32% higher click-thru to Ink & Toner product detail pages. Additionally, the tool has raised the overall category conversion rate by double digits.

The Amazon Ink & Toner Finder is powered by the iGoDigital Product Recommendation Platform. The Amazon merchant team benefits from the platform's robust reporting and customer analytics, delivering unique insights into the buying patterns of consumers shopping for Ink and Toner.

We welcome Amazon Europe to the iGoDigital family of clients.

ShopKomen Launches Personalized Product Recommendations

Tuesday, August 24, 2010 by Kristi Smith

Earlier this month, we launched personalized product recommendations at ShopKomen.com, the online retail partner of the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The site features over 300 items related to the Komen Foundation's fight for a cure. 25 percent of all purchases will be donated to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® in the fight against breast cancer by MainGate, Inc., Komen for the Cure’s Official Merchandise Partner.

The ShopKomen website now features several areas of personalization, powered by iGoDigital, as users browse the site. When looking at the various pages of the website, consumers are presented with a variety of product recommendations which are personalized for each individual user based on their behavior and real-time intent.

iGoDigital examines each users behavior to determine which of our 40+ real-time algorithms would have the greatest influence on the consumers shopping session. A variety of strategies are utilized to determine the best cross selling marketing recommendations in real-time. The product recommendations feature specific, dynamically generated product suggestions to help consumers discover new products on the SkopKomen website.

We are really proud to welcome ShopKomen.com as part of the iGoDigital client family.

Work and Happiness, Can They Co-Exist?

Friday, August 13, 2010 by Christin Kim

Since the recent Stephen Slater and JetBlue incident I have been thinking about the working environment and the limits that people are pushed to...pushed to the point where one feels the need to make such a grand exit with two beers in hand (which I thought was the best part). I'm sure everyone can somewhat relate to the feeling at least once in their lifetime.

So what is it about our jobs that we hate so much? Maybe in the service industry it's the fact that you have to put a smile on your face no matter how rude the person is to you. In which case, the solution may be just a matter of having that good old-fashioned patience. But in general, I think it's the company's culture that keeps employees happy and free from any "Stephen Slater" incidents.

After hearing about JetBlue I remembered reading an article that I stumbled upon a couple months ago that addressed happiness and work. The article highlighted Zappos and its founder, Tony Hsieh. I thought the values that Tony instills in his company were effective and pretty simple. It all revolved around being happy and work/life integration. He states, "There's a lot of talk about work life separation or balance and so on, our whole thing is about work life integration. Its just life. And so the ideal would be if you can be the same person at home as you are in the office, and vice versa. And when people actually feel comfortable being themselves, so much creativity comes out of that." He goes on to say that research found that the best companies in terms of long-term financial performance are ones that are able to combine profits, passion and purpose.

The simple value of being happy at work can be helpful to an entire organization. People often think that the harder people are pushed, the better the production, and the better off a company will be. In some cases this is a good business model, but eventually it is bound to be counter intuitive. Integrating work with happiness is more enduring and it has more of a trickling effect. Happy employees mean happy clients, happy customers, happy investors, and maybe even happy airplane passengers.

With all the negative stories in the media surrounding bad work environments and unhappy employees I thought I would talk about the happy ones for a change. It just goes to prove that happy employees ultimately play a significant role in the success of a company.

Speaking of success...you're probably thinking this is the part where I talk about iGoDigital, all of our solutions, and our success yada yada yada (I'd actually be happy to do that if you would like!) but I really just wanted to highlight our culture. Company culture is not something that can be bought. It has no monetary value and we do not directly sell this to clients, yet it is probably one of the most important aspects of iGoDigital.

Needless to say, I don't expect to see anyone from the iGoDigital team throwing their computer out the window, grabbing the beers from the fridge, and driving home anytime soon. For those of you unlucky ones who didn't get the memo about the new TPS reports, hang in there! There is hope for work and happiness to co-exist!

4 Easy Ways Companies Benefit From Personalization

Tuesday, August 10, 2010 by Christin Kim

Many companies leverage personalization in order to increase sales and push conversions rates on their retail site. As companies always seem to seek the latest "must-have" technology, lets not forget what the simple user-generated content can do. The indirect benefits of the consumer's voice can have a significant impact when it comes to the bigger picture. Looking beyond the increase of sales, here are four benefits that the customer's voice can have on a company:

1.) Customer Service
It's likely that when a person has a problem with a product or has a question about something, another customer has had the same issue. The risk that one takes with online shopping is not being able to see or try the product before the purchase is made. Customer service lines always seem to be a hassle and a lot of times hesitant shoppers will opt out of making the purchase due to the uncertainty. The customer's voice spoken through reviews and ratings can act as a kind of customer service line for shoppers. In turn, costs spent towards a call center can be saved.

2.) Access to Useful Product Information
Feedback is very important when it comes to determining whether or not a product is being perceived correctly by consumers. Failure of a product can be the result of misinformation. In a society where consumers expect everything to be inherent and manuals are thought of as a waste of time, there is a good chance that a consumer may be using a product incorrectly. With the help of user-generated content, companies are able to address any issues surrounding this problem.

3.) Satisfied Consumers
It's no surprise that online shopping results in higher return rates. Again, the risk that consumers take when purchasing a product online is that the product may not be what was expected. Unfortunately, returns cost money. The more shoppers can learn about a product before making a purchase, the more they will actually stick with what was bought.

4.) Valuable Feedback
Keeping an eye on what the buzz is around a product can be extremely important. Furthermore, negative reviews can be useful to a company in terms of feedback. Let the customers do the research for you and listen to what they have to say. The biggest critic can also be the biggest help. The negative reviews can be used to improve a product and allow for more innovative thinking. After all, the consumers will be the ones who will be buying and ultimately using the product.

A personal approach to online shopping can open many doors for shoppers and for internet retailers. Although online personalization is meant to create a better shopping experience for the consumer, in the end, it will be helpful to the company itself. The voice of the customer is powerful and it should be used to it's fullest potential.

Recommendations Based On Whether or Not I Take Jello Shots?

Thursday, August 5, 2010 by Christin Kim

Personalization is what we at iGoDigital continually work towards and want to ultimately provide for our clients' customers. Although we cater our solutions specifically to Internet retailers, I am interested in anything that invloves personalization. I recently came across Hunch, which was created by Flickr's co-founder Caterina Fake. It too provides personalization in the online world but unlike iGoDigital, it targets the Internet experience as a whole. Similar to iGoDigital's philosophy, Hunch strives for a more fun and engaging way to seek literally any type of recommendation. It helps users make decisions by comparing what it knows about them to what it knows about others that have similar lifestyles, interests, opinions, etc.

Here's how it works:

You connect to your Facebook or Twitter account from the Hunch site. You then answer 20 or more, what seem to be random, questions about yourself such as do you take jello shots? The questions are quite entertaining and fun to answer! After the evaluation process takes place Hunch will provide you with personal recommendations for movies, books, magazines, restaurants, etc. I was actually skeptical at first but was surprisingly impressed by the results.

For the most part, my results were pretty "personal" if you will. The more data that Hunch receives from users, the more personalized they can make the Internet for you. You can just simply type in any topic on the top right hand corner and Hunch will provide you with recommendations accordingly. You can even get advice on whether or not you should call in sick to work -- it's as if we will never have to think for ourselves ever again!

So after poking around on Hunch just to see what all it has to offer, I concluded it's definitely a fun way to get a different perspective on recommendations and advice. I'm not sure if it will become the go to place for people to address a problem, a dilemma, or just plain indecisiveness. For me, I typically just ask a friend or my mom for advice.

I do like the idea behind utilizing behavioral data in making correlations to what a person may be interested in. This is the same outlook we have on some of the Guided Buying and Product Finder solutions that are created for our clients. If everything was a linear experience -- if I want a yellow shirt in size small, the site provides me with a yellow shirt in size small -- how boring would that be?! It just goes to show how dynamic people are and we at iGoDigital understand that.

All in all, it is an interesting take on personalized recommendations! By the way, I answered yes to do you take jello shots (on occasion) if anyone was wondering.

fflick Makes Movie Ratings Personal

Wednesday, August 4, 2010 by Christin Kim

Have you ever seen a movie based on positive chatter among co-workers or based on high ratings that you read in a magazine? I know I have, maybe I'm just easily suckered. Well, it looks like Twitter has added a new service called fflick that allows its users to read the buzz around movies. This new feature has a similar concept to our new Facebook integration that was recently added to our Product Recommendation Platform. The idea is pretty simple: Provide relevancy and personalization by giving the ratings and recommendations a "face." People are more likely to trust a statement if they know who it is coming from.

Like our Facebook integration, fflick uses friends and other people within your social network to create a more personal experience. You must first log into your Twitter account and then you can click the Friends option when looking at a specific movie. Chances are, people in your "crowd" will have more relevant things to say about a movie versus that random tween who loves to tweet about anything and everything unless of course, your social group consists of "that random tween."

You can still, of course, see what other people who are not in your network are saying about a movie by clicking on Interesting. Sometimes it's better to get a well-rounded opinion. Twitter will pull up tweets from celebrities, movie experts, and other interesting people such as Roger Ebert and IMDB still allowing for some relevancy. And if you don't care who is saying what and just want the general consensus, fflick categorizes the negative and positive tweets.

The goal is not to make every purchase or decision foolproof but rather to give people a fun and easy way to rely on friends for advice. Hearing about new technologies surrounding social media attests to iGoDigital moving in the right direction!

Product Recommendaitons: Don't Be Left Behind

Friday, July 30, 2010 by Christin Kim

There's nothing better than starting the day off with a hot cup of coffee and a good read about personalization, after all, it is what iGoDigital does best! This morning I happen to stumble across the article: Retailers are sharpening their focus on recommendations. I thought it did a good job highlighting the need for product recommendations and why more and more retailers are looking to incorporate them into their websites.

Here are a few key points on why personalized product recommendations online are a must-have:

1.) Relevancy
The older systems that were and are still being used requires online retailers to set extensive lists of business rules. The rules are basic -- a site shows certain products to the shopper who completes specific tasks on the site. With this approach, the likelihood of irrelevant products are very high.

2.) Site Performance
The more rules that are created, the slower the site performance will be. This prevents retailers from creating a dynamic solution.

3.) Adaptability
Modern web analytics allow retailers to compile data about a customer's shopping behavior throughout the entire shopping process. As the customer is shopping on the site, the recommendation engine will be able to know the person's shopping history and display products accordingly. The recommendations can also be based on a variety of scenarios such as what other shoppers with similar interests have bought. Also, these engines are designed to quickly modify its suggestions if the shopper's response level is poor.

It's great to hear that the number of retailers who understand the importance of implementing effective personal recommendations are increasing. iGoDigital's Customer Intelligence Engine drives the world's most accurate and actionable product recommendation platform, so we know a thing or two about how retailers can truly benefit from this.

Finally, I think the statement in the article by Susan Aldrich, Patricia Seybold Group - Senior Vice President sums it all up -- “There is a very strong interest in deploying recommendations in the next two years in e-commerce, and you don’t want to fall behind—not when recommendations have such high impact on conversions and order size."

Social Shopping: Take Advice From Your Facebook Friends

Wednesday, July 28, 2010 by Christin Kim

We announced today a series of new features for our Product Recommendation Platform, including an integration with Facebook that enables retailers to utilize the influence of trusted friends and family within the shopping experience. Now, retailers and manufacturers using iGoDigital’s Product Recommendation Platform can easily leverage a consumers’ social network to provide an added layer of personalization and relevancy within their shopping experience. Consumers benefit from immediate access to product recommendations and opinions from their social network as they research, browse, and complete purchases, adding relevance and authenticity. We are making the new capabilities immediately available to retailers and manufacturers.

The need to be social is simply human nature. Whether one is a passive person or a social butterfly, we are all in someways social creatures. So when it comes to shopping the experience, the same concept applies. People like to know what others are buying or what others think about a certain product. This can be even more influential when the people are friends that you know personally.

So if you are looking for a new book to read and you come across The Da Vinci Code, the Facebook integration will show you the friends that have this book listed under their favorites. If a specific product can not be found in any profiles, recommendations based on other book titles that are found will be shown. This allows the more passive person to ask for advice without ever having to physically do so. This information will be weighted heavier than the recommendations coming from a person with no name and face.

Shoppers can also pull friends into the shopping process. As a consumer is shopping, he or she will have the ability to receive direct advice from Facebook friends. This is done by posting the actual product on their wall and leaving it open for comments and suggestions. This will serve as personal product reviews for the shopper or just a way for the "social butterfly" to interact with others.

Read more about the latest addition to the iGoDigital platform here: Press Release

The Shopping Experience

Wednesday, July 21, 2010 by Christin Kim

Online shopping and Internet retailers are an important part of our business, in fact, iGoDigital would not exist if there was no online shopping. iGoDigital's services provide clients with tools that create a more personal and unique online shopping experience. Needless to say, we prefer for people to utilize websites to shop rather than physically go to the traditional brick-and-mortar store.

Both online and offline shopping has its benefits. The ultimate goal is to make a purchase, but the experiences can vary. Technology has a long way to go before retailers have the ability to convert all "real shopping" aspects into the online environment. For example, think about the strong scent of Abercrombie perfume that engulfs you when you walk by the store or the huge oh-so-friendly Mickey Mouse head structure that you walk through when entering the Disney store.

These are both experiences that online shopping as we know it today can not emulate. On the other hand, online shopping is convenient and the shopper is able to compare prices with just a click. Just think about how many options would come up by simpling typing in "jeans" in the search box.

Although online shopping drives iGoDigital's business, hoping for a complete extinction of all brick-and-mortar stores is plain dumb. Instead of hoping for the impossible, we embrace the fact that shoppers will have always have both options. We continually ask the question, how can we translate the offline experience to the online world and what can we add to our solution to capture all the unique aspects of shopping? Ultimately, shopping is an experience and that's how we treat it.

Other than spending money, shopping involves interaction and exploration. Whether it is intentional or not consumers are constantly analyzing, comparing, and learning. Will this look good on me? I wonder what's popular these days? What is she buying? Will this fit my lifestyle? What is my lifestyle? iGoDigital understands that there is a process to shopping that goes well beyond just the checkout counter. There is the before and after. The Internet is not just a medium to shop but it is also a resource to carry-out the "process of shopping." iGoDigital's goal is to create solutions that provide consumers with the entire shopping experience.

If you would like to learn more about iGoDigital and what we offer, please feel free to set up a demo. We would love to chat with you!

Also, leave a note if you have any thoughts - even if you just love to shop and want to add your two cents!

The Power of Social Influence in Online Shopping

Friday, July 16, 2010 by Christin Kim

Back in the day when I was getting my undergraduate degree from Indiana University (Go Hoosiers!), I decided to receive a B.S in Marketing and a minor in Psychology. I've always thought that these two went hand in hand. How does one expect to market anything to someone whithout even knowing how humans think? So I took both a Consumer Behavior course and Social Psychology course and I soon found out that there were in fact MANY common themes.

This article does a good job outlining how social psychology relates to shopping in general. There are many key points that the writer makes that can be applied to eCommerce tools as well.

How Social Commerce Works: The Social Psychology of Social Shopping

At iGoDigital, we understand the need to continually innovate and utilize social influence in our solutions. Many of the points the writer makes is the driving force behind our personalized product recommendations, more specifically scenarios that imply "other shoppers like you also bought this." This further emphasizes the value of having recommendations on a retail site. While we do offer Twitter and Facebook integrations, we realize that there is much more opportunity in this area. On the other hand, we know that using anything and everything social media can be a turn off to shoppers. Knowing what will and will not work when combining online shopping with social media is imperative to us and our clients .

If you have any thoughts or comments about social media and the impact it has on eCommerce (both on a personal and professional level), please let us know!

Online Shopping: Predicting the Unpredictable

Thursday, July 15, 2010 by Christin Kim

Shopping can sometimes be an unpredictable behavior. No matter how much data is drawn from a shopper, there is always a few hidden elements that even the most sophisticated software can not detect. The human nature in all of us allows for those sporadic purchases every now and then. Where's the fun in shopping if we always knew exactly what we were going to walk out of a store with or if we only bought what was expected? This is why the online shopping experience should be part discovery and part predictable.

iGoDigital understands that the mind of a shopper is a dynamic one, therefore, a single, static solution is not the answer. For example, just because one clicks on a blue shirt does not necessarily mean that the customer will only like blue apparel. iGoDigital offers 35 different recommendation scenarios/algorithms to clients. The scenarios and the positioning of them are constantly tested in order to achieve maximum results. This is tracked by purchase behavior, shopper clicks, and explicit information.

Observing a shopper's behavior is only part of the solution. Another important piece is generated from the expertise of merchants. The insight that merchants have on the industry and inventory is more valuable than what any software can offer. Whether it is apparel, electronics, food, etc, the information that is provided from them will have a major impact on the final solution.

Finally, wisdom-of-crowds plays a major role in creating a complete solution. No matter what the statistics or trends my predict, the items people are actually buying becomes a powerful statement. That is the beauty of fashion trends, although they may be unpredictable, they are influential. A good example is the Ugg boot phenomenon. Originally made in Australia and New Zealand and worn by surfers to keep their feet warm after exiting from the surf, the Ugg boot became a huge fashion statement. The Ugg boot was not being bought based on any specific product attribute but rather because it was "popular." Recommending products that have been bought by other customers with similar interests and taste will drive an increase in relevant products shown to each shopper. In addition to using wisdom-of-crowds on sites, iGoDigital provides integration with Twitter and Facebook to further capitalize on the idea of social influence.

As you can see iGoDigital solutions are agile and are created using many factors. This allows for much versatility and collaboration with clients. A static solution with little analyzing and testing will not be able to truly capture the minds of customers, only leaving them with irrelevant recommendations and empty shopping carts.

So to wrap things up, the three major factors that make up iGoDigital's solutions and more specifically, product recommendations, are:

1.) Constant optimization of recommendation scenarios and positioning on site.
2.) Merchant expertise and insight into industry.
3.) Social influence and wisdom-of-crowds.

The Online Shopping Experience is More Important Than Your Logo

Friday, July 9, 2010 by Christin Kim

Branding is an important term when it comes to a company's success. It is a term that gets tossed around a lot in the business world, but in case you fell asleep during that Marketing 101 course --

Branding: a means of distinguishing one firm's products or services from another's and of creating and maintaining an image that encourages confidence in the quality and performance of that firm's products or services. - dictionary.bnet.com

The way a consumer perceives a certain product or service is directly related to the brand that a company has created for themselves. This is many times an invisible force behind the decisions consumers make. Although it is invisible, it is powerful and it often times hides behind a logo.

Just think about the various interactions one has on a daily basis: the fastfood you ate for lunch, the laptop that you were on at work, the soap dispenser you used in the bathroom, the store you bought the new shirt in - I coud go on and on. These are all interactions that people have with brands. You may not realize it but consumers are constantly creating new experiences and storing it away in their memories for the next time a purchase is made. The logo of the company may be most memorable but the experience is what will drive the decision. Unfortunately, all it takes is one bad experience to lose a consumer. On the otherhand, a good experience can be the differentiating factor when it comes to competition and this includes the online shopping experience.

The online shopping experience is branding, or in other words, a means of distinguishing one firm's products or services from another's and of creating and maintaining an image that encourages confidence in the quality and performance of that firm's products or services. The way people shop on a retail site is all part of the experience that is included in a comany's brand. Knowing when and what to recommend to a shopper or allowing an easy way to find what is needed among thousands of items can be essential to the end purchase. Furthermore, it is easy to see the value in implementing innovative solutions to a retail website.

iGoDigital's solutions offer a better shopping experience for shoppers. This can be done through a seamless implementation of various tools including personal product recommendations, guided selling, and personal emails. Each tool is custom fitted to the business goals and needs of clients. Not only does this mean a better brand for the client but it also means an increase in conversion rates, average order value, and traffic to the website. The iGoDigital ROI has been tremendous. If you would like to learn more about this, please request a demo - it will definitely be worth your time!

Personalized Emails

Wednesday, July 7, 2010 by Christin Kim

Today's average shopper is constantly exposed to new marketing campaigns. Whether it is by choice or not, mail flyers, coupons, Internet ads, etc. seem to show up everywhere. This inevitably becomes overwhelming to even the most avid shopper. Just open up you email inbox, there is a good chance that there is a message sitting there from one of your favorite retail stores. Most of these emails are perceived as just another sales attempt, in which case, the email becomes another victim to the delete button.

In order to prevent this trend from growing, shoppers need to be addressed at the right time and for the right reason.

When the shopper feels that the email contains something of value, they are more likely to open it. iGoDigital offers a few ways for Internet retailers to achieve personalized emails and drive engagement with their shoppers:

1.) Triggered Emails
When a shopper adds an item to the shopping cart or wish list there is an intention to buy. If a purchase is not made, an email can be triggered to the shopper. This will provide relevancy as well as a friendly reminder. This also includes items that may have been out of stock at time of purchase.

2.) Product Recommendations in Emails
By analyzing site behavior, iGoDigital is able to display the items that the shopper will most likely be interested in. It does not make sense to send a shopper deals on winter coats when they live in Florida and only warm climate clothes are being bought.

3.) Opt-in Email Alerts
This gives the shopper more control in the emails received by filtering his or her favorite brands, items, sales, etc.

4.) Identification of the Right Shopper
Once again by analyzing site behavior, iGoDigital can determine who will most likely have interest in a specific item. This information will be used when sending out emails that have a specific agenda. For example: Merchants who have overstocked or seasonal products.

All of these personal emails are driven by iGoDigital's Customer Intelligence Engine.This tool gives clients the ability to select the right customer for each email that is sent out. Furthermore, iGoDigital is able to work with any client's current email service provider in order to create the most effective email.

The results of personal emails versus generic emails have been tremendous. Not only do personalized emails avoid falling victim to the delete button, but they lead shoppers to engage more with retail sites.

Don't Let Your Customers Become Just Data

Wednesday, June 30, 2010 by Christin Kim

Online shopping has brought about a heap of new technologies that allow Internet retailers to know a great deal about their customers without ever personally interacting with them. This is because online shopping behavior can expose loads of data about the way people shop. Although, this is a technical process that the average person may not be able to understand, the greatest challenge becomes what to do with the data. If the data is taken at face value without any kind of evaluation, personalization becomes counter-productive and in turn shoppers become nothing but mere statistics. In this case, shoppers may interpret the product recommendations as just another marketing ploy rather than a useful tip.

For this reason, iGoDigital takes pride in the fact that the Solution Selling and Guided Buying solutions offered are not sold as an out of the box product where the software does all the work for clients. We take an approach that involves a consultative process. Understanding that each client is unique and that their shoppers have different preferences becomes a fundamental piece to our business model.

Our automated solutions allow for explicit client input, and in turn each solution that is produced will be customized for that specific client. We also realize that merchandisers have valuable knowledge in the given industry. Knowledge that a system would never be able to pick up on such as fashion trends. In addition to client input, iGoDigital uses consumer behavior in order to continually optimize the solution by analyzing and reacting to the way shoppers respond. The goal is to generate the best items "Just For You" without making the shopper feel bothered.

Treating shoppers as if they are actual people rather than a statistic is the underlying force behind product recommendations. This is reflected in the increase of average order value and conversion rates that our clients gain.

Increasing Personalization by Geographic Location

Monday, June 28, 2010 by Christin Kim

When you travel through the US the first thing you may notice are the different fashions and trends that each region embodies. The most obvious may be the various sports teams you see on the apparel of the people who live in that specific area. For example, one is more likely to see a Colts jersey in Indianapolis as opposed to a Patriots jersey. I think its safe to say you do not need a Marketing degree to understand this concept.

iGoDigital takes the idea of geo-location and applies it to online personalization for their clients. Although the area one is living in does not reveal a comprehensive list of the style and taste of a customer, it will certainly allow for a more targeted sales approach. In addition to geo-location, iGoDigital's product recommendation engine will observe a shopper's behavior to further determine the most relevant products to display. The solution is constantly refined to produce the best results, which is to ultimately convert a click into a sale.

Lids.com recently implemented iGoDigital's personalization solution to it's website. The geo-location aspect allows a customer to see hats on the homepage that is related to what is most popular in the local area. This is typically the sports team of the city or state the customer is shopping in. Feel free to see it in action! Click Lids.com and notice the types of hats that emerge on the homepage under "You May Also Like." It's no coincidence that the hat of your favorite team may have been displayed.

This is just one example of how iGoDigital allows it's clients to personalize the shopping experience while increasing conversion rates. In the case with Lids.com, team affinity was closely related to the shopper's location, but the geo-location tool can be leveraged to the specific need of each client including climate-based products, regional promotions, fashion trends, etc.

How iGoDigital Makes it Easy to Shop by Lifestyle

Tuesday, June 22, 2010 by Christin Kim

Many online stores allow shoppers to sort items by color, size, brand, etc. Although these are great ways to narrow down a search, we typically find ourselves shopping for more than just a specific color or size. This is because there is a lot more to the shopping process then one might think. Believe it or not, the products that we purchase are many times driven by our lifestyle and closely related to our behavior rather than just the intrinsic value of the item. Customers will shop for a certain occasion, social event, or other reasons beyond just the product itself.

From a product recommendations perspective, our Customer Intelligence Engine observes user behavior - each click of the website - to analyze every customers real-time intent. The system attempts to answer the question "What is it about this product that made this person click?"

Our Solution Selling and Guided Buying Solutions offer a way for online retailers to truly capture behavior and lifestyle information of your shoppers. In turn, this will create the right product recommendations for the right customers.

For example, if a person is shopping for a new pair of basketball shoes the obvious attributes to shop by may be: size, sport, brand, etc. On the other hand, some of the underlying lifestyle attributes may be that this person is not an avid basketball player and cares more about the social status the new shoes will exude during the pick-up basketball at the gym. Since these attributes may be less obvious, they are often ignored by online retailers.

The Digital Camera Finder that we implemented for Best Buy represents how iGoDigital can take information on a shopper's lifestyle/behavior and turn it into the most relevant recommendations. Again, this is due to the fact that many of our lifestyle choices are indirectly related to the types of products we buy. This new way of thinking about a customer has allowed Best Buy to experience double-digit increases in conversion rates and average order values.

Relevant Email Triggers Help Out Merchandisers

Friday, June 18, 2010 by Christin Kim

If you enjoy shopping as much as I do, there is a good chance you have made a trip to your favorite clothing store within the past few weeks just to check out the new line or to simply browse. Some people may not understand the art of "eye-shopping," but it does exist.

Now with the help of websites and on-line merchandising, we can do this from our very own room or at work (on our lunch breaks, of course). Considering the ease of typing in a URL and being able to shop on-line, it's no surprise that a recent statistic I heard from the Internet Retailer Conference states: 87% of shoppers research and view products on-line before they make the decision to buy.

This statistic further emphasizes the tremendous advantage that data services can give on-line retailers. iGoDigital provides this advantage. We are a data services business with a retail-specific platform. We process huge volumes of catalogue attributes, and click data for the world's largest retailers. This can be provided as an automated system that is driven by a specific action taken by a shopper.

For example, excess inventory or overstocked items is a common problem that retailers run into. The merchant team can send us a weekly list of overstocked SKU's. iGoDigital analytics will then query recent shopper clicks and return a list of customers showing recent interest in the SKU's. The file is sent to the Email Service Provider, who then triggers the email to your targeted customers. These emails will include an offer on the overstocked SKU as well as personalized recommendations. More importantly, this will drive the "eye-shopper" to purchase the item that he or she was thinking about buying. This overstocked email converts at 3x the rate of general marketing emails.

For the shopper, it may be a true sign to make the purchase when that very item he or she was eying pops up in an email! Or it could just be the smart data services that iGoDigital provides for email triggers.

Don't Forget About the Consumer

Tuesday, June 8, 2010 by Christin Kim

I recently attended a Design Research Conference where a speaker mentioned that only 8% of customers are satisfied with the new products that are introduced to the market. Being a consumer myself who loves to shop, this is an alarming statistic. This leads to the belief that the most important aspect of design may be left out in the design process all together: People. Whether the product is a simple toothpick or a complex web-based commerce tool, the end-user will always be people. With this said, it's a wonder why so many companies forget about this not-so-small detail.

Since I do consider myself an avid shopper, it's great to be working for a company that keeps the consumer in mind and not just the monetary gain. Although iGoDigital's Solution Selling Tools and Guided Selling Tools have been proven to drive conversion rates and increase average order amount, our goal is to create VALUE for the people using our products. A deeper understanding of online shoppers and how they think inspires us at iGoDigital to envision new shopping experiences.

We recently held a small-scale user research session for a Product Finder that is in the works for one of our clients. As I said, even thought it was small-scale (I'm talking maybe 5 or so people), the new insights that we gained were refreshing! We found ourselves saying, "I never thought of that," and "You're right, that would make it helpful for the shopper." It's amazing what connecting with other people can do for design. It's safe to say that real feedback from real consumers is more helpful and innovative than trying to wave the magic wand some people call "creativity." I hope no one is out there hoping that a great new idea will come to them in a dream. Simply, open your ears and listen to what people are saying.

Bringing VALUE to online shoppers will drive the positive gain our clients will acquire. Furthermore, this ideal reflects the success we see at iGoDigital.

Time Article: Personalization and Recommendations Engines

Monday, June 7, 2010 by Dan Hanrahan

I cancelled my subscription to Time Magazine a week before they release an article on recommendation engines! If that was Time's effort to get me back as a subscriber it worked. Check out the article "How Computers Know What We Want - Before We Do".

www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1992403,00.html

The article explains personalization in terms a non-technical, non-retail person can easily grasp. I have already sent it to Mom as my attempts to explain product recommendations have been futile to say the least!

A couple of things I found interesting:

1. The article differentiates product recommendations based on attributes (ala Pandora) vs product recommendations based on the wisdom of the crowds or collaborative filtering (ala Netflix).

While iGoDigital uses both methods, we place a lot of emphasis on product attributes. If someone clicks on several 32 inch TV's or a few pairs of Nike Running shoes, we should pick up on that and recommend products with similar attributes. For certain retail categories, wisdom of the crowd recommendations make more sense, and for our books / movies cusotmers like Scholastic and Direct Brands, we weight the wisdome of the crowds more heavily.

2. A Forrester analyst is sited: "one-third of customers hwo notice recommendations on an e-commerce site wind up buying something based on them.

Product Recommendations work if cusotmers pay attention to them. Many of our customers ask whether we can help them boost a certain product with high margins or extra inventory. We encourage customers to avoid this as it erodes trust in recommendations, which ultimately loses the attention of the customer. There is nothing wrong with a recommendation scenario like "Hottest Deals on Overstocked Products", but these shouls clearly be displayed to the customer.

3. "The trouble with recommendation engines is that they are really hard to build...They're processing astounding quantities of data and doing so with seriously high-level math."

OK dev team, I get it. You guys are smart! The article sites examples from Pandora and Netflix. Those personalization engines were built for one site and one product category. Retailers should be wary of a "one size fits all" system. Our approach: The system likely contains 70% of the recommendation logic necessary for your site. But it is the last 30% of custom rules, attributes, and scenarios that will make or break the success of your engine.

There are lots of other good comments. Check out the article and let me know what you think.

The Art of Making Great Software is a Sense of Humor

Friday, June 4, 2010 by Dan Hanrahan

Walking into our development room/cave/fort/office, is like walking into bizarro world, maybe something out of a Dr Seuss book. Here are a couple of pics from just one corner of the fort:

IN case you cannot read this, it says "Nathan will eat 1 bite of his shoe, if geo-query is reasonable* and CIE (customer intelligence engine) times out."
*"Reasonable determined to be < 50 miliseconds" - the guys are working on migrating our location based product recommendations to the latest release. Nathan has put his money (or his shoe, in this case) where his mouth is...

I think this one speaks for itself - our dev team should NEVER work in prod, and yes, this is a cattle prod image. By the way, don't google images of "prod". It is rather disturbing:

Our VP of ops, Matt Brown and our CTO , Matt Coffman often have enthusiastic debates about the best strategy for our recommendation engine or product finders. I'm not sure who it was that compared them to the two old guys from the Muppets that always argued. So of course, someone immediately googles this, and prints off the image (not that I am bitter, but there was no ink left in the printer for the proposal the "dumb sales guy" aka me was trying to print.) I believe that is Coffman on the left, and Brown on the right:

THe bottom line is, we have a hell of a dev team. I think you have to have a sense of humor to be a developer. If you are clever and witty enough, send us your resume. I would put our dev team against any in the country. Person for person, I have never seen a more efficient team that could crank out any crazy thing our sales team comes up with!