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The pandemic caused massive shifts in the way we live, work and purchase the things we need. Lockdowns and social distancing protocols placed digital avenues at the forefront of daily activities, from meeting with colleagues to shopping for groceries. The transformation to a digital-first world continues to happen at record speed, and ecommerce needs to keep pace. In the US alone, ecommerce penetration experienced 10 years of growth in just three months when the pandemic first hit. Alongside this growth, consumer expectations have risen and 88% of customers expect companies to accelerate their digital initiatives.
Ecommerce product discovery technology is a key business differentiator
Now, more than ever, companies need to be focused on transformation through technology. The goal is to deliver personalized shopping experiences that remove friction from the online shopping journey and get the right products in customers’ hands faster. And it all starts with product discovery.
Merchants should no longer look at product discovery technologies as a cost of doing business. Product discovery is the key differentiator that can enable personalized and relevant experiences that ultimately shape the way customers engage with your brand and boost revenues.
Providing quality product discovery through ecommerce search and recommendations is a challenge for retailers today, but it’s one retailer must address. If merchants can’t execute product search well, customers will go elsewhere to find what they need. Gone are the days of brand loyalty. If shoppers can’t find what they need on your site, they will go to your competitors. 33% of shoppers will go to Amazon or Alibaba if they have a poor experience on a retail website.
“In this Digital-first era, now, more than ever, retailers need to focus on transforming the customer experience through technology. Whether you are a B2B or B2C retailer, technology is your differentiator. o To meet the demands of the digital-first era, Google and GroupBy are bringing the future of ecommerce to you by setting the standard for Product Discovery in the market. This partnership will emulate those tangible experiences customers get from a brick and mortar store and bring it online to create a frictionless shopping experience that’s bound to delight while getting products to customers faster than ever before,” said Roland Gossage, CEO of GroupBy.
Understanding customer intent in an omnichannel context is paramount
Companies need to understand customer intent to provide the hyper-relevant results and recommendations that customers are now expecting. These results must draw upon data from in-store and online, encompassing all customer interactions to provide a seamless, relevant and consistent search experience across the web and mobile. Only then will retailers create a truly distinctive and personalized omnichannel shopping experience – and reap the rewards in larger baskets and higher conversions. People are 40% more likely to spend more than planned when the shopping experience feels highly personalized, so the personalization of product discovery and recommendations Isa must.
The product discovery platform powered by Google Cloud Retail AI
While many companies rely on predictive analytics to create a certain level of personalization, GroupBy’s Product Discovery Platform powered by Google Cloud Retail AI uses true artificial intelligence (AI) technology. GroupBy’s partnership with Google means retailers can implement Google-quality search. GroupBy’s partnership with Google means retailers can implement Google-quality search and recommendations—based on Google’s semantic and contextual understanding of user intent. GroupBy fortifies the Google technology with expertise in using online and in-store data, data enrichment, merchandising and business objectives. The result is an unmatched customer experience.
Google has spent years delivering personalized content across flagship properties such as Google Search, Google Shopping and YouTube. This content has helped fuel state-of-the-art AI algorithms, now available within the highly scalable infrastructure of Google Cloud and ‘ ‘GroupBy’s Product Discovery Platform powered by Google Cloud Retail AI. With ‘ ‘GroupBy’s Product Discovery offerings, including Search, Navigation, Recommendations, Merchandising and Data Enrichment, all within a single platform powered by Google Cloud Retail AI, retailers gain access to a one-stop-shop of best-in-class search technology.
What’s in it for your business?
‘ GroupBy’s Product Discovery Platform powered by Google Cloud Retail AI is a partnership that will help companies like yours deliver a personalized, frictionless product discovery and recommendations experience that will keep customers returning to your website.
The following is just a shortlist of the benefits your company can experience:
Increased customer engagement
Advanced machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence capabilities provide fast, accurate and high-quality search results and recommendations that help increase customer engagement and shorten the shopping journey. This ultimately reduces bounce rates and improves customer retention.
Higher conversions and revenue
Drive conversions through personalized shopping experiences and increase basket size with highly relevant cross-selling opportunities powered by AI. Overcome cold-start challenges where no customer or product data exists by leveraging Google’s AI engine and ”GroupBy’s data enrichment capabilities.
Scalable search capabilities
Enterprise-size companies have a lot of data. With this platform there are no limits to putting your data to work for you. Deliver personalized search results and product recommendations, leveraging both your online and instore data, on a platform that scales with your business.
A deeper understanding of customer intent
Gain access to best-in-class technology that draws on ‘ ‘Google’s semantic understanding of customer intent and context to provide the highest quality search results and most relevant recommendations.
Improve retention
Reduce bounce rates and increase customer engagement and ultimately build a loyal customer base with more personalized shopping experiences, tailored cross-selling opportunities, unmatched search and recommendations results, and enriched product data.
Reduce manual intervention
Reduce manual intervention posed by rule-based systems and huge catalogs by timplementinga modern ML engine that leverages natural language processing (NLP), advanced query understanding and ranking models.
Google-quality search that is also customizable
Benefit from ‘ ‘Google’s advanced search capabilities that are also configurable to meet your business needs, including overriding search and recommendations to highlight products you want to move.
A single platform for all product discovery needs
Optimize search and recommendations results, improve product placement and analyze key results to implement specific pricing, inventory and promotional optimization strategies that update in near real time and align with business objectives.
Summary
The pandemic accelerated ecommerce growth, with 60% of interactions taking place online in 2020 versus 42% in 2019. Customer expectations have also been rising, which is putting added pressure on companies to improve their digital experience. While legacy systems and constrained resources can hinder a company’s ability to modernize, now is not the time to take a wait and see approach.
At GroupBy, we power ecommerce search and recommendation experiences for some of the ‘ ‘world’s largest retail customers, truly impacting their key business metrics. This new platform, made possible by a strategic partnership between GroupBy and Google, is revolutionizing the ecommerce experience and breaking new ground in product discovery technology.
GroupBy’s expertise in search, recommendations, data enrichment and merchandising, combined with ‘ ‘Google’s AI engine and years of experience understanding customer intent, will take your user
engagement to higher levels and drive more conversions. By implementing ‘ ‘GroupBy’s Product Discovery Platform powered by Google Cloud Retail AI, your company will be providing state-of-the-art search and recommendation results that will delight customers and deliver higher revenue gains.
Want to learn more? Tune in to the panel discussion with Google and GroupBy as we cover more details about this partnership with industry analysts here.