Date: 19 February 2010

Word Of Mouth Ushers In Online Customer Renaissance

Past Times, t, has seen a 16% per cent uplift in its online turnover following the introduction of behavioural merchandising.

The retailer has announced the successful addition of the Venda Behavioural Merchandising™ module powered by Avail Intelligence. Results have been immediate and measurable with more than one third of all orders now including a product that was recommended by the solution.

Past Times stocks more than 1200 products, 75 per cent of which are exclusive to the retailer. Analysing the past behaviour of other shoppers who’ve visited the site, using data such as products viewed or purchases made means Past Times can automatically generate personalised recommendations in real-time. These become increasingly relevant as the solution continues to learn.

“At present these recommendations are displayed to our customers on the search results, product details and basket pages,” said Adrian Spence, head of ecommerce at Past Times. “Having worked at Amazon for seven years prior to joining Past Times, I’ve seen first hand the significant impact that behavioural merchandising has on conversion.”

“We went live with the behavioural merchandising module in December after a simple implementation process, which was part of a rolling technical programme Venda had put in place for us. We knew that if we could put the right products in front of the right person, at the right time, our dedicated customer base would more than likely make a purchase.”

“Customers are king in an age when word of mouth speaks far louder than any marketing or sales collateral ever could,” commended Pontus Kristiansson, CEO and co-founder of Avail Intelligence. “Past Times has a very loyal customer base and the ability to treat each one individually will only help to improve the customer experience, further strengthening brand loyalty.”

About Avail Intelligence

(http://www.avail.net)
Avail is the pioneer of behavioural merchandising software for the online retail industry. Its plug-in solution enables websites to automatically present the most relevant products to each individual visitor, resulting in a significant uplift in conversion rates and average order values.

Unlike traditional rules-based merchandising solutions, Avail Behavioural Merchandising software uses the collective behavioural data of all website visitors to automatically personalise the shopping experience for each individual shopper.

Using advanced mathematical techniques from its research arm Avail Labs, the Avail Behavioural Merchandising solution comprises a set of modules, which improve relevance when merchandising to and communicating with individual visitors across the entire Customer Interaction Cycle™ of a single web site or across multiple web sites. The solution is available either as an on-demand Software-as-a-Service or for local installation behind the retailer’s firewalls.

The results are significant, immediate and measurable improvements to conversion rates and average order values.

Avail Intelligence’s technology is being used by over 80% of the leading Scandinavian e-commerce sites. Key UK customers include WilkinsonPlus, Evans Cycles, GAME and Berry Brothers.

You can follow Avail Intelligence on twitter: http://twitter.com/avail_net

For further press information and photography please contact:

Patrick Hussey at LEWIS, the PR agency
Tel: +44 (0) 161 457 2050
Fax: +44 (0) 161 457 2051
Email: availuk@lewispr.com
Website: www.lewispr.com