STORES Magazine
A full parking lot is generally a sign of a good
restaurant. A long line can indicate a new movie
is worth the price of a ticket. This unspoken
"wisdom of crowds" has been unavailable to
Internet shoppers until recently. Since
customers generally don't shop the same way
online as they do in bricks-and-mortar stores,
long-standing sales techniques don't easily
translate to the Internet.
This realization prompted Aggregate Knowledge to
create what it deems the industry's first
"discovery network" - an online system that
emulates the way people discover and shop for
products and information offline. The network
uses the collective behavior of Internet users
to deliver relevant content and product
placement on customer websites.
Aggregate Knowledge CEO Paul Martino and
products vice president Chris Law previously
developed social network Tribe.net. "They found
that the real indicator of customer interest on
the web could be better seen through aggregate
behavior observation rather than what customers
say they do," says Dave Peterson, chief
marketing officer of the San Mateo, Calif.-based
company.
Aggregate Knowledge's Pique Onsite Discovery "is
a breakthrough way for retailers to have their
customers lead each other to the most-relevant
and high-value products across their site."
AlwaysOn Media recently ranked Aggregate
Knowledge among the top 100 private companies
for "innovation, market potential, customer
adoption, media buzz and investor value
creation." The company was also named a
Connected Innovator by Supernova.
In addition to Pique Onsite Discovery, network
offerings include e-mail marketing personalized
with product suggestions based on aggregate
purchase history (but without personal data),
product discovery across multiple sites and
affiliate advertising promotions. Banners on
affiliate websites include personalized product
suggestions based on behavior and preferences
rather than the usual "one product attracts all"
approach.
When a company joins the network, a system
called Discovery Igniter is installed to observe
the anonymous actions of the website's visitors.
The aggregate buying and browsing behavior of
customers is recorded over a short time to build
behavior connections among products on the site.
This allows generation of suggestions such as:
"Customers who looked at this item also looked
at this" and "Customers looked at this item but
bought this."
There is no software involved. "We are a web
service," Peterson says. "Very little customer
effort is required. We handle maintenance in the
background." All of Aggregate Knowledge's
discovery offerings are on a pay-per-performance
basis.
Using Onsite Discovery
Online wine store Vinfolio features more than
2,500 bottles of unique and rare wines,
including hard-to-find new releases and vintages
held in private cellars for as long as 40 years.
"We target high-end wine collectors," says
Rachel Blatt, marketing vice president for the
San Francisco-based company. "Wine collectors
can access auction-grade wine on our site, and
we have a host of collector services to help
with their buying and storage needs."
Approximately half of Vinfolio's stock comes
from private collections. "Wine is a finite
resource," Blatt says. "Most of the really good
bottles are sold upon release and held in
cellars. Demand for fine wines has soared while
available product supply has decreased. We tap
into the supply by buying from these private
collections."
Founded in 2003, the site now has more than
20,000 registered wine lovers. Vinfolio uses
Onsite Discovery to provide wine recommendations
based on the aggregated choices of all customers
who visit the site. If a customer looks at the
description for a bottle of Stag's Leap, for
example, a list titled "People who looked at
this, also looked at this" pops up to encourage
additional purchases.
"The Onsite Discovery window is completely based
on our design," Blatt says. "Aggregate Knowledge
offered their input but let us determine what
would work best on our site."
The Discovery window is shown only on the wine
detail page. but that will soon change, Blatt
says. "Soon, customers will see recommendations
on every page." Vinfolio does not have to
maintain the recommendations or provide ongoing
data to Aggregate Knowledge, she says. "There
was some engineering time in the beginning to
make sure the Discovery window was pulling the
correct information from our site. Now, we just
need to make sure that our site stays up and
running to ensure Onsite Discovery works."
Next up for Vinfolio will be a new tool from
Aggregate Knowledge that will provide
recommendations on the home page based on
customer purchase and browsing history.
"Vinfolio's motto is 'Fine wine, finer
service,'" Blatt says. Through the use of Onsite
Discovery, "we feel we can truly support that by
helping our customers discover wines most
relevant to them."
Pique Onsite Discovery can prevent costly
"click-backs" to search engines, automatically
keeps pace with breaking news and trends and
personalizes results on home and category pages
to help users find what they want. Since
relevant content suggestions are posted
automatically with every click, Onsite Discovery
also allows companies to stop manually linking
online content together.
Aggregate Knowledge's product also works across
multiple sites. "We combine things we're doing
with over 30 customers across the network and
help customers by getting their products placed
on media company sites such as
washingtonpost.com," he says.
The unique approach to e-mail marketing "can
drive direct product placement," Peterson says.
"The second the e-mail is opened, we place
specific product suggestions in front of the
reader. These are what's happening on the site
at the moment the customer reads the e-mail, no
matter when they read it."