FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
ASKUL Selects RichRelevance to Personalize its Customer Experience
ASKUL adopts cutting edge big data technology to accelerate growth in expanding ecommerce business
San Francisco, CA – October 20, 2015— RichRelevance®, the global leader in omnichannel personalization, today announced that ASKUL Corporation has selected RichRelevance’s cloud-based personalization solution for its B2B business. Recognized as a pioneer in Japanese ecommerce for its investment in cutting edge technology, ASKUL will adopt RichRelevance’s personalization solutions and best practices in order to accelerate its product category expansion and overall business growth.
ASKUL will implement the Relevance Cloud™ and its flagship product Recommend in order to provide personalized product recommendations to its B2B customers, who span a wide spectrum of industries. By harnessing RichRelevance’s state-of-the-art personalization engine, which leverages ensemble learning to optimize machine learning algorithms, ASKUL will be able to instantaneously predict and provide what the customer desires, not only on the website but across all customer touch points such as mobile channels and emails.
RichRelevance not only provides a standard set of 150+ algorithms, but also forces real-time competition through its renowned King of the Hill approach, which selects the optimal algorithm at the precise moment in time in order to drive customer purchases. Leveraging its proprietary knowledge and expertise, ASKUL will also build its own personalization strategies to compete with RichRelevance’s pre-existing algorithms. Customers will not only discover products more readily, but will also be exposed to recommendations of “long tail” products, which have lower purchase frequencies but untapped potential for significantly impacting sales.
“Our company continues to significantly expand the number of product categories it offers,” says Yohei Akioka, Executive Officer at ASKUL. “As our business grows, the importance of personalization as a strategic pillar has never been more clear. Early on, we grew aware of RichRelevance’s potential to provide us with great benefits in this area, and have since engaged in research and business discussions with them. Our decision to implement their technology was ultimately driven by our imminent need for a platform that could serve our expanding business. Their proven track record at major retailers in the US and Europe, their concept of real-time personalization, as well as the positive results of their A/B tests greatly influenced our business decision. In addition, the fact that their personalization platform is flexible, scalable, and offers a wide variety of features that are extremely easy to use by our merchandisers, was a huge selling point. We greatly look forward to seeing how RichRelevance’s personalization solutions will help us achieve further growth in the business.”
ASKUL IT Managing Director Heita Oshige adds, “As we expand from our core business in office supplies to categories in medical/nursing and MRO, personalization provides us with a competitive advantage. RichRelevance is unique for its ability to offer real-time personalization, and to provide us with highly customizable building blocks for feature development. But perhaps what makes them stand out the most is their ability to allow merchandisers to experiment and test their own rules and strategies by themselves. We plan to invest our time and energy in various personalization initiatives using RichRelevance technologies, in order to achieve our goal of increased revenue.”
RichRelevance CEO Eduardo Sanchez states, “ASKUL is one of Japan’s largest online ecommerce retailers, known for its innovative efforts in various business initiatives such as fulfillment, and for its emphasis on investments in the latest IT technologies. We are very pleased they have selected us as their personalization partner, and now, through our product Recommend, we are proud to fully support ASKUL’s personalization journey and business roadmap.”
About ASKUL Corporation
Founded in 1993 with an innovative and unique business model based on the concept of same-day/ next-day delivery on all orders (ranging from a single pencil to a truckload of office supplies), ASKUL Corporation is the largest online B2B retailer in Japan. In 2012, ASKUL launched LOHACO, a comprehensive Internet mail-order service for the general public. It is currently working to transform itself into a full-fledged comprehensive e-commerce company by building the mail order business for B2B and B2C customers into a new growth driver.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, ASKUL was listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange as of April 2004 and had consolidated revenue of 276.8 billion yen for the month of May 2015. For more information, visit: www.Askul.co.jp
About RichRelevance
RichRelevance is the global leader in omnichannel personalization and is used by more than 200 multinational companies to deliver the most relevant and innovative customer experiences across web, mobile and in store. RichRelevance drives more than one billion decisions every day, and has generated over $10 billion in sales for its clients, which include Office Depot, Costco, Marks & Spencer and Darty.
Headquartered in San Francisco, RichRelevance serves clients in 42 countries from 9 offices around the globe. For more information, please visit RichRelevance.
Sponsored product recommendations bring performance marketing for brands to more leading retail sites through the Relevance Cloud™ platform.
Brands can now increase visibility and sales via sponsored product recommendations on leading retail sites, thanks to a new partnership between HookLogic and RichRelavance. RichRelevance, a company specializing in omnichannel personalization, and HookLogic, a company taargeting performance marketing for brands, have partnered to expand retailer media programs using the Relevance Cloud™ personalization platform.
Sponsored product recommendations bring performance marketing for brands to more leading retail sites through the Relevance Cloud™ platform
San Francisco, CA and New York, NY — October 15, 2015 — Brands can now increase visibility and sales via sponsored product recommendations on leading retail sites, thanks to a new partnership between HookLogic and RichRelevance®. RichRelevance, the global leader in omnichannel personalization, and HookLogic, the pioneer of performance marketing for brands, have partnered to expand retailer media programs using the Relevance Cloud™ personalization platform.
With this new partnership, retailers working with HookLogic and RichRelevance can now incorporate sponsored products alongside product recommendations to grow paid media revenue from the brands they sell. The Relevance Cloud enhances the sponsored product listings with advanced personalization logic to deepen customer engagement and extend customer lifetime value for retailers and brands. In addition, both companies have agreed to jointly develop a set of advanced media functionality that will further extend the sophisticated personalization features already available in the Relevance Cloud.
Additional News Facts
- More than 220 leading retailers use the Relevance Cloud to power personalized content, offers and product recommendations to shoppers across web, mobile and store. Forrester Consulting recently found that the Relevance Cloud personalization platform delivers revenue increases of at least 10% and over $400K in annual maintenance savings.
- Thousands of the world’s leading consumer product brands use HookLogic’s platform to reach shoppers, drive traffic to product pages and attribute the resulting sales. HookLogic’s brand advertisers experience dramatic increases in product pageviews and sales of their products.
- The partnership extends use of the Relevance Cloud to enable brands working with HookLogic to increase visibility on more ecommerce sites than ever before, within RichRelevance’s personalized product recommendations, by sponsoring relevant products for consumers.
- Through the Relevance Cloud, algorithms ensure that customers continue to receive highly relevant product recommendations, and sponsorship of products is clearly communicated to ensure an authentic experience that keeps shoppers within the retailer’s site.
- Retailers can fine-tune the level of sponsored products that are displayed, and existing RichRelevance customers will be able to implement this functionality immediately without additional work.
- By blending conversion and media monetization, retailers can increase profitability and achieve even higher revenue per session, while brand manufacturers are able to sell more products.
Comments on the News
- “This agreement gives our brand partners an even larger network of ecommerce sites to advertise with, in turn providing them with the power to influence even more consumers at key decision points,” said HookLogic CEO Jonathan Opdyke. “We are excited to partner closely with RichRelevance to combine the benefits of omnichannel personalization and performance marketing for brands.”
- “HookLogic has built a true ecommerce advertising exchange, and our alliance leverages the Relevance Cloud to better serve our retail partners,” said RichRelevance CEO Eduardo Sanchez. “Using our platform, retailers can continue to safeguard an authentic customer experience while simultaneously increasing clicks and conversion through more relevant, personalized sponsored recommendations.”
About RichRelevance
RichRelevance is the global leader in omnichannel personalization and is used by more than 200 multinational companies to deliver the most relevant and innovative customer experiences across web, mobile and in store. RichRelevance drives more than one billion decisions every day, and has generated over $10 billion in sales for its clients, which include Office Depot, Costco, Marks & Spencer and Darty.
Headquartered in San Francisco, RichRelevance serves clients in 42 countries from 9 offices around the globe. For more information, please visit www.richrelevance.com.
About HookLogic
HookLogic, the pioneer of performance marketing for brands, partners with the world’s leading retailers and online travel agencies to accelerate sales for product brands and hotels. Advertisers use the platform to reach in-market shoppers, drive traffic to products, and attribute resulting sales. Network partners and advertisers include Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Macy’s, Expedia, Priceline, Hasbro, Intel, LG, L’Oreal, Mondelez, Philips, Microsoft and Marriott. HookLogic is headquartered in New York, with offices in Ann Arbor, Mich.; Santa Monica, Calif.; and London. For more information, please visit www.hooklogic.com or call (646) 467-8200.
PRESS CONTACTS
Samantha Kops
Horn Group for HookLogic
646.202.9756
Renee Newby
BPR for RichRelevance
757.651.6554
According to new study, the Relevance Cloud increases customer engagement & drives higher sales with omnichannel personalization
San Francisco, CA – October 13, 2015— RichRelevance®, the global leader in omnichannel personalization, today released the results of a commissioned study completed by Forrester Consulting on its behalf entitled the Total Economic Impact™ of Relevance Cloud™. In the study, Forrester concludes that, for a composite organization based on interviewed customers, the Relevance Cloud personalization platform delivers 367% ROI by minimizing costs and risks while boosting value and engagement with shoppers across multiple channels and devices. Measurable benefits of the Relevance Cloud include revenue increase of at least 10% and over $400K in annual maintenance savings. Forrester also measured significant improvement in such KPIs as engagement, conversion, demand, likelihood to buy and basket size, as well as faster time to market for personalization innovations.
News Facts
- The methodology for the study included in-depth interviews with leading multichannel retailers in the US and Europe. Based on these assessments, Forrester created a composite company for analysis. The composite represents a large retail organization with two billion dollars in annual revenue, 1,200 brick-and-mortar stores and 6 branded websites.
- For this composite organization, the study found that the Relevance Cloud allows marketers to coalesce real-time omnichannel data and deliver personalized omnichannel experiences that yield 367% ROI and payback in 1.4 months.
- The study, based on interviews with long-term RichRelevance customers in the US and Europe, found that the Relevance Cloud successfully drives measurable incremental sales and profit while meeting shoppers’ expectations of seamless personalized content as they shop across different channels.
- Personalization through the Relevance Cloud delivers a revenue increase to the composite organization of at least 10% and grows to 15% within 3 years, while saving over $400,000 per year in maintenance fees and achieving a faster time to market for projects such as in-store personalization.
- Additionally, improved consistency of the customer experience by making personalization data available to in-store associates and customer service reps [in a pilot project] raised in-store revenue by 7% and reduced store returns by 2%.
- The study also highlights significant increases in core KPIs including conversion rate, demand, likelihood to buy and basket size. Representative results achieved by RichRelevance’s world-class customers include an 89% increase in conversion rate; a 20% increase in demand per visitor; 3x jump in likelihood to buy for customers who engaged in editorial content with content personalization versus regular customers; and basket size increases ranging from 15% – 54%.
Comments on the News
- “Retail is in the midst of a sea change as brands blend the digital and in-store experience to engage shoppers and drive their business forward. The path forward requires a new kind of ability to manage data, a true 360-view of the shopper and real-time personalization to glue together a consistent experience across every touchpoint. We believe that Forrester has analyzed real data to provide a clear picture of how RichRelevance supports retailers in this effort and the success that brands can expect to achieve with the Relevance Cloud.” – Eduardo Sanchez, President & CEO, RichRelevance
- “We’ve worked with RichRelevance for years, and have first-hand experience of how the Relevance Cloud and data-driven personalization deliver a multitude of benefits to our business. With RichRelevance, we are able to elevate the experience we offer our customer – driven by a 360-degree real-time view of the shopper.” – Cam Fortin, Senior Director of Product Development, Wine.com
- “From a technology platform perspective, Relevance Cloud allows us to be agile in terms of how we’re creating data and personalized-driven product for both internal and customer consumption. Traditionally, this is something you might try to do through a CRM or OMS, and that would be a huge headache.” – EVP of Digital, luxury retailer, as quoted in the Forrester TEI of Relevance Cloud study
Download the Forrester report: Total Economic Impact™ Of Relevance Cloud™
Fall conference season is in full swing, and last week’s Shop.org is always one of the biggest of the bunch. Partner Nikki Baird and I spent two solid days in Philadelphia to take it all in. And normally that would be easy to report out.
But here’s the thing. It was hard to get a read on the true feel of this year’s show. I’d be remiss to comment on the content of the conference portion of Shop.org, as both Nikki and I were only able to catch the opening day keynote session, featuring QVC’s Mike George. It was an excellent conversation to listen in on, and if it was any indicator of the rest of the agenda, proves NRF’s commitment to seriously upping the content portion for all of its events in recent years.