Intelligence Collected: The Baynote Blog
A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook: Play #9
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, Personalization on May 21, 2012
As part of our collaboration with Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, we have put together “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook,” to guide retailers in their quest to embrace metrics across their organizations. The playbook looks at how merchants integrate metrics into their decision making process. We’ll reveal each of the nine strategies in this nine-part blog series over the coming weeks.
PLAY #9 – DIALOGUE AND DISCUSS
Creating a consistent internal dialogue about the metrics that matter most to your organization will allow for greater understanding and deeper insights. Initiating a discussion about why specific metrics matter is a great way to get the conversation started and will establish a basic foundation of knowledge throughout the whole organization. The ninth play in our book discusses the value of dialogue and discussion around the metrics impacting your organization. To read more about this topic, download a free copy of “Metrics Therapy—Details, Dashboards and [...]
A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook: Play #8
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, Personalization on May 17, 2012
As part of our collaboration with Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, we have put together “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook,” to guide retailers in their quest to embrace metrics across their organizations. The playbook looks at how merchants integrate metrics into their decision making process. We’ll reveal each of the nine strategies in this nine-part blog series over the coming weeks.
PLAY #8 – INVEST IN DATA WAREHOUSES
While a data warehouse may require upfront capital, the investment will pay off in the form of more accurate and less time consuming report generation. The eighth play in our book discusses the value that merchants receive from data warehouses. To read more about this topic, download a free copy of “Metrics Therapy—Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” the new white paper by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group.
A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook: Play #7
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, Personalization on May 11, 2012
As part of our collaboration with Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, we have put together “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook,” to guide retailers in their quest to embrace metrics across their organizations. The playbook looks at how merchants integrate metrics into their decision making process. We’ll reveal each of the nine strategies in this nine-part blog series over the coming weeks.
PLAY #7 – PROVIDE HOLISTIC VIEW OF INFORMATION
Presenting metrics in a holistic fashion allows senior managers to gain a more compressive understanding of the customer. Unfortunately, synthesizing and presenting data from various business units can be a difficult task. The seventh play in our book discusses this challenge and the need to overcome it. To read more about this topic, download a free copy of “Metrics Therapy—Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” the new white paper by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, visit: http://www.baynote.com/resource/metrics-therapy-paper/.
A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook: Play #6
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, Personalization on May 9, 2012
As part of our collaboration with Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, we have put together “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook,” to guide retailers in their quest to embrace metrics across their organizations. The playbook looks at how merchants integrate metrics into their decision making process. We’ll reveal each of the nine strategies in this nine-part blog series over the coming weeks.
PLAY #6 – EDUCATE INTERNALLY
While there is a cost in gaining detailed information from different sources, retailers are realizing there needs to be a balancing act between cost, education and access. The sixth play in our book highlights the importance of internal team alignment on all touch points under review and how to tie analysis together to reduce complexity. To read more about this topic, download a free copy of “Metrics Therapy—Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” the new white paper by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, visit: http://www.baynote.com/resource/metrics-therapy-paper/.
A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook: Play #5
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, Personalization on May 8, 2012
As part of our collaboration with Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, we have put together “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook,” to guide retailers in their quest to embrace metrics across their organizations. The playbook looks at how merchants integrate metrics into their decision making process. We’ll reveal each of the nine strategies in this nine-part blog series over the coming weeks.
PLAY #5 – FOCUS ON THE ACTION NEEDED BY MOVING BEYOND THE NUMBERS
A detailed metrics report is only worthwhile if it leads to action. The fifth play in our book is focused on the importance of looking beyond the numbers to clearly understand what they mean beneath the surface. To read more about this topic, download a free copy of “Metrics Therapy—Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” the new white paper by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, visit: http://www.baynote.com/baynote_resources/metrics-therapy/.
A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook: Play #4
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, Personalization on May 3, 2012
As part of our collaboration with Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, we have put together “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook,” to guide retailers in their quest to embrace metrics across their organizations. The playbook looks at how merchants integrate metrics into their decision making process. We’ll reveal each of the nine strategies in this nine-part blog series over the coming weeks.
PLAY #4 – STANDARDIZE DEFINITIONS PRIOR TO ANALYSIS
Comparing performance metrics from across your organization is difficult, and becomes even more difficult when everyone is using different definitions. The fourth play in our book focuses on establishing standardized definitions across your organization to help simplify the reporting process and, more importantly, allows for better metrics analysis. To read more about this topic, download a free copy of “Metrics Therapy—Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” the new white paper by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, visit: http://www.baynote.com/resource/metrics-therapy-paper/.
April Personalization Round up
By Dan Darnell in Personalization on May 1, 2012
The Personalization Roundup is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month highlighting the rapidly growing topic of web personalization. For this month’s roundup, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
Over the last month, we’ve seen several interesting articles and reports discussing the current and future status of the e-commerce and personalization landscapes. Read on to learn more about the most commonly missed e-commerce opportunities, and to see who some VCs believe will emerge as Amazon’s biggest competition.
Measure For Success, MediaPost Research Brief—Our very own white paper, “Metrics Therapy– Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” by the e-tailing group’s Lauren Freedman, was discussed by several media, including MediaPost’s Jack Loechner. The white paper features findings from the e-tailing group’s 2012 Merchant Survey as well as insights from interviews with top retailers. The findings reveal that while retailers believe [...]
A Merchant’s Playbook #3
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, Personalization on April 30, 2012
As part of our collaboration with Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, we have put together “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook,” to help guide retailers in their quest to embrace metrics across the organization. The playbook looks at how merchants can integrate metrics into their decision making process. We’ll reveal each of the nine strategies in this nine-part blog series over the coming weeks.
PLAY #3 – MEET REGULARLY: THE MONDAY MEETING AND MORE The third play in the book focuses on internal communication. The metrics themselves don’t matter if they are not socialized and accepted across the organization. As with so many things in life, sharing has strong benefits to the organization.
To read more about this topic, download a free copy of “Metrics Therapy—Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” the new white paper by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, visit: http://www.baynote.com/resource/metrics-therapy-paper/.
A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook: Play #2
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, eCommerce on April 28, 2012
As part of our collaboration with Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, we have put together “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook,” to help guide retailers in their quest to embrace metrics across the organization. The playbook looks at how merchants can integrate metrics into their decision making process. We’ll reveal each of the nine strategies in this nine-part blog series over the coming weeks.
PLAY #2 – RUN THE COMPANY LIKE IT’S SMALL
The second play in our Merchant’s Metrics Playbook focuses on thinking like a small company. Small companies are nimble and have to be transparent to survive.
To read more about this topic, download a free copy of “Metrics Therapy—Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” the new white paper by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, visit: http://www.baynote.com/resource/metrics-therapy-paper/.
Introducing “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook”: Play #1
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, eCommerce on
As part of our collaboration with Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, we have put together “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook,” to guide retailers in their quest to embrace metrics across their organizations. The playbook looks at how merchants integrate metrics into their decision making process. We’ll reveal each of the nine strategies in this nine-part blog series over the coming weeks.
PLAY #1 – ALIGN GOALS
The first play in the book focuses on goal alignment. You may have heard the author Jim Collins’ saying, “Get the right people on the bus, and then figure out where to drive it.” Similarly, for retailers, gaining company-wide alignment on goals should be a top priority.To read more about this topic, download a free copy of “Metrics Therapy—Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” the new white paper by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group, visit: http://www.baynote.com/resource/metrics-therapy-paper/
Presenting “Metrics Therapy- Details, Dashboards and Diligence” by the e-tailing group
By Dan Darnell in Analysts & Guests, eCommerce, Featured on April 25, 2012
Today we’re excited to unveil “Metrics Therapy– Details, Dashboards and Diligence,” a new white paper by Lauren Freedman of the e-tailing group. We collaborated with the e-tailing group to better understand the current state of e-commerce analytics and identify the key metrics retailers believe will drive the industry forward.
The paper includes data from the e-tailing group’s 2012 Merchant Survey and insights from over 20 in-depth interviews with a cross-section of top retailers. It also features “A Merchant’s Metrics Playbook” – a guide to help retailers determine a forward-thinking strategy that takes into account the right metrics and methodologies for running their business.
Overall, the report revealed that while the overwhelming majority of retailers view analytics evaluation as the number one factor in customer retention and loyalty (93 percent), their use of metrics is still a big work in progress. Check out our infographic below for a snapshot of the paper’s key insights.
Gift Recommen-data
By Jen Burns in Personalization, Recommendations on April 17, 2012
About two weeks ago, a male coworker of mine asked for a birthday gift recommendation for his mother. You would think he would have some idea of what she wanted. But, he was having trouble making the connection between what he knows about his mom and the tangible products she might like. Before I could recommend anything, however, I needed more information.
I asked, “Tell me about your mother. What kind of things does she like or like to do?”
His response, “Well, she moved recently to be near the beach.”
I said, “So, she has a new house by the beach. Have you considered buying her something for that?”
And just like that, a light went off in his head, and he suddenly a laundry list of new gift ideas. So, we talked more about the kinds of things she likes and does not like to narrow down the list. Eventually, we decided on some candles with seashells embedded [...]
A Shopping Experience is a Value Exchange
By Dan Darnell in Customer Experience, Personalization, Recommendations on April 12, 2012
Just like a purchase is an exchange of currency for an item that the consumer finds valuable, the shopping experience a business creates has value. As sites add more content, including videos, and increase engagement with valuable customers, they find that these customers are less price sensitive and don’t comparison shop. This is something that four-wall retailers have known for years – service and merchandising really matter to certain segments of consumers.
Increasingly, how you interact with consumers online matters as well. As consumers spend more time online, their expectations for engaging and informative experiences are only increasing.
In recent conversations with leading retail customers, I have noticed them stating that their sites are moving away from a one-and-done e-commerce mentality. Their sites are increasingly about engagement, community, and becoming a trusted resource for information. Their value then is not just in providing products, it is providing information about those products and allowing their customers to share information and experiences. [...]
Employee Spotlight: Gideon Amparo
By Jen Burns in Company, Our Culture on April 10, 2012
If you asked exactly who has the most trinkets by his desk at Baynote, Gideon might be in the running. But if you asked who you would send customers to when you need someone friendly, knowledgeable and with a great sense of humor, the definite answer is Gideon Amparo.
What’s your name and job title at Baynote? Special Agent Gideon Amparo, Technical Support Engineer
How long have you been here? 414 days
What does a typical day at Baynote look like for you? Customer Support is a 24-hour job, so I keep my eye out constantly for support emails/calls. When I’m in the office, outside of fielding new customer issues, I’m usually resolving support issues, attending customer-facing meetings, or completing special support-related projects to allow our customers to be more self-sufficient. It definitely keeps me busy but that’s why I get paid the medium bucks.
Tell us how your past experience made you [...]
Of Cookies, Martinis and Five Year Olds. The Perils of Personalization
By Brittany Stagnaro in Personalization, Recommendations on March 29, 2012
‘Tis better to give than receive, yet gift giving can put us on the receiving end of a whole lot of stress. To help alleviate this, I often shop online where the only parking space I need is on my couch. The trouble is, most of the time it’s clear that my online experience is being influenced more by who I am and what I’ve done in the past, rather than what I’m looking for today. And that’s really no help at all, especially when I’m shopping for my five year old niece(she’s not really into martini glasses and handbags like her auntie is). In this case, no amount of profile data is going to help earn my business.
Retailers grappling with big data know that what they’re collecting possesses an incredible amount of untapped value, and they are right, it does. But the next generation shopping experience can’t just focus on who the customer is – it has to [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #10: Stores
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, eCommerce, Engagement & Conversion, Personalization on March 28, 2012
This is the tenth and final cartoon in Baynote’s series by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy.” Over the course of the series, we’ve received some great feedback from you on our cartoons, so please continue to let us know what you think! To say thanks for your input, we’ll send you a print signed by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only).
Over the past few months, we’ve taken a light-hearted look at some of the personalization challenges in the retail industry, and hopefully provided a few laughs along the way. As this last cartoon in the “Intent to Buy” series illustrates, the greatest challenge online retailers face today is delivering customers a shopping experience that reflects what they’re looking for in the [...]
March Personalization Round up
By Dan Darnell in Personalization on March 23, 2012
The Personalization Roundup is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month highlighting the rapidly growing topic of web personalization. For this month’s roundup, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
Spring has officially sprung, and it looks like everything’s coming up roses for personalization. Over the last month, we’ve seen an uptick in personalization success stories, as well as some interesting postulations as to what the future of the personalized web might look like. Read on to find out what technology giants like Google and our friends across the pond had to say about the personalization trend this month:
Personalization in 2012: Intent Leads, Social Matures, Retail Touchpoints—our very own Scott Brave posits his predictions for where he envisions retailers will be able to get the most value from personalization this year. Scott is [...]
Employee Spotlight: Lawrence Berment
By Jen Burns in Company, Our Culture on March 21, 2012
This month we’re featuring our IT pro, Lawrence Berment. But this smiley IT guy does more than just fix computers. He’s your go-to for audio, video, security (well, computer security, though he would gladly walk you to your car if you asked) a broken internet connection or broken screen. You name it, he knows it. Lawrence took a few minutes between being awesome to answer some questions about himself and his role at Baynote.
What’s your name and job title at Baynote?
Lawrence Berment. Sr. IT Technical Analyst
How long have you been here?
8 months
What does a typical day at Baynote look like for you?
My day usually starts with putting out any IT-related fires. After taking care of those, I spend time catching up on my daily tasks. Either way I stay pretty busy, which I like. Working in a start-up environment is great because you get to do things at work you may not ordinarily do. [...]
Why Does Google Hate Personalization?
By Neal Amsden in Onsite Search, Personalization on March 20, 2012
Earlier this month, Google announced that their encrypted search is going global. First deployed in October on google.com, it appears SSL encryption will now expand to other localized Google domains. The SEO community is still unhappy – and rightfully so. Although the percentage varies, site owners are seeing a significant portion of search traffic go dark – as much as 20%, 25%, or even 30% in some cases.
Since the beginning of the year, 37% of organic traffic to baynote.com has fallen into the dreaded (not provided) keyword category. Your numbers may vary, but I’d place a large bet that it far exceeds the “single-digit” percentages Google predicted back in October.
Much has been written (some of the best by the folks at Search Engine Watch) describing how [...]
Experts Talk about the Future of Personalization
By Brittany Stagnaro in Events, Personalization on March 15, 2012
Personalizing the shopping experience for today’s savvy customer requires much more than product recommendations based on past purchases or slapping their name on a promotional email. Consumers expect a smart shopping experience with low or no barriers to discovery and purchase. Tomorrow’s consumers – you know, those high school kids with the Bieber bangs – expect brands to go far beyond traditional personalization practices to facilitate the discovery of new products, relevant content, deals and offers. Simply making product recommendations just won’t cut it anymore.
The recent eTail West show provided a perfect opportunity to gather together a group of eCommerce pros to talk about the peaks, pitfalls and future of personalization. Baynote customers Bluefly, XO Group (formerly TheKnot Inc.), and Aurora Fashions led an interactive session with their peers over lunch. The panelists spoke candidly about the future of personalization – not only their personal perspectives as practitioners, but the perspectives of their respective organizations [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #9: E-Commerce Profiling
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, eCommerce on March 14, 2012
This is the ninth in Baynote’s ten-part series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy.” We’ve received some great feedback from you on our cartoons, so please continue to let us know what you think! To say thanks for your input, we’ll send you a print signed by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only).
See the complete series, here.
Whether a Hasselhoff CD or a Snuggie, we’ve all made an uncharacteristic – or silly – shopping decision at some point. But even avid Hasselhoff fans may not take well to shopping experiences tailored to only these few purchases. To avoid profiling customers, tap into the micro-behaviors that occur during online shopping sessions and use that data to personalize the customer [...]
Retailer Apps are Dead on Arrival
By Dan Darnell in Mobile Commerce on March 13, 2012
News this week from Apple that more than 25 billion apps have been downloaded from its App Store would seem to promote the idea that apps are the way of the future. While this may be the case in a number of categories, for retailers the world of apps is a dead end.
But, you say, apps are a great way for mobile and tablet users to engage. Unfortunately, retailer-created apps have failed to gain the critical mass required to pay for their development. I know from talking with a large retailer that their acclaimed app only has 30 to 40 thousand downloads. Compared to their online and in-store shopping numbers, this number of retailer-specific app downloads is pathetic. The hurdle that people have to jump through to find and download the app is a huge issue in its own. And with data throttling on phone plans, you can expect consumers to be more selective in the apps [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #8: Pick-up Lines
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, eCommerce on March 6, 2012
This is the eighth in Baynote’s ten-part series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy.” We’ve received some great feedback from you on our cartoons, so please continue to let us know what you think! To say thanks for your input, we’ll send you a print signed by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only).
See the complete series, here.
“Free shipping” and “half-off” might be nice, but not even the smoothest pick-up lines will work with customers if you’re not tuned into what they want in that very moment. Want to convert your customers instead of just engage in sweet talk? Show them how much you care about their shopping experience by personalizing based on what they’re [...]
Highlights From eTail West 2012
By Jen Burns in eCommerce, Events on March 5, 2012
eTail West is one of the largest multi-channel retailer conferences. Social, mobile and tablet are nothing particularly new in the eCommerce world (see: multichannel), but most companies have now had time to test, optimize and improve their strategies around these different areas. Learn what these large companies are focused on in a few key highlights:
Social channels as retail stores aren’t worth the investment and time. As one venture capitalist put it, putting your catalogue on Facebook is “silly.” Social channels have yet to show high ROI. And while brands and retailers alike understand that social is a place they must have a presence, the level of conversion from social channels remains questionable. Pinterest is being used but mainly as a high quality traffic driver. When social became the hot focus around 2009, a lot of companies tried to leverage their website onto Facebook in order to be where their customers were spending the most [...]The Future of M-commerce = The Tablet
By Dan Darnell in eCommerce, Featured, Personalization on February 28, 2012
As I mentioned in my last post introducing our 2nd Annual Holiday Online Shopping Experience Survey, we are doing a series of more detailed blogs on some of the study’s major themes.
First up: tablets.
When we received the initial results, one of the very first things that popped out at us was how many tablet owners bought products with their devices this year. Not just researched with, but actually purchased.
Further, 60% of tablets owners expect to make a purchase in the next year with the device, with 23% saying they’ll do so in just the next three months.
Considering just how new the tablet is in the history of computing, it’s astounding to see numbers like these, indicating that the future of m-commerce is clearly in the tablet. And we are not the only ones to draw this conclusion; leading e-commerce industry analysts have also made similar statements.
Steve Jobs [...]
Baynote in the Winner’s Circle as an OnMedia 100 Top Private Company
By Anurag Wadehra in Company on February 23, 2012
I’m excited to announce that Baynote has been recognized by OnMedia as a top private company. The 100 companies selected this year represent the most forward-thinking companies in their respective industries, each pushing the envelope by bringing forward innovative ideas and taking on new challenges to improve the customer experience.
Truly, the opportunity has never been better for online retailers to understand their customers and personalize accordingly, so it was fitting the #1 company in the line-up was Pinterest, the virtual pin board that has recently ignited a media frenzy. According to the Wall Street Journal , traffic to Pinterest’s website has grown tenfold over the past six months – in fact, in January Pinterest had almost a third of the number of Twitter’s unique visitors. We’re following the Pinterest phenomenon very closely because we believe it represents the very beginning of what opportunities exist for retailers [...]
February Personalization Round Up
By Dan Darnell in Personalization on February 22, 2012
The Personalization Roundup is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month highlighting the rapidly growing topic of web personalization. For this month’s roundup, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
After New Year predictions die down, February often leaves retailers wondering what will really transpire over the next eleven months. Enter Pinterest, the virtual pin board site with big possibilities for retailers and an outpouring of affection from users, as well as new research indicating growing demand for personalized online experiences. Read on to find out how personalization is helping brands woo new customers and make old ones fall in love all over again:
A scrapbook on the web catches fire, New York Times—The fastest site in Internet history to break the 10-million-unique-user mark, Pinterest became the hottest thing [...]
Employee Spotlight: Dane Christensen
By Dan Darnell in Our Culture on February 17, 2012
As someone with a world of background in the Internet and IT industry, it’s no surprise that Dane Christensen loves working on the cutting edge. That’s why you’ll find him here at Baynote as an Engagement Manager. But in order to be an engagement manager at Baynote, you have to be engaging! (It’s a requirement, seriously.) And in this month’s employee spotlight, you will see why Dane is a perfect fit. What’s your name and job title at Baynote?
Dane Christensen. I am an Engagement Manager
How long have you been here?
10 months, since April 4, 2011
What does a typical day at Baynote look like for you?
My days are full of a wide range of activities to help Baynote work better for our customers. On a typical day, I’ll help a customer add new attributes to their catalog feed, work with our solution engineers to tweak the look and [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #7: Buying Guide
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, eCommerce, Engagement & Conversion on February 15, 2012
This is the seventh in Baynote’s ten-part series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy”. We’ve received some great feedback from you on our cartoons, so please continue to let us know what you think! To say thanks for your input, we’ll send you a print signed by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only).
Check out the complete series.
Imagine walking into a store and asking a sales associate for help selecting a sweater, only to be told they couldn’t assist you unless you made a purchase first. Ridiculous, right? Yet, a lot of retailers look only at actual purchases to determine peoples’ interests despite the fact we give all sorts of clues about our interests far beyond the “buy” button. The way we see it, following [...]
Employee Spotlight: Eric Ericson
By Dan Darnell in Our Culture on February 7, 2012
For a company that processes 5.4 terabytes of data every day, you can imagine how important data center operations are to our business. Enter Eric Ericson, our IT operations manager. On a busy Monday afternoon, Eric took a few minutes to tell us a little about himself and his work at Baynote.
Describe your role at Baynote
I am responsible for all of the production and Data Center operations for Baynote. This includes all customer-facing infrastructure pieces, along with overall application performance.
How long have you been here?
I’ve been with Baynote for a little under two and a half years.
What does a typical day at Baynote look like for you?
There is a fair amount of variability in my day, both a mixture of strategic and tactical. My primary responsibility is ensuring that the production environment is healthy, and that the Operations team is not blocked on projects. On the strategic [...]
Email, Search and Direct Mail Outperforming Daily Deal Sites and Social
By Anurag Wadehra in eCommerce, Social Networks on February 6, 2012
In many ways 2011 was the “year of Groupon.” There was a tremendous amount of buzz around sites offering daily and flash deals, and new sites popped up overnight to compete, with the year culminating in Groupon’s controversial IPO. Blogs like LiveOffGroupon.com even chronicled shoppers living only on daily deals. Suddenly, it seemed that these sites were woven permanently into the fabric of online shopping and perhaps on the road to retailers preferring to use them over direct mail and even email.
Given the interest around daily deals, in our recent 2011 Holiday Online Shopping Survey one question we set out to answer was: are daily deals really worth the hype?
The short answer? “Not quite.”
When shoppers were asked to choose which channels were most useful for receiving coupons and promotions, shoppers ranked traditional channels like email, direct mail and search over daily deal sites (shown). Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter ranked even further [...]
Don’t Believe the Hype – Articles Based on PEW Research on Mobile Shopping Are Misleading
By Dan Darnell in Mobile Commerce on February 3, 2012
“More than half of adult cell phone owners used their cell phones while they were in a store during the 2011 holiday season to seek help with purchasing decisions.”
This is the quote I have seen repeatedly across the web since the Pew Research Study “The rise of in-store mobile commerce” was released on January 30th. This quote, when taken out of context of the remainder of the report, is misleading. Mobile adoption for in-store experiences is not 50%!
Let’s be clear on what the research says: 52% of people used their mobile devices at least once in store during a 30 day period. And, they used their devices to perform such tasks as call a friend for advice, look up review, or look up a price. Only 33% used their phone specifically for online information while inside a physical store—either product reviews or pricing information; again, at least once in a 30 day [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #6: Abandonment
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, Landing Page Optimization, Personalization on February 1, 2012
This is the sixth in Baynote’s ten-part series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy”. We’ve received some great feedback from you on our cartoons, so please continue to let us know what you think! To say thanks for your input, we’ll send you a print signed by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only).Check out the complete series.
Make no mistake: selling online is hard work. With statistics reporting that up to 75 percent of all shopping carts are abandoned just before the sale is closed, it’s a miracle that most retailers haven’t been institutionalized. The good news? Personalization may be just what the doctor ordered. By providing a customized experience that identifies and addresses their in-the-moment needs, retailers can help shoppers go the distance, all the way to the checkout button.
January Personalization Roundup
By Dan Darnell in Personalization on January 27, 2012
The Personalization Roundup is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month highlighting the rapidly growing topic of web personalization. For this month’s roundup, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
January kicked off with a bang as we said ‘goodbye’ to 2011 and ‘hello’ to 2012 and a fresh set of resolutions. Retailers took a hard look at their failures and successes over the last 12 months and began setting new benchmarks for performance across their channels. With a record-breaking holiday shopping season behind us, now is the time for retailers to take action and ensure their online storefronts are up to snuff. Read on to find out how personalization is positioning brands for success and sparking innovation and disruption in the New Year:
Email and Search in a Buyer’s Dream
By Anurag Wadehra in Uncategorized on January 24, 2012
All channels considered, email and search are the two most widely ones used on the web. They are also two of the most heavily spammed. And for many retailers, some of the most misunderstood. (See our most recent cartoon: Email Offer) As you may know, over the holidays we conducted a shopping survey* to find out how customers felt about the online shopping experience. Here are a few best practices to incorporate into your customer channels.
1. Provide a customized search engine that works
According to our survey, retailers have a lot of room to improve when it comes to helping shoppers find the products they are looking for. The number one concern for consumers* was that when searching for a product on a retailer’s search engine they are shown too many different products to choose from. This lack of personalization results in a busy array of content, confused buyers and high bounce [...]
Social Commerce Disappoints This Holiday Shopping Season, But Still Shows Promise
By Anurag Wadehra in Uncategorized on January 23, 2012
On the one hand, Baynote’s recent Holiday Shopping Experience Survey showed that 80 percent of consumers were not influenced by social networks over the holidays. On the other hand, 20 percent reported purchasing a product on a retail website after receiving a special offer or promotion on Facebook. While these numbers certainly didn’t live up to the hype surrounding social commerce, they still indicate a big opportunity for retailers.
In addition, while only 9 percent purchased a product on a Facebook fan page, 55 percent said getting advice on products from friends was important, indicating retailers are missing an opportunity to exploit the social graph. However, the real opportunity does not live on Facebook, per se. Those retailers that effectively integrate social graph data and features into their own websites to better personalize the shopping experience will win big. See my recent article about this topic in MultiChannel Merchant.
Interested in learning more? Be sure [...]
The State of Mobile Phone vs. Tablet Shopping
By Jen Burns in Featured, Uncategorized on January 20, 2012
If you’ve joined us lately, you are aware that we’re running a series of blogs on our annual holiday shopping survey*. As the highest ranking year yet for online sales with over 35 billion in revenue, it’s understandable retailers are eager to find new ways to enhance the customer experience through technology. Mobile is at the top of many e-commerce executives’ lists. But where and how should they invest? And from a consumer standpoint, who is making the purchase: the on-the-run mobile phone shopper or the couch-surfing tablet enthusiast?
Baynote Annual Shopping Survey in 2011 and 2012:
Survey Stat: 14.4% of consumers (up from 12.6% in last year’s shopping survey) used their mobile phones to purchase over the holidays.
What it Means: Enabling purchasing on phones is a nice to have for many retailers. However, according to our survey, 77.6% of consumers [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #5: Email Offer
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, Email Marketing, Personalization, Recommendations on January 18, 2012
This is the fifth in Baynote’s ten-part series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy”. We’ve received some great feedback from you on our cartoons, so please continue to let us know what you think! To say thanks for your input, we’ll send you a print signed by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only).
Check out the complete series.
In life, there is only one constant: that nothing remains the same. As anyone who had a perm in the 80s will tell you, that can be a very, very good thing. But what happens when retailers fail to take these life changes into account when providing personalized offers to their shoppers?
As Tom Fishburne’s latest cartoon illustrates, personalizing e-mail offers based on old data is a surefire way to [...]
We Took a Giant Bite of the Big Apple; Day Two Highlights from NRF 2012
By Brittany Stagnaro in eCommerce, Events on January 17, 2012
It’s the second and final day of NRF’s Big Show in New York City and industry experts are spending much of the day looking into their crystal balls and talking about the future, with today’s docket including sessions like “What the Next Five Years of Retail Will be About” and “Retail 2020″. Here are some of today’s highlights:
Keeping up with the Millennials. The next-generation consumer is today’s 15-year-old kid, and their generation will expect the customer experience to be customized based on their history, preferences, social graph, intent and location. As if that weren’t enough, Millennials want to be an active participant in the manipulation of the experience. If they can’t interact with the brand in a customized manner, they’ll discard it and move on to a competitor.
Bryan Eisenberg, author of “Always Be Testing”, implored today’s retailers to prioritize keeping pace with customers over simply staying ahead of the competition. Eisenberg’s session, “The Future Shopper: How Offline [...]
NRF Big Show 2012 – Day One Highlights from the Show Floor
By Brittany Stagnaro in eCommerce, Events, Personalization on January 16, 2012
The Baynote team is onsite at THE retail event of the year, The National Retail Federation’s Annual Big Show in New York City. Here’s a recap of today’s highlights from the Big Apple.
Hail to the Chief – Make that former Chief. Bill Clinton presented to a packed house this morning, providing his take on the current state of economic conditions. A baby boomer, the former President says his generation never had to worry about making a living until now. “During my young adulthood, success in your chosen field was uncertain, but I never doubted that I could make a living,” Clinton said. “The recent economic downturn has shattered that.” This uncertainty out in the job market is reshaping the way we think about gender roles in retail jobs. Men are now taking more and more in-store retail positions – jobs formerly held mostly by women. For more takeaways from today’s keynote, check out #ClintonKeynote on Twitter.
[...]Did Retailers Make the Grade? Baynote Presents Results of Its 2nd Annual Holiday Online Shopping Experience Survey
By Anurag Wadehra in eCommerce, Engagement & Conversion, Personalization, Social Networks on January 12, 2012
I’m excited to share results today from Baynote’s 2nd Annual Holiday Online Shopping Experience Survey. With so much hype around emerging channels, our survey shows online retailers which of them actually delivered the best online experience according to the shoppers themselves. We’ve also addressed the hype surrounding some of the most talked about topics in online retail, including social, mobile and tablet commerce.
The results are compelling and frequently surprising. While consumers reported an overall improvement in sentiment around their online holiday shopping experience, there is still a lot of room for improvement. Personalization, deemed one of the most important attributes of a positive online shopping experience, remains an important area of focus for retailers, with 93 percent of shoppers reporting that personalized shopping experiences on retail websites met or exceeded their expectations, but fell short on newly emerging retail channels like smartphones, tablets and Facebook. Based on our findings, Baynote predicts that retailers will be working hard [...]
New Year, New Heights: My Predictions for Personalization in 2012
By Scott Brave in Personalization on January 11, 2012
In 2011, we saw a real shift across the industry in perceptions surrounding personalization. What was considered a “nice to have” just a few years back is now a requirement for any successful online strategy. Yet while half of retailers think they’ve got personalization mastered, most of them are in fact approaching it in fundamentally the wrong way. Retailers still rely too heavily on past purchases and customer profile data, giving an online experience based on what the shopper has done in the past – not what they are doing in the moment. In the coming year, the savviest retailers will be those that prioritize personalization based on in-the-moment intent. Here’s how we see personalization maturing in the New Year.
Personalizing for right here, right now: Shoppers show up at a website intending to purchase something, but their intent isn’t necessarily reflected in their past buying habits or online profile. Retailers will begin to shift away [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #4: Email Deal
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, Email Marketing, Personalization on January 5, 2012
This is the fourth in Baynote’s ten-part series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy”. We’ve received some great feedback from you on our first three cartoons, so please continue to let us know what you think! To say thanks for your input, we’ll send you a print signed by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only).
Check out the complete series.
Let’s face it; we’ve all stuck a well-meaning foot in our mouth at one time or another. If we’re lucky, we’re able to smooth down those ruffled feathers and laugh off our blunder. But as our latest cartoon from Tom Fishburne illustrates, that perfectly normal human experience can be a fatal gaffe for retailers that fail to connect with, or even worse, insult the very customers they’re trying to win over by deploying [...]
Baynote Customers Make the Grade, Top the IR 100 Charts
By Anurag Wadehra in eCommerce on January 4, 2012
Each year, the folks over at Internet Retailer release the “Hot 100 List,” a comprehensive listing of 100 e-tailers that are making big moves within the industry. But don’t be fooled by the title—the Hot 100 is much more than a list; it’s an acknowledgment of some of the most forward-thinking and innovative brands in today’s marketplace. That’s why we’re particularly proud to say that this year’s list, which “represents the judgments of our editors about which e-commerce sites have broken new ground in the past year in ways that other e-retailers can learn from,” includes not one, not two, but four Baynote customers, including Urban Outfitters and Bluefly.
Not only is it rewarding to see our customers receive the acknowledgement they deserve, but recognition like this confirms something that we’ve known all along: that Baynote is working with some of the most forward-thinking retailers in the world. Please join us in extending our [...]
Employee Spotlight: Dan Darnell
By Dan Darnell in Personalization on January 3, 2012
Meet Dan. Dan is our Sr. Director of Product Marketing. With a focused yet friendly personality, Dan works hard to ensure Baynote’s product strategy is effectively communicated across teams and channels.
What’s your name and job title at Baynote?
Dan Darnell. Sr. Director of Product Marketing.
How long have you been here?
3 months.
What does a typical day at Baynote look like for you?
Morning is my “thinktime” so I normally spend the first part of the morning working on something strategic like messaging or a critical info-graphic. From there it is typically off to a meeting or triaging email. We are very outcome oriented and I get to figure out what is important to meet my objectives. So, I try to figure out the “big rocks” for the day and make sure those get priority time. This is a startup environment, so I rarely get everything [...]
Employee Spotlight: Dan Darnell
By Dan Darnell in Personalization on
Meet Dan. Dan is our Sr. Director of Product Marketing. With a focused yet friendly personality, Dan works hard to ensure Baynote’s product strategy is effectively communicated across teams and channels.
What’s your name and job title at Baynote?
Dan Darnell. Sr. Director of Product Marketing.
How long have you been here?
3 months.
What does a typical day at Baynote look like for you?
Morning is my “thinktime” so I normally spend the first part of the morning working on something strategic like messaging or a critical info-graphic. From there it is typically off to a meeting or triaging email. We are very outcome oriented and I get to figure out what is important to meet my objectives. So, I try to figure out the “big rocks” for the day and make sure those get priority time. This is a startup [...]
December Personalization Roundup
By Anurag Wadehra in Personalization on December 27, 2011
The Personalization Roundup is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month highlighting the rapidly growing topic of web personalization. For this month’s roundup, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
‘Tis the season and what a season it’s been! During the busiest Cyber Week in U.S. history, retailers jingled their bells to the tune of $6 billion, with Cyber Monday yielding an unprecedented $1.25 billion in sales in one day alone. And there doesn’t seem to be any sign of slowing down: to date, total online retail sales this holiday season have reached an astonishing $32 billion, an impressive 15 percent increase over last year’s numbers. It may be cold outside, but it’s hot online.
With record numbers of consumers flocking to retailers’ online storefronts, it’s apparent that consumer confidence in [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #3: Relying Solely on Profiles
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, Personalization, Recommendations on December 15, 2011
This is the third in Baynote’s ten-part series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy”. If you’re new to the series, be sure to check out our previous cartoons. We’re still giving away signed prints by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only), so please continue to let us know what you think!
Check out the complete series.
The good news is you’d be hard-pressed to find a retailer that goes quite to the extent this cartoon suggests. The bad news? This is commonly how many retailers view their online shoppers – as personas that fall into specific profile types that can be marketed to.
The 20-something male from Jackson Hole, Wyoming: He must love to ski. The farmer from Iowa: He must [...]
When it Comes to Personalization, Sophistication’s in the Eye of the Beholder
By Neal Amsden in eCommerce, Personalization on December 6, 2011
A recent report on personalization from the e-Tailing Group had us scratching our heads. As described by Stefany Moore in Internet Retailer, the report reveals that 54% of online merchants rate their personalization strategy as ‘highly sophisticated’. The headline trumpets IR’s conclusion: Half of online retailers say they’ve got personalization down pat.
Wow. Maybe there’s not as much need for Baynote’s personalization solutions and services as we thought. Bummer for us.
But before we unplug the network and turn in our keys, let’s take a closer look. Later in the article, we get these revealing stats: “52% of respondents personalize their shopping cart pages, 44% personalize product pages, 41% home pages, 21% category pages and 17% search results.”
My math skills aren’t what they used to be, but something here doesn’t add up. More merchants define their personalization as highly sophisticated (54%) than apply personalization to their shopping carts (52%)? Only [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #2: Only Santa Stays the Same
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, eCommerce, Personalization, Recommendations on November 28, 2011
This is the second in Baynote’s ten-part series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy”. We received some great feedback from you on our first cartoon, although Dale, we sincerely apologize for the recurring “My Little Pony” theme song in your head. Please continue to let us know what you think! To say thanks for your input, we’ll send you a print signed by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only).
Check out the complete series.
The lights are coming out. The executives are planning the company parties. The ratio of green and red to every other color is rapidly closing in.
Yes, the holiday season is finally in full force.
Today is an especially important day for those of us working in e-commerce, marking Cyber Monday, one of the busiest online [...]
November Personalization Roundup
By Carlos Carvajal in eCommerce, Personalization on November 27, 2011
The Personalization Roundup is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month highlighting the rapidly growing topic of web personalization. For this month’s roundup, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
As we struggle up from the Thanksgiving table and swing headlong into another holiday season, retailers are making their lists and checking them twice to ensure their online channels are up to snuff. Recent reports by Forrester and Deloitte indicate that online shopping will increase by 15% to $60 billion this year, with the Internet replacing discount stores as the No. 1 holiday shopping destination. Something tells us there might be a Wish List registered to K. Kringle on Amazon.
In the midst of good news for [...]
eBay Has a Hunch
By Neal Amsden in eCommerce, Personalization on November 22, 2011
Thirty years ago, Apple welcomed IBM to the personal computer business. This week, news came that eBay has purchased Hunch, a recommendations service whose taste graph technology helps personalize shopping experiences based on users’ interests. We at Baynote would just like to say:
Welcome eBay.
Seriously.
eBay’s move underlines – to the tune of $80M – the strategic importance of personalization to online retailers. More specifically, it validates the critical importance of personalizing based on something other than a customer’s demographics or past purchase history. As pioneers and long time innovators in intent-based personalization, we couldn’t agree more with that emphasis – we wish them well.
Of course, eBay’s move raises the bar for every other online retailer. The more relevant and personalized the shopping experience becomes on a high-volume site like eBay, the higher will be consumers’ expectations for all online shopping. Fail to meet [...]
Intent to Buy Cartoon #1: Purchase History
By Anurag Wadehra in Cartoons, eCommerce, Personalization, Recommendations on November 16, 2011
This is the first in Baynote’s ten-part series of cartoons by award-winning cartoonist Tom Fishburne, titled “Intent to Buy”. Please let us know what you think of this cartoon. To say thanks for your input, we’ll send you a print signed by Tom if you post a comment within one week (U.S. addresses only).
We’re really excited to debut the first illustration commissioned by Baynote from Tom Fishburne, “The Marketoonist.” The cartoon series, called “Intent to Buy”, will humorously shed light on the top challenges faced by marketers and e-commerce professionals as they try to personalize and improve the online experience in the wake of heightened consumer expectations. We’ll be introducing a new cartoon every other Wednesday for the next 20 weeks so please check back in regularly and we encourage you to share ideas about additional e-commerce personalization pain points you’d like to see lampooned in [...]
Is the concept of multi-channel commerce moot?
By Anurag Wadehra in eCommerce, Mobile Commerce on November 14, 2011
On November 2, I attended Innovation Uncensored, an event hosted by Fast Company in San Francisco.
While there were plenty of good talks, I was especially intrigued by the conversation between Fast Company editor Robert Safian and John Donahoe, President & CEO if eBay.
The premise of the talk was centered around “reinventing a giant,” exploring how a signature brand like eBay can reposition itself in a fast-changing and unpredictable environment. The key takeaway that stuck with me was when John stated provocatively that there’s no difference between ecommerce, brick and mortar retail stores and mobile commerce. He effectively echoed what Brian Walker from Forrester has stated – that multi-channel commerce “no longer makes sense.” The reason is that consumers – you and me – are no longer thinking in terms of channels. Half of all retail and brick-mortar transactions touch the web. In fact, web is driving foot traffic into stores, so a better [...]
October Personalization Roundup
By Carlos Carvajal in eCommerce, Personalization on October 27, 2011
The Personalization Roundup is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month on the topic of web personalization. For this month’s roundup, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
There’s a chill in the air and leaves on the ground as we say goodbye to October and hello to November in our latest roundup. With Halloween just around the bend, what better time to look at how personalization is helping retailers offer treats, not tricks to shoppers? Just look at our exciting new partnership with Crowd Factory; by integrating Baynote’s personalization software with Crowd Factory’s leading social marketing platform, for the first time ever, merchants are able to deploy social offers in line with real-time buyer intent. Considering the recent buzz surrounding daily deals and social commerce, this partnership is right on time!
This month, the New [...]
Employee Spotlight: Rick Craig
By Carlos Carvajal in Our Culture on October 25, 2011
Facts: Hippos can’t jump, iPhone 4S sales topped four million in the first weekend and websites don’t update themselves. That’s why you need someone who’s constantly greasing the wheels, keeping things fresh and ensuring everything is working just as it should. For Baynote, that’s Rick. Meet the man behind a whole lot of what you see here on the Baynote website and blog:
Name:
Rick Craig
What’s your formal title?
Web Administrator
What exactly does that mean?
I keep the Baynote website up-to-date and running smoothly. This could mean writing code for the framework and working on new designs, or simply publishing new content (like this blog).
Briefly, what is an average day at Baynote like for you?
A typical day can range from a day buried in code and designs, or a day buried in marketing media and content that extends beyond the website. It always starts with [...]
Forrester and Shop.org Study: Personalization Driving Up Average Order Values
By Anurag Wadehra in Engagement & Conversion, Personalization, Recommendations on October 20, 2011
Forrester and Shop.org recently released the second and final component of their two-part annual State of Retailing Online (SORO) report, an industry temperature check on all things e-commerce. Widely regarded as the “bible” of Internet and multi-channel retail research, the SORO uses extensive data collected directly from retailers to develop tangible metrics and performance benchmarks for new and existing e-commerce strategies. Simply put, the report is the place for online retailers to learn what’s working and what isn’t in e-commerce.
The study focuses on merchandising, headcount growth, and global strategies. We’re particularly excited about some of the report’s findings around personalization.
Some of the discoveries that caught our attention include:
Personalization is Driving Higher Average Order Values (AOVs): The report names recommendation engines as the key driver of the overall boost in customer purchases; 54% of retailers reported a rise in AOV over the last year. Through personalization, retailers are recognizing and capitalizing on the opportunity to [...]Baynote + Crowd Factory = Social Commerce ROI
By Anurag Wadehra in eCommerce, Engagement & Conversion, Partners, Social Networks on October 10, 2011
Since e-commerce conversion rates have been tracked by the industry, the average has hovered between two and three percent. Yet according to the Fireclick Index, 10 percent of visitors come to e-commerce sites intending to make a purchase. There’s something woefully wrong with this picture.
Rather than spend more money on SEO as a workaround to the problem or procure new technologies within the ever expanding e-commerce stack, online brands ought to focus on the personalization of their existing websites and channels such as social and mobile to create a more engaging shopping experience. By doing this, we believe it’s possible for them to see a multiplier effect on their current investments and beat the conversion curse once and for all.
We recently said we would be announcing a series of partnerships to help our customers realize this vision by extending Baynote’s intent-driven personalization capabilities across all retail touchpoints. As part of that promise, I’m really excited [...]
September Personalization Roundup
By Carlos Carvajal in eCommerce, Onsite Search, Personalization, Social Networks on September 30, 2011
The Personalization Round Up is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month on the topic of web personalization. In our sixth monthly round up, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
Summer may have given way to Fall, but if these recent articles are any indication, personalization is still bringing the heat. This month, we heard about Microsoft darling Bing’s brand new “Adaptive Search” feature, the importance of conversion in today’s e-marketplace, a potentially game-changing new avenue of social networking, and the Google-backed Ebookstore that has competitors like Amazon and Barnes & Noble sweating.
As always, we here at Baynote love a good discussion, so be sure to share your thoughts and comments below. Read any interesting articles lately? Post links and I’ll share them in our October Round Up next month.
Microsoft in on Intent-Based Personalization
By Dan Darnell in Personalization on September 28, 2011
Microsoft’s Bing recently set the media ablaze with the reveal of its adaptive search function; the latest move in the company’s bid to overthrow Google’s throne as the search king. While the company has struggled to emerge from Google’s shadow since unveiling Bing in 2009, a recent ComScore report revealed that Microsoft is gaining market share, a development that can be attributed to their steady stream of search enhancements. The latest, and arguably the greatest, of these enhancements is adaptive search, which the company says “helps decipher the intent and context of each search you conduct based on your search history.” Simply put, Bing is bringing personalization to search by examining past history to make predictions about future interests.
Make no mistake, personalized search certainly isn’t new. Since 2008, Google has had a previous query option that takes into account past searches when conducting new ones. But what’s interesting about Bing’s vision is that the company “views personalized [...]
Employee Spotlight: Kendra Borrego
By Carlos Carvajal in Our Culture on September 21, 2011
On our virtual trip around the Baynote campus, you’ve met some of our superstar engineers, managers, and account executives, and even the occasional comedian (we’re still laughing, Mark!) Now, for our newest employee spotlight, let’s head to the mosh pit to meet our number-crunching, punk-music loving Chief Financial Officer, Kendra Borrego. Hurry up, the band’s about to start!
Name: Kendra Borrego
What’s your formal title?: Chief Financial Officer
What exactly does that mean? In a company the size of Baynote, the CFO is an amorphous and moving target. It usually involves all things accounting, legal, finance, human resources and facility related. It not only requires the ability to think and act strategically, but a willingness to get your hands dirty.
Briefly, what is an average day at Baynote like for you? For the most part, the structure of an average day depends on where it lands in the fiscal cycle. I spend quite a bit [...]
Baynote at Shop.org
By Neal Amsden in Events on September 9, 2011
We are gearing up for Shop.org in Boston next week, and are really excited about all of the activities we have planned. If you’re planning to be there, we hope you’ll stop by our booth (#931), and join us at the events that we are hosting. Here is a snapshot of what we have going on:
Opening Reception – sponsored by Baynote Enjoy a Baynote Breeze (or the beverage of your choice!) in the Expo Hall from 5:30 – 7:30P on Monday, Sept 12. Monday Night Football After Party – RSVP and Registration Required Join Baynote, Monetate and Invodo after the reception at Game On! at Fenway Park (Boston’s Best Sports Bar). Watch the Patriots vs Dolphins while playing games, taking a swing in the Official Red Sox batting cage or just relaxing. We’ve reserved a private space from 7-11 p.m. for our guests and buses will shuttle to and from the convention center all evening.August Personalization Round Up
By Carlos Carvajal in Personalization, Recommendations, Social Networks on August 29, 2011
The Personalization Round Up is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month on the topic of web personalization. In our fifth monthly round up, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
August is typically a slower news month, but there was no shortage of activity! As we say goodbye to summer, we saw innovation from a new search startup called Ness, Monetate receiving funding, some good advice for marketers to customize digital experiences for consumers and more.
We’d love to read any interesting articles that have caught your eye recently. Post links to additional articles in the comments below, and I’ll be sure share them in our September Round Up next month.
Monetate Raises $15 Million in a New Funding Round – Early this month, the testing, targeting and personalization services provider for e-commerce raised $15 [...]
It’s That Time Again?– 4 Tips for the Holiday Shopping Season
By Carlos Carvajal in eCommerce, Personalization, Social Networks on August 2, 2011
Any online retailer can tell you there are a million moving parts to prepping for the holiday shopping season: determining inventory, marketing and advertising campaigns, revamping the website, planning the digital strategy… and on and on.
Since Baynote has extensive experience helping online retailers prepare for the holiday season, we thought now would be a good time to share some tips for personalizing your customers’ shopping experiences this year:
1) Understand customer intentions as they change in real time. In order to deliver a personalized experience that’s in tune with your customers’ changing needs each time they visit your site, you have to go beyond traditional personalization approaches that focus on past purchases and user profiles. This is especially true during the holiday season when people are buying for different friends and family each day. A shopper may visit a sporting goods site one day to buy a fleece jacket for his wife, and the next day to [...]
Employee Spotlight: Mark DeChant
By Carlos Carvajal in Our Culture on July 27, 2011
In our ongoing efforts to highlight all the great people that work here at Baynote, you’ll meet everyone from our engineers to our management team to our HR staff. For our newest employee spotlight, we’d like to introduce you to one of the newer additions to our team who has brought with him – as you will soon tell – quite the sense of humor. Rest assured – if you’re near Mark, you’ll always be laughing:
Name: Mark DeChant
What’s your formal title?: Senior Account Executive
What exactly does that mean?
I help senior executives at Fortune 1000 companies earn big bonus checks … with the help of Baynote’s services.
Briefly, what is an average day at Baynote like for you?
Customer sales presentations, and any and all reasonable activities that lead to additional customer sales presentations.
How long have you been here? Since June 6, 2011.
It’s Saturday. Where [...]
July Personalization Round Up
By Carlos Carvajal in Personalization, Recommendations, Social Networks on July 21, 2011
Image courtesy of sgrace, Flickr
The Personalization Round Up is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month on the topic of web personalization. In our fourth monthly round up, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution. This month kept us on the lookout for fireworks well past the 4th of July holiday, as sparks flew around personalization for ecommerce merchandisers, web gurus and advertisers alike. Whether on social shopping or mobile commerce, you could almost guarantee a lively discussion on this topic at any time in July. We always look forward to reading interesting articles that have caught your eye recently. Share links to additional articles (or your own trend predictions!) in the comments below, and I’ll share on the blog next month. Google+ Improves on Facebook , The New York Times – Google joined in on Facebook [...]
Forrester’s Top Five E-Commerce Trends Still Hold True
By Carlos Carvajal in eCommerce, Mobile Commerce, Personalization, Social Networks on July 15, 2011
Last January Forrester published its “Five Retail eCommerce Trends To Watch In 2011”. Sucharita Mulpuru was Forrester’s lead analyst on the report, which Henry H. Harteveldt and Doug Roberge also contributed to. Now that we’re a little more than half way through the year, I thought it would be fun to look back at those trends and reflect on how relevant each is right now.
Here’s my take below; please let me know what you think of these trends and any new ones you feel should make the list as we head into 2012.
Trend #1: Multichannel e-commerce takes hold.
As more consumers turn to the web for content and shopping, savvy retailers are investing in their multichannel strategies to capture more profits from their web divisions than ever before. Forrester predicted this trend would continue, especially as mobile devices enable easy web access from anywhere.
My Take: Sucharita and her team nailed it with [...]
Personalization, Conversions and Multi-Channel Commerce Dominate Internet Retailer Conference & Expo (event recap)
By Carlos Carvajal in eCommerce, Events, Personalization on June 29, 2011
Photo credit: Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2011
This month Baynote attended the 7th annual Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition (IRCE) – and man, was the conference buzzing! With the online retail market growing rapidly, there certainly is a lot to buzz about. To lend a hand to any of you still furiously sorting through conference notes and others who couldn’t make it to San Diego, I’ve compiled my notes on the trends that shaped conversations at IRCE this year. From the show floor, to back rooms, to keynote presentations, three major trends emerged:
Demand for Personalization. Undoubtedly, the single most challenging and exciting trend for online merchandisers today is web personalization. As the face of retail changes rapidly, so do the expectations of all consumers. The ‘new retail’ is constantly being refined and tailored to meet consumer’s expectations to find and purchase exactly what they want within seconds. As keynote speaker Christopher Payne of eBay put [...]Employee Spotlight: Gal Josefsberg
By Carlos Carvajal in Our Culture on June 23, 2011
In our last (and inaugural!) Employee Spotlight, we introduced you to one of the rockstars in our engineering department. Today we bring you the low-down on a member of the other half of the puzzle – product management – because where would engineering be without products to build?! Folks like Gal keep us all on our toes:
Name:
Gal Josefsberg
What’s your formal title?:
Director, Product Management
What exactly does that mean?
I get to make all sorts of fun decisions about what features we will develop, when we will deliver them and what they will look like. I also work closely with sales and marketing to make sure we present our products correctly to the outside world.
Briefly, what is an average day at Baynote like for you?
Lots and lots of meetings. As a product manager, you need to work with sales, engineering, customer-ops, G&A, marketing and… well, I guess [...]
June Personalization Round Up
By Carlos Carvajal in Personalization on June 22, 2011
The Personalization Round Up is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month on the topic of web personalization. In our third monthly round up, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
Behold the almighty barbeque, the family camping trip and well-worn pair of flip flops. Summer is…back! With it, June also swept in a slew of interesting perspectives about personalization as the topic took hold across new industries. The personalized web and its implications sparked conversation among a diverse cross-section of individuals, from retailers, to branding experts, to social marketers. It’s fast becoming a big, personalized world out there.
To help you consider your own plan of attack, we’ve again curated the best articles on personalization this month. As always, we’re eager for your thoughts on these and other articles driving dialogue around web personalization. Throw us a [...]
Employee Spotlight: Joe Napolitano
By Carlos Carvajal in Our Culture on June 7, 2011
If you’ve ever wondered who the people powering Baynote are or what it’s like to work here, wonder no more. In our ongoing spotlight of the rotating cast of characters at Baynote, you’ll meet everyone from our engineers to our management team to our HR staff (and did I mention we’re hiring?).
First on the block, let’s meet Joe:
Name: Joe Napolitano
What’s your formal title? Software Engineer
What exactly does that mean? Software Engineers analyze problems, and participate in the design, implementation and testing of a product that solves them.
How long have you been here? 9 months
It’s Saturday. Where can we find you? Enjoying the beautiful scenery in Santa Cruz—my home away from home!
What’s something your friends are surprised to learn about you? I play several instruments, and I sing in the car!
Fill in the blank. I make a mean person rethink their perspective… or a raspberry tart.
What is it like being [...]
Video Conversation with Doug Merritt, Baynote CEO
By Carlos Carvajal in Our Culture on June 2, 2011
We recently asked our CEO Doug Merritt, who joined us in January, to share what he’s been focusing on so far and what he’s excited about moving forward. At the top of his list were a focus on recruiting exceptional talent, fostering a strong company culture and product development.
Here’s what he said:
Tracking = Personalization? Definitely Not
By Neal Amsden in Personalization on May 31, 2011
For the most part, I think James Temple’s article in last week’s San Francisco Chronicle (Is it tracking or personalization? Ask the user.), is spot on. Finding the right balance between privacy and personalization is a critical challenge of the digital age. And he does a good job out outlining some of the key elements in the debate. But he blurs the lines regarding a couple of key terms that deserve better treatment.
The first is ‘relevant’. He cites a scenario of an overweight person doing searches and clicking on sites and articles in such a way that tracking software could tell he/she had a weight problem. He complains that an advertiser could pitch ‘relevant’ – but unwelcome – ads for junk food.
He states these ads would be relevant (and effective) for the advertiser but not for the end user. I disagree they should be called relevant in any way, shape or form. Relevance is an unmitigated good [...]
TopSEOs Names Baynote One of the Best at Landing Page Optimization
By Carlos Carvajal in Landing Page Optimization, Our Culture on May 26, 2011
We have some cool news to share!
This month, a leading independent authority TopSEOs ranked Baynote among the best landing page optimization companies. Even better? May marks the third consecutive month Baynote has earned a top spot in TopSEOs’ “Best Landing Page Optimization Companies” category. Here’s a bit more background on TopSEOs and their evaluation methodology.
TopSEOs provides independent rankings in dozens of vendor categories to inform internet marketing purchase decisions. Its research methods emphasize customer anecdotes and experiences to determine rankings – meaning that outstanding customer results and experiences are crucial to earn a top category ranking. The “Best Landing Page Optimization Companies” category – released monthly – also ranks each vendor in five categories that include: site analysis, strategy development, implementation, testing and reporting. The combination of positive customer feedback and high scores in each category awarded Baynote a top ranking.
What makes us especially proud of this ranking is the incredible [...]
The scary side of large website management (and personalization)
By Neal Amsden in Personalization on May 25, 2011
A recent eConsultancy blog post by Doug Kessler of Velocity Partners (one of our favorite people btw – an extremely talented creative type) outlines the ugly underbelly of large website management – documenting how a disturbingly large percentage of large websites fail to deliver on basic expectations for usability and accessibility. For example, out of 900 top websites reviewed, 18% had five or more average errors of accessibility, usability or compliance per page – and the 100 largest companies averaged more than six errors per page.
Yikes. It’s frightening. And instructive. Doug concludes that “the structures and tools to ensure the site experience stays on the rails haven’t kept up” – and he outlines five systematic and symptomatic ways to fix these issues.
It’s good reading – and it’s reminiscent of the same problems of scale we often see plaguing web personalization efforts. Let’s face it – it’s hard to manage content across a large web presence [...]
May Personalization Round Up
By Carlos Carvajal in Personalization on May 20, 2011
The Personalization Round Up is an ongoing blog series featuring the most evocative news, articles and blogs curated by Baynote each month on the topic of web personalization. In our second monthly round up, we’ve combed the web to once again bring you the latest and greatest on the personalization revolution.
Along with spring showers, this month has also brought personalization to the tip of everyone’s tongue. Landing atop MIT’s list of emerging technologies with the greatest impact and even topic du jour for an A-list actress, personalization is taking center stage in May.
What interesting personalization stories and trends are catching your eye right now? Share links to must-read articles with us in the comments below, and we’ll be sure to share with everyone in June! Links of the Month for May:
• Social Indexing, MIT Technology Review – Personalization grabs a top spot in MIT’s 2011 Emerging Technologies list as Facebook’s chief technology [...]