Customers.com Technologies

Revisiting the Requirements for Evaluating Recommendation Technology

Once again, our expert on merchandising and recommendations, Sue Aldrich, looks at the decisions and criteria you should consider before implementing a recommendations solution. As she advises, choosing a vendor wisely is always better than choosing often. And to aid you in that effort, she offers insights into how recommendations are crucial to effective targeting and personalization, how recommendations are best used, and what the requirements are for the marketers, merchandisers, editors, business analysts and other business people managing the recommendations, as well as for the end-customers who receive the recommendations.

As we move forward, Sue will use this updated framework for evaluating recommendation solutions< as she analyzes the major offerings in the market.

You can use this framework to gain an overview of the functionality that makes a difference in the quality of the personalized and targeted recommendations you deliver by email, on your web site, and on mobile devices. It’s also an extremely valuable tool for those of you evaluating recommendation solutions on your own so that you do choose wisely.

Recommendation Evaluation Framework, Version 2
Evaluating Solutions for Personalization and Recommendations
By Susan E. Aldrich, Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, September 22, 2011

Recommendations: Avail Behavioral Merchandising

By Susan E. Aldrich
Sr. VP and Sr. Consultant, Patricia Seybold Group

Our analysis of Avail Behavioral Merchandising is our third review of a recommendation solution using our Recommendation Evaluation Framework, Version 1. The target market for Avail Behavioral Merchandising, as for RichRelevance Recommendations and Omniture Recommendations, is ecommerce, especially retail ecommerce. As is often the case, retailers are in the lead in adopting a technology that has so much impact on the customer experience—and on their bottom lines. Recommendations not only deliver the most interesting content in general, they can deliver the most interesting content specific to this visitor in this context. And for a merchant, delivering the most interesting content means enticing customers to buy more now, rather than get frustrated or bored and leave. Avail’s clients typically see revenue increases ranging from 5 to 30 percent per visitor. Not surprisingly, Avail has had very strong growth in the ecommerce market.

Avail Behavioral Merchandising is among the more mature recommendation offerings, on the market since 2001. This maturity is apparent in its UI, which has advanced features such as preview and test capabilities. Avail Behavioral Merchandising also has some unique capabilities that open new possibilities for merchants to work together, including collaborative merchandising and syndicated merchandising. Avail Intelligence is based in Sweden and has mostly European clients, a demonstration of its multinational and multicurrency capabilities.