How personalized Content increases Conversions and Sales

FACT-Finder is one of the top addresses in European e-commerce. The software house has been using machine learning to increase conversions for years.
Benedikt Mayer, Head of Marketing at FACT-Finder, gives AX Semantics some exciting insights into the successes the company has already achieved by focusing on personalization. Particularly noteworthy are the increases in conversion rates and sales.

Hello Benedikt, please tell us who you are and what you do?

I am the Marketing Manager at FACT-Finder, the European market leader for search, navigation and merchandising in online stores.
At FACT-Finder, we do everything we can to help online stores increase the conversion rate in their stores with our technology and consulting.

FACT-Finder is a well known company. Who are your customers and how many do you have?

A total of 1,800 online stores throughout Europe use us. Among them are well-known retail chains such as Douglas, Lidl and OBI. In addition to these retail chains, we also have a strong presence in B2B eCommerce, for example with Berner, Kaiser+Kraft and Distrelec.

Let's take a look at the personalization solution in particular. Please give us some concrete examples of how customers use the personalization solution from your company.

Through our 1:1 personalization, we create unique shopping experiences for every store visitor. Using AI, FACT-Finder evaluates individual customer journeys in the online store, recognizes patterns and affinities - e.g. brands, colors, categories, etc. - and thus personalizes the search results and recommendations. As a result, customers see exactly what they want to see, and the online store increases conversion rates and shopping cart sizes. Since our personalization works on the basis of session IDs and does not require any 3rd party cookies, it is fully DSGVO compliant.

In addition, we have another very exciting technology for B2B, eFood and pharmacies with our Predictive Basket. The Predictive Basket is a neural network that analyzes purchase cycles and thereby predicts what the customer wants to buy today. Our customer Kastner, for example, uses the Predictive Basket as a slider in the shopping cart and shows customers the products they have "forgotten". As a result, Kastner not only increases the average order value, but also customer satisfaction.

Can you give us some numerical insights on behalf of your customers? How successful are your customers with FACT-Finder's personalization solution?

Spontaneously, I can think of Kastner, which sells 2.3 more products per shopping cart by using the Predictive Basket, or Eddie Bauer, which achieved 3% more sales right from the start thanks to our Recommendation Engine. However, these are only the results of individual features; it gets really exciting when our modules interact and optimize each other. Then FACT-Finder achieves sales increases of 20-33%.

Impressive results. Do you believe that there is even greater potential than the results you have just presented?

I see huge potential for eFood, especially with the predictive basket. No one wants to compile their weekly shopping list of 50 products individually in an online store. Our Predicitve Basket predicts the right products with a probability of 70-80%. So instead of having to search for each product, the customer can simply drag and drop the right products into the shopping basket, for example. This speeds up the shopping process by 66%. At the same time, the customer is bound to the store in the long term, because only the store that has the customer's purchase history can offer this service.

How would you summarize the topic of personalization in e-commerce in one sentence as far as the status 2021 is concerned?

Individualization is one of the megatrends of the 2020s - in e-commerce, we have the technological opportunity to implement this consistently.

Thank you, Benedikt, for these exciting insights!