19 June 2009

The online menswear retailer has seen significant profit rises since using Peerius technology

Bagga is an independent menswear retailer that has been around since 1994. It is widely recognised as a leading edge retailer and in 2002 it was awarded the FHM award for Best Small Retailer in the UK. In January 2007 Bagga re-launched its Web site and such has been the growth that the site has achieved, it now accounts for 90 per cent of their turnover.

Dave Lomax, the owner of Baggamenswear.co.uk believes that the future of retailing lies in online business. He has set the company ambitious growth targets which could see the online business triple within three to five years. He expects this growth to come from overseas markets, a broader product range, improved marketing and what he calls his secret weapon – the Peerius recommendation engine.

Within one month of deployment , product recommendations generated by the Peerius recommendation engine were accounting for 15 per cent of the sales that the site was achieving. Plus, the average order value climbed by 23 per cent and the conversion rate went up by 40 per cent.

The Peerius Recommendation Engine uses Microsoft SQL Server to retain information about individual shoppers and uses this to make selections from the shop’s product range. It is highly personalised because, unlike the small number of sales assistants in a physical shop, when Peerius is deployed in an online shop there is effectively an army of shop assistants. Each one can give personal attention and advice to each individual customer. Peerius uses the Intelligence & Reasoning element of its recommendation engine to introduce product recommendations to the customer whilst they are shopping. It captures and uses all the behavioural information it knows about each individual customer; historical and current shopping session actions and reactions, purchase history, preferences, actions of likeminded peers. It then applies algorithms from a suite of options to determine the best recommendations to make to an individual customer at any given moment. And, it does this in real time, just like the sales assistant on the high street; making immediate judgements about what are the best recommendations to serve to customers.

Unlike other companies, Peerius use a suite of over 20 algorithms to generate the best products to recommend in any given shopping session to any individual. The technology selects which collection of algorithms to use in order to generate product recommendations to a shopper at all points in the customer journey. It also learns from how the shopper responds to the recommendations that are served. In this way it can take account of the changing seasons. Over time it will add all the changing preferences and tastes as individual shoppers get older.

Peerius email is a powerful tool that enables the creation of compelling email campaigns using personalised product recommendations. Delivering personalised product recommendations directly through customer emails as they are opened is a proven winner in generating sales.

Product recommendations can feature in all customer email communications; from order confirmations to transaction advice details and despatch notices. They can even drive email sales campaigns in areas such as abandoned basket re-targeting. As much as 60 per cent of all shopping baskets are abandoned before a purchase is made. The contents of those abandoned baskets can be used to re-target customer in emails that incentivise them to return to the site and make a purchase.

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