How useful is your current Machine Learning Personalisation tool and what do you really know about it?
Guest blog from Ken Condon, of eCerge & Segmentify – together with his colleague Murat Soysal he is a speaker at our eCommerce MasterPlan Virtual Summit 2018
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Recently I was having a coffee on Grafton Street in Dublin with a friend of mine who shall remain unnamed but let’s just say he is an ecommerce nut of 15 years. When he isn’t working on his own site he is giving talks, writing great blogs or sending me links to the newest coolest AR or AI product that has caught his eye.
On this occasion it was me that started the conversation on the topic of how useful his current personalization tool was and whether or not he was competent in using it every week.
He actually shrugged his shoulders and said Ken I put recommendation blocks on my home page about 13 months ago and haven’t really done anything with them since.
So 13 months later he is still paying for a tool that he doesn’t understand how to use ,has never changed the Algorithm that was put there on day one even though things change in the digital world in a mile second and starts to complain to me about whether or not it was a great investment
This set my mind racing wondering if this was a similar story across the industry or just an isolated incident. So I decided to survey other ecommerce managers that I knew and of course sought your help here on Linkedin. I discovered the following…
Results
The first three questions I asked were basically to find out what people thought about their current tool, the training received and basically how useful they found the tool each day.
The results showed that the vast majority of people just used a plug and play and didn’t invest any time into a product that covered more than 30% of space on their site. Also its a tool that has the potential to grow you revenue up to 28% but this still doesn’t seem to be a good enough reason to take more control over it.
The second question I asked was whether or not you felt properly trained to use the tool by yourself every day in an attempt to really squeeze your site for sales and also consistently improve your UX. This was a landslide NO vote which showed that training isn’t really a priority out there for Providers and eComm managers don’t feel competent in using the tools. The final question in the first batch also showed that there is an uneasy feeling about actually using the tool with most leaving control slip to a third party.
I then moved to asking questions about how useful their Personalization tool was in the real world of Online Retail .A place where real things happen like end of line stocks or maybe you would like to really push a certain new brand in every recommendation block this weekend and not interfere with the Machine learning Algorithms. I think the word reactive is something that is missing from the current Personalization industry as too many things have to happen to help you react in the moment. Take a simple Algorithm , can you tell me how quickly you can change it and yes call the provider, get through ,explain your need and then wait until they have a moment or their tech team to action your need Your moment lost.
Or take for instance your need to add a Div container to a certain page.What do you do next ?? call your developer, book in time to lay the code (2,3 days a week maybe ) add the work to the monthly bill 2/300 euro or pounds and then wait for your provider to add the Algorithm (1,2 days ) Your moment lost
So now I wonder when investing in a great Personalisation tool is speed and accuracy of Algorithm the most important factor you gauge your final decision on.Should things like usefulness or UI come into the equation at all.
Does the big well funded brand names cloud your judgement so much that you are too embarrassed to ask for proper training on how to use it or is this just a factor you think your personalisation provider will do it for you on a minutes’ notice so you can react in time to an issue
This is where the little guy inside you says don’t touch what’s not broken and just be grateful with the 10/11% that you are getting from your tools.
Hence 13 months later my friend is not sure if he is happy with his investment or not as the results are just ok.
So I decide there and then to go looking for a more rounded Personalisation tool that I can actually use every day in my business.
I set about creating my wish list
I wondered to myself what if there was a product out there that allows you to drag and drop Algorithms into your div containers for fun.
A product that allows you to drop 5.6.7 different algorithms into the same block rather than just one and conserve space on your page.
What if it could add Static end of line stock or new brands into the recommendation block whenever I needed to, by just typing in the product code ☺ “sounds actually useful doesn’t it.”
But let’s not stop there. what if there was a personalisation product that doesn’t need any Div containers to be laid by your developer (Whattt ?) , it has a built in calendar so you can plan your promotions and they drop in automatically.
Annnnnd it goes live in 48 hours
That all sounded like a big ask but low and behold i found it in a small up and coming brand called
…….Segmentify…..
It has to be hands down the most useful Personalisation tool that I have come across and it’s so easy to use. You can actually tweak your own site every day, change whatever you need and just make sales. No delay no extra fees just a useful tool. I bet your happy you stuck with me now 🙂
Oh and average conversion increase is 11% in the first 2 weeks,,, can you imagine what you can do in 13 months
If you would like to challenge your site and your learning skills why not try it out for free for a whole month with no commitment. Take the Conversion Challenge ,,, you might even score a free growth hacking session with one of Europe’s top Growth Firms ..
>>Take The Conversion Challenge<<
For more details feel free to drop me an email at Ken.condon@ecerge.com
Best of luck with the challenge and please keep me posted as to how much conversion you grew in your month…
Regards
Ken Condon