BloomReach Big Data App Aims to Transform Mobile Experiences

Mountain View, Cali.-based BloomResearch, with expertise in big data-based marketing applications, wants to enhance and make more personal the mobile customer shopping experience.  Its new BloomReach Mobile solution does just that. Built on the company’s Web Relevance Engine technology— which delivers relevant cross-channel experiences by leveraging the collective intelligence of both the web and individual sites to match content with user intent— the company believes it has produced, “The market’s first cross-channel-optimized mobile search and discovery solution.” It is certainly worth a look.

Smartphones make mobile shoppers smarter

As BloomReach highlights, smartphones have become an integral part of the in-store shopping experience and have significant impact on shopper purchasing decisions when they are out and about.  In fact, recent research found:

• 65 percent of online searches begin on a smartphone
• 85 percent of consumers use their smartphones while shopping in a store

The new app is designed to make existing mobile websites and apps more relevant to store visitors by providing them with continuously optimized content mapped to the unique characteristics of the visitor and their device.  Through an integration of services, BloomReach Mobile uses Web-wide and social data, natural-language processing and machine learning to provide unique, multichannel experiences with data-driven search, visual discovery and individually created categories and selected results. 

How useful can a more personalized experience be?  BloomReach says it can increase revenue by as much as 40 percent per visit. 

BloomReach has produced two useful videos illustrating the app and its utility. In fact, watch the video below to the end and then click on the link to the demo video to get the full picture.

It also turns out that big data can big smiles. “Our goal at Deb Shops is to provide each and every customer with a superior experience that lets them find what they’re looking for quickly while having fun,” said David Cost, vice president of ecommerce and digital marketing at Deb Shops. “BloomReach Mobile has allowed our mobile customers to expedite rapid and deep discovery of our products to create unique brand experiences for the fastest-growing segment of multi-channel shoppers.”

How it works to make the experience more personal and compelling

The videos show off the power of the technology being used.

• Cross-channel optimization: BloomReach Mobile identifies anonymous, individual user profiles and determines if customers are likely the same person using multiple devices without customer authentication.  BloomReach Mobile then uses these insights to create dynamic categories based on the shopper’s on-site web and mobile activity in addition to presenting the most relevant products and search suggestions. This rewards loyal shoppers with intuitively connected experiences on the website, mobile site or app. BloomReach Mobile also provides analytics that track usage from mobile discovery to web purchase to help retailers assess mobile influence across their channels.
• Machine-learning powers predictive search, auto-suggest and contextual search: BloomReach Mobile incorporates machine learning, cross-channel behavior and Web-wide intelligence to intuitively deliver search and discovery determined by data analysis across a retailer’s site and the web. Auto-suggestions and predictive search use big data collected daily from 150 million Web pages and more than a billion consumer interactions to make thumb-searching simple by suggesting contextual phrases from only one to two characters. Then, it rapidly shows relevant products based on consumer intent and mobile site content.
• Turn Trending Social Data Into Revenue: BloomReach Mobile offers “Trending” to retailers who want to transition browsing users to loyal customers. The “Trending” feature provides social discovery informed by the social-networking referral traffic from both mobile and websites. Trending social discovery is continuously updated and increases both time-on-site and frequency of visits.

“We have built our business using big data applications to create relevant experiences that connect marketing content with customers at the right moment. Now, we create those experiences across and on the right devices,” said Raj De Datta, CEO of BloomReach. “BloomReach Mobile is designed mobile-first – architected for the distinct characteristics of mobile discovery, which is very different from in-store or web discovery. We use our Web Relevance Engine to deliver responsive experiences optimized to make consumers happy and maximize mobile-influenced revenue.”

The key word in the above is “responsive.” Clearly the path to a more engaged mobile shopper relies on two things. The first is the speed at which information is presented. The second is the relevancy of the information. BloomReach has answered the call on both fronts by providing shoppers with literally views they can use, and retailers with the ability to present shoppers with both merchandise they want and merchandize they did not know they wanted until they were engaged to take a look. 

The headlines right now are rampant with stories about big data being used for what many are saying is a violation of our personal privacy, but this is an instance where big data is being used to leverage our behavior in a personalized way that shoppers already are finding to be valuable, and that is good news for retailers, too.