By Erika Morphy CRM Buyer Part of the ECT News Network
06/13/07 10:29 AM PT
ATG's new affinity selling functionality lets retailers offer personalized recommendations based on market segmentation. For instance, a shopper at could be segmented by the retailer as a "fashionista" -- someone who routinely buys the latest and most expensive merchandise -- and given a different set of up-sell or cross-sell offers than a bargain hunter.
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ATG (Nasdaq: ARTG) has updated its e-commerce platform to include automated affinity selling for retailers and other e-commerce providers. It is the biggest update the vendor has made since it rolled out its v. 6.4 platform last summer, spokesperson Tucker Walsh told CRM Buyer.
This release enhances the company's adaptive scenario engine by automating personalization capabilities, he explained. The features allow retailers to define groups and subgroups of customers, as well as the rules that apply to them.
For instance, on Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN), when customers make a purchase, they are automatically offered a list of other books or goods chosen by people who bought the same item.
This, too, is an automated personalization feature, Walsh noted -- but only addresses the first layer of the customer's interaction.
"Our model adds segmentation to that. It allows retailers to make recommendations not just on past purchases but also past purchases made by others in the same market segment."
The Fashionista Category
For instance, a shopper at
Louis Vuitton's Web site could be segmented by the retailer as a "fashionista" -- someone who routinely buys the latest and most expensive merchandise, as opposed to the majority of shoppers who might regularly buy only mid- or lower-priced goods. Fashionistas would be given a different set of up-sell or cross-sell offers.
"The user interface allows you to create market segments and market personas, and to then track and rank product affinities using these customer segments," Walsh said.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra will add advanced personalization features to its ATG-powered Web site, which attracts more than 5.5 million visitors annually, the company reported. The enhancements will provide suggestions on upcoming concerts that ticket-browsers may enjoy, based on their previous purchases.
"Our new affinity selling capabilities will further empower online sellers to match consumers with the products they are seeking, quickly and easily," said Cliff Conneighton, senior vice president of marketing . "By introducing automated personalization into the product recommendation process, merchants now have the power to offer customers a uniquely relevant and tailored shopping experience in a way they can easily afford and manage."
eStara and v 6.4
These personalization features complement ATG's efforts last year to build out its live Chat and search functionality. In 6.4, for instance, it incorporated new navigation features for users that it dubbed "searchandising." It also offered a new Live Chat feature that identifies when a shopping cart is about to be abandoned and responds with query to help.
The Live Chat functionality was buttressed a few months later, in September 2006, when ATG acquired eStara, a best-of-breed vendor specializing in click-to-call technology, for US$48.3 million. ATG has not yet folded eStara into an official release, Walsh said, although some customers have incorporated the technology.
ATG's Cliff Conneighton: E-Tailers 'Can't Wing It Anymore' February 21, 2007
The personalization concept is easy, Cliff Conneighton, senior vice president of ATG, told the E-Commerce Times. It doesn't mean putting a customer's name in lights at the top of the Web site, but rather, anonymously watching customers' behavior and buying history. "It's the simple concept that people buy what they want to buy -- so don't show them stuff that they don't want to buy."
ATG Nabs eStara in $48.3 Million Deal September 20, 2006
Demand for click-to-call functionality is rapidly growing, said ATG Chief Marketing Officer Cliff Conneighton. He pointed to eStara's revenues, which grew 64 percent year over year to $7.4 million in 2005. Revenue for the first six months of 2006 was $6.5 million.
ATG Upgrades E-Commerce, Customer Care Functionality July 20, 2006
ATG's "searchandising" blends site merchandising with search, and addresses a key problem with conventional retail site search platforms: They often produce results unrelated to what a customer is searching for, and worse -- from a retailer's point of view -- fail to include related promotional information with those results.
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