News

Company remains the only personalization provider to achieve distinction 

San Diego, CA – May 8, 2013 – Certona, the leader in real-time omnichannel personalization solutions for online and multichannel retailers, today announced that it is the vendor listed the most by retailers for Personalization for the new 2013 Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide for an unprecedented fifth year in a row. The publication ranks the 500 largest web merchants in North America based on annual web sales.    

“We are proud to be recognized for a fifth consecutive year on the Top 500 list as the preferred choice among the world’s most recognized brands and retailers,” said Meyar Sheik, CEO of Certona.  “As our clients grow their businesses, we are committed to providing them with proven and innovative personalization solutions that drive measurable results and deliver the most consistent brand and shopping experiences for their customers.”

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In a world where consumers expect an engaging shopping experience, businesses are seeking to deliver on that expectation by developing strategies that speak to each customer on an individual level. A proven way to accomplish this is to implement a personalization strategy that includes product and content recommendations and leverages the power of real-time customer profiling. In this series, entitled The Reality of Personalization, we will address the different levels of personalization, how to deploy them across channels, and ultimately develop an omnichannel experience.

Personalization Umbrella

Personalization has become increasingly common over the past decade, and what was once a basic black box implementation has become an umbrella for many techniques with varying degrees of complexity. From geographic targeting to true 1:1 real-time profiling, personalization is a catch-all for leveraging consumer data to deliver recommendations for the purpose of providing the most engaging customer experience possible.

As businesses develop a personalization strategy it is important to understand the benefits of the various options, and where each fits in accomplishing their goals.

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Long time Demandware LINK Technology Partner shares platform experience and thought leadership for today’s top online retailers

Las Vegas – April 3, 2013 – At the third annual Demandware XChange Conference, Certona will demonstrate how Demandware clients can extend their existing personalization and omnichannel capabilities to deliver a more engaging and consistent customer experience. Leveraging an impressive combination of one-to-one behavioral profiling, Big Data insights, predictive analytics, and real-time experience management capabilities, Certona provides Demandware clients with best in class technology to accelerate eCommerce revenue performance.

Recognized as the first certified personalization vendor to join the Demandware LINK Technology Partner Program, Certona’s pre-built and approved LINK cartridges simplify the implementation process for its Resonance^® personalization platform in a Demandware environment. With the pre-built integrations between Certona and the Demandware Commerce Platform, the typical length of time required for implementation can be reduced significantly which translates into measurable cost and time savings for retailers.

“Creating unique engaging experiences that deliver immediate and long-term value to shoppers is critical for retailers looking to obtain a competitive edge and build customer loyalty,” said Meyar Sheik, CEO of Certona. “As our mutual clients expand globally, we provide them with a holistic view of their customers and enable them to deliver a consistent brand and shopping experience anytime, anywhere.”

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When personalization is done right, shoppers find products aligned to their tastes and needs and, more often than not, the e-retailer garners the sale. Increasingly, consumers expect this level of service from e-retailers they frequent, says Meyar Sheik, CEO and co-founder of personalization software provider Certona. The vendor’s software generates product recommendations based on a shopper’s current and past on-site browsing, as well as past purchase history.

“Retailers need to think of personalization as a customer engagement strategy, not just a feature for their web site,” Sheik says. “The more holistic the personalization strategy, the more engaging the shopping experience and the more consumers will gravitate to the retailer’s site. The less personalized the shopping experience, the less it inspires consumers.

First-Time Visitors

”Personalization can be applied even when the eretailer may not have a lot of data about a particular shopper. For a first-time visitor, merchants can initially apply data culled from the actions of other first-time customers to personalize the shopping experience. For example, the e-retailer can show a new visitor the most popular products or brands among other first-time visitors. Then, as the consumer clicks around the site, Certona’s personalization software builds that customer’s profile and begins showing personalized recommendations, offers and related content. Certona’s personalization engine builds a customer profile after the customer makes just three to five clicks.

The more data the personalization software gathers, the more personalized and targeted the shopping experience can become. The optimal personalization implementation involves more than just tracking what pages a shopper views as she moves about a retail site and keeping a record of past behavior for a repeat customer to determine what products or promotions to show her. Retailers should also pay attention to all customer clicks to determine what information and additional content a shopper needs to not only find the right product, but decide to buy it.

“Consumers clicking on product videos or reading customer reviews should be directed to these sources of information along with targeted product recommendations, because they give the shopper the additional information they need to make a purchasing decision,” Sheik says. “Personalization is like a jigsaw puzzle and making it work effectively depends on a retailer’s ability to fit all the pieces together.”

Sheik also recommends that retailers tie their personalization strategy to a specific action or outcome, such as increasing the average dollar amount of orders, increasing content consumption or boosting conversion rates. That makes it easier to determine a return on investment.

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