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  • June 16, 2020

    Scraping is for Amateurs: 5 Things the Pros Bring to the Table for eCommerce Data Enrichment

    Forbes says that 80% of shoppers will leave your site if they’ve had a bad search experience. We’ve all experienced search results that had little or nothing to do with what we were looking for. It’s incredibly annoying. But it’s also extremely bad for business. To drive successful searches and valuable conversions your product data needs to be accurate, complete and tuned into the way people shop for your particular products. Data enrichment can take care of all of this, and there are vendors that can help. But first you need to understand the type of help that’s available. There are scrapers and there are partners, and they are not created equal.  

     

    Scrapers, crawlers and other strange creatures to avoid

    Scrapers are vendors that use crawling or spidering software to scrape data from the web and simply add it to yours. Does that sound like a good idea? Web data scrapers are likely pulling data that’s just as dirty or incomplete as yours. And it certainly won’t be customized to the needs, objectives and demographic of your business. Good data enrichment companies don’t rely on scraping software to figure out what your shopper needs. Instead, they employ the latest AI and machine learning algorithms, backed by the insight of smart humans, to custom curate the type of data your customers will respond to. Go ahead and recommend a data scraper to the competition, but don’t use one yourself.

     

    Juicing up the data

    Data enrichment normalizes and standardizes your data, making it clearer, more detailed and more relevant for your shoppers. It classifies your products into standard groupings, checks for accuracy and completeness and enables you to finely tune product descriptions with valuable attributes. When 60% of online shoppers say irrelevant search results are the most frustrating part of their online experience, it’s no surprise that 88% say detailed product content is extremely important. Give shoppers the information they need to buy from you. You can do this by enlisting the help of a pro data enrichment partner. 

     

    5 Things The Pros Bring To The Table

    1. Methodology

    Data enrichment can enable you to define your attribution strategy for current and future catalogs.  So look for a company that takes a long-term view, proactively adds clean data, automates processes and has a methodology that makes sense now and as your catalog grows.

     

    2. Strategy

    A good vendor won’t simply take your products in and regurgitate a strategy they’ve used with other companies like yours. Through custom curation, machine learning, image recognition and product comparisons, they should build rules and algorithms that apply all the right attributes to your products – ones that resonate with your customers. And if you’re tempted to look for a vendor offshore, be aware that those companies may simply not be able to build attributes that sync with the lingo your customers use. If you want to be sure that your search results are relevant, it might be a good idea to look closer to home.

     

    3. Expertise & Speed

    Work with a seasoned company that’s been doing data augmentation for a long time. They’ll likely be faster and more thorough than newer companies still finding their footing. The fastest and most effective vendors will have built all their automation and data augmentation tools in house. They’ll own everything, run everything and have control over everything, including manipulating and analyzing your data. So that vendor won’t have to rely on the vagaries of third-party vendors to get the job done well and fast.

     

    4. Customization

    Every business is unique and approaches customer service and merchandizing differently. So choose a vendor that consults with your marketing, your buyers, your merchandisers and more, to gain a deep understanding of what’s important to your company and customers. If it looks like a vendor won’t take the time to involve your key people, choose another one. You need a vendor that will do everything they can to build the perfect custom data set for your business.

     

    5. Security

    Check the vendor’s data privacy and security standards and certifications. Go for one that’s SOC 2 Type II compliant and able to meet all your other requirements. Also, find out where your data will reside. If it’s headed to an offshore cloud or server, can the vendor assure you that the data privacy requirements of your country and company will still be upheld? Find out where your data will be at each stage along its path to enrichment. If it’s headed somewhere you don’t want it to go, find another vendor.

     

    Beware of out-of-the-box solutions, such as data scrapers, that don’t have the scope, capabilities or human expertise to provide custom data that resonates with your shoppers. If you want to take a deeper dive into how to find a good data enrichment vendor, check out: Way Beyond Data Scraping: 10 Tips to Select a Vendor for Data Enrichment.

  • May 7, 2020

    eCommerce & COVID-19

    How to Build a Site that Can Handle a Sudden and Monumental Buying Shift

    COVID-19 lockdowns have brought full or partial workplace closures to 81% of the world's workforce. With the closing of schools as well, entire families have been homebound, which has opened the floodgates to online shopping. It’s no wonder average daily in-home data usage soared by 38% year over year (YoY) in March. The global pandemic is causing some eCommerce sites to see Black Friday-level traffic volumes every single day. If we’re learning anything from this upheaval, it’s that eCommerce should no longer take a backseat to in-person commerce. For the foreseeable future, eCommerce needs to take the wheel.

     

    Right Now, Your eCommerce Capabilities Are Your Superpower

    While online retailers usually have the luxury of prepping for months to meet the demands of holiday surges like Black Friday, the global pandemic took us all by surprise. Very few companies were already geared up for continuous floods of traffic, with an eCommerce platform capable of intelligent search and Cloud server capabilities ready to handle such large volumes. Companies that had strong eCommerce sites before COVID-19 were poised to support existing customers when social distancing and shelter in place were introduced. They were also able to gain new customers just by being up and open for business.

     

    ECommerce has reportedly saved many retailers from bankruptcy at a time when foot traffic is discouraged or absent. As of March, over a third of US consumers expected to increase spending on goods from online marketplaces as a result of the pandemic. From January 1 to April 30, 2020, at GroupBy we’ve seen huge growth in search volumes on items such as toilet paper (↑ 4855%) and hand sanitizer (↑ 3424%, down from a March peak of ↑25365%). No one should be surprised by these numbers, and these popular items can be found on a countless number of sites. The point is that, no matter what you’re selling, you need to ensure your search and product discovery – in fact, your entire customer experience – keep customers buying from you.

     

    In a Perfect World, What All Good eCommerce Platforms Should Do

    ETL (Extract, Transform and Load)

    Invest time and energy in the data upfront. From data conversion, record joining and format correction to data modelling and calculations, start with data that is pristine and integrated.

     

    Data Enrichment

    Normalize and standardize product data, making it clearer, more detailed and more relevant for shoppers to improve findability and conversions. Classify your products into standard, well-understood groupings that make sense to your customers, add valuable attributes and check for completeness and accuracy so search results are dependable. Data enrichment can enable you to define your attribution strategy for current and future catalogs throughout your entire supply chain.   

     

    Enhanced Search Functionality

    Incorporate enhanced search functionality and machine learning to deliver highly relevant and personalized onsite experiences for your customers. Search enhancements, such as search as you type (SAYT) and search recommendations, help improve relevancy, reduce hidden inventory and boost navigation engagement. 

     

    Analytics You Can Use

    Optimize your merchandising strategy with actionable insights from user searches, including conversion and exploration scores, click-thru rates (CTRs), add-to-cart rates (ATCRs), conversion rates (CVRs), null searches and top navigations. Understand how shoppers interact with search results, identify under-performing searches, get insights to inform promotion strategies and monitor their performance with tracking codes.

     

    Finally, to accommodate unexpected surges in traffic you need an eCommerce platform with a secure and stable web server to ensure uninterrupted uptime and quickly scale to handle increased loads. This will ensure that users receive responses such as requested pages faster and that large volumes of traffic coming in at the same time won’t cause your site to become overloaded, slow down and even fail.

     

    The global pandemic forced a shift to online purchasing quickly and without warning. We can help you build a site that thrives in this sudden shift in buyer behaviour and beyond. Many of the world’s leading online retailers rely on us to continuously improve their customer experiences and increase revenues, with data enrichment, ETL, intelligent search and analytics capabilities. Want to know more? Contact us to start the conversation so we can solve your eCommerce website challenges.

     

  • April 27, 2020

    COVID-19 Facts You Can't Get Anywhere Else

    2051-GKC_GroupBy_COVID_Infographic_v4-01.png

  • December 9, 2019

    CBD Products Trended Upwards This Black Friday/Cyber Monday

    CBD Products Trended Upwards This Black Friday/Cyber Monday

     

    Year-over-year (2018-2019) online searches for CBD products increased exponentially by 100 times.

     

    AUSTIN, Texas – Dec. 9, 2019 — GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced its retail customers saw significant year-over-year (YOY) increases in online searches for CBD products during this year’s four day period between Black Friday and Cyber Monday, compared to 2018.

     

    CBD products continue to grow in popularity

    According to aggregated data from GroupBy’s customer base, search terms for makeup decreased 30% from 2018, while terms related to CBD on average increased 100 times. This supports evidence of the growing Cannabidiol Oil (CBD) market, expected to reach $20 Billion by 2024, according to BDS Analytics. CBD products are currently being brought to market across diverse industries such as cosmetics, health products, food and beverage, pet products, skin care, and pharmaceuticals

     

    Consumers continue to search with specificity

    For the Home and Garden Market, specific product searches for grills increased. For example, consumer searches for the leading vendors of wood pellet grills increased on average by 150%. This demonstrates that consumers are looking for products with more specificity, which is a continuing trend from GroupBy’s findings from this Memorial Day.

     

    Overall revenue increase

    Compared to last year, GroupBy retail customers saw a total revenue increase of 13% and an increase in total product views by 15%. Overall, this demonstrates how enriched product data can drive powerful and relevant personalized search results on an eCommerce site.

     

    “This year-over-year search comparison demonstrates that consumers know what they’re looking for, and the search bar is the key to providing relevant results to their queries,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “With the holiday season in full swing, these trends from Black Friday and Cyber Monday should serve as indicators of how and what consumers will be searching for and purchasing leading up to Dec. 25 and beyond. Retailers should look to optimize their merchandising strategy based on these trends and, likewise, their search capabilities to help consumers find the products they are looking for this holiday season.”

    About GroupBy Inc.
    GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO), and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit 
    www.groupbyinc.com.

    Media Contact
    Jenna Jordan
    Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy)
    jenna@ketnergroup.com
    512-794-8876

  • October 22, 2019

    Swanson Health Products Increases Conversion and Add-to-Cart Rates by Over 60% with GroupBy

    GroupBy’s site search technology with Personalized Relevance™ helps Swanson build its next-gen experience of online shopping

    TORONTO – October 22, 2019 – GroupBy Inc., a provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions and one of the fastest-growing startups in its space, announced today the results of its partnership with Swanson Health Products. Since implementing GroupBy’s Searchandiser and Enrich solutions last year, Swanson has seen significant growth across all their critical metrics month-over-month. Search click-through rate has increased by over 50%, search add-to-cart rate has risen by 65%, and conversion rate has increased by over 60%. What’s more, site traffic has grown to over one million distinct searches per month.

    “We wanted a system that used more modern technologies like machine learning, integrated recommendations, and great search relevancy to astutely respond to trends in what our customers were buying,” said Eric Trautvetter, VP, technology, and eCommerce, Swanson Health Products. “It was critical that our site truly reflected the voice of our customers.”

    Swanson’s merchandising team knew it needed to update the company’s eCommerce experience to more quickly respond to market needs and keep up with new products and promotions. After a thorough competitive review in 2018, Swanson selected GroupBy’s market-leading Searchandiser solution to provide highly relevant and personalized onsite customer experiences through site search, navigation, recommendations, and customer insights. Along with Searchandiser, Swanson also deployed GroupBy Enrich to help improve the quality of its product data by adding additional product attributes like flavor, health concerns, lifestyle and more.

    “We gave GroupBy a crazy and unrealistic deadline of Thanksgiving, and they were able to help us go live with Searchandiser the day before with no issues. GroupBy was able to quickly convert the rules from our legacy system, and as our eCommerce site uses a microservices-based architecture, it was easy to swap the search engine connections,” said Trautvetter. “Our partnership with GroupBy has far exceeded our expectations. I couldn’t be more pleased with the success of this implementation between Swanson Health Products and GroupBy. We are very excited about the future and where GroupBy can take us.”

    “We couldn’t be more thrilled with the results of our partnership with Swanson. GroupBy Searchandiser, combined with GroupBy Enrich has helped improve the quality of their product data, resulting in increased conversion rates that are critical to their revenue growth,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy. “GroupBy is committed to making Swanson’s customer experience even stronger by employing a strategic balance between machine learning-powered algorithms and human-controlled results.”

    To read the Swanson case study, please go to this link: https://groupbyinc.com/case-study--swanson-chooses-groupby-to-build-its--next-gen-experience-of-online-shopping/

    About GroupBy Inc.

    GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.

    About Swanson Health

    Swanson Health started in 1969 in the heart of America with a mission to offer pure and potent health products at a great value. Fifty years later, Swanson Health continues to innovate science-backed vitamins and supplements, healthy home, pantry and self-care products, delivering wellness solutions for mind, body & home. Learn more and shop exclusively online at www.swanson.com.

    Media Contact

    Jenna Jordan

    Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy)

    (512) 794-8876

  • October 10, 2019

    rue21 selects GroupBy to enhance its digital commerce experience

  • October 2, 2019

    CASE STUDY: Swanson Chooses GroupBy to Build its Next-Gen Experience of Online Shopping

    With both products now fully implemented and running for almost a year, Swanson has seen significant growth across all of their critical metrics month over month. Since going live, the search click-through rate has increased by over 50%. Search add-to-cart rate has increased over 65%, and the conversion rate has increased over 60% with GroupBy Searchandiser.

  • September 6, 2019

    5 things to keep in mind when transitioning from a freelance designer to a product designer

    To introduce myself, my Name is Amrith Srinivasan and I work at Groupby as their Product Designer. My day to day job consists of assisting engineers and product owners with research and designs to fulfill the roadmap. It has been a whirlwind of a journey, to say the least. Primarily because I learned all this by myself and took the hardest route - trial and error while working freelance gigs in my room. The real world is rather different unfortunately so in my opinion, there are five things to keep in mind when making the transition.

    Comfort zones are dangerous

    When we work by ourselves in a room, there is a certain level of comfort we get accustomed to and take it from me that can get very dangerous. If you get used to working in solitude you will find it very hard to work effectively with a team of different disciplines. I would suggest maybe working in social areas like coffee shops or malls. I also highly encourage going out and doing real user testing. When you put yourself out there like you that you learn to toughen your skin and get accustomed to what it will feel like working with others in a team.


    Learn to work with a team

    We all have friends and might be sociable but that does not translate 1:1 working on a professional team. Each team is comprised of individuals having special skill sets which now becomes the task we as designers must probe towards and utilize the talents of the engineers to realize the final product. There also cases of miscommunications and failures that might arise. Ultimately you must now realize the effect of the work you do doesn’t end with just you but spreads equally to your team members. So, take your colleague out for a coffee and get to know them better!


    Business needs are the Holy Grail

    When working on a freelance project or even a personal project you have the sense of driving the bus and decisions can be made in minutes. However, transitioning into a full-time role means you no longer are driving the bus. The business needs will drive the roadmap and in some unfortunate cases, a lot of your hard work might never get used due to a resource, architecture or budget constraint. Don’t let it falter you though, pick back up and continue working on the project at hand and enjoy the ride of a corporate boat.


    Decisions MUST be backed by facts

    One of the greatest luxuries of working alone is you do not have to justify your decisions to anybody. However, the reality in a company is that you are expected by not just your peers but upper management too that you do the due diligence before presenting any idea or argument. If you fail to do this on a regular basis, you risk having your thoughts rejected outright due to a lack of trust. The bigger the company, the more of this research is demanded which is why Google and the likes have dedicated UX teams. So, start writing out your thought process from now and try to keep a solid fact/data point to back every decision you make for the experience


    Time-boxing your responsibilities

    When working alone, you have the advantage of switching deadlines if they don’t suit you anymore. If you are working freelance gigs then you are already somewhat accustomed to deadlines but in most cases, they will not be as hard enforced as in a company. Some companies may not give you any deadlines and just expect you to get the work done in a timely manner to realize the companies road map. However, I highly suggest you always set yourself up a deadline and share it with the concerning party. This will allow you to manage your time more efficiently without breaking your word to others


    Ultimately, these are two different sides of the coins and as someone who has seen both sides, I can confidently say it depends on the person's personality. I like working in a company a lot more than being alone as I get to enjoy and celebrate with my team for everything we put out. I also see 95% of the things I design come to life. Do the research and if you feel the company is for you then, by all means, dive right in! Cheers :)


  • June 25, 2019

    Emerging eCommerce Trends in 2019

    With the eCommerce industry growing exponentially each year, it can be hard to set your business apart amongst the increasing competition. In today’s world, success for retailers/brands lies in effective eCommerce and effective eCommerce is not just about having a greater audience reach. It’s about being relevant. Most importantly, a lot of the latest technology is transforming the way businesses interact with their customers. In this article, we will examine some of the latest eCommerce trends that you as a retailer must prepare for in 2019.

    Mobile Shopping Experiences

    eCommerce growing almost four times faster than in-store retail and set to account for half of all sales made by 2021, retailers cannot afford to discount the importance of managing online customer experience. Many consumers use their mobile devices to make purchases, with convenience and accessibility being major priorities for online shoppers. If you want your products to sell, you'll have to make your mobile site as user-friendly as possible.

    Some retailers are moving from sites and apps to a new standard: Progressive Web App (PWA) - a hybrid between sites and apps which combines upsides of each and does away with the limitations. PWAs create fast-loading, compelling mobile experiences, similar to what brands and retailers achieve with a native app, while also being discoverable and accessible to everyone via the mobile web. No need to market your app, your mobile site acts like an app. Some of the retailers who implemented PWAs are already seeing an increase in mobile sessions by 51% and 20% increase conversions (ex: Lancome, West Elm)

    Voice Commerce

    Search has traditionally been a straightforward, text-based activity. Today, however, the search is changing as new platforms like voice and natural language search create potentially more intuitive ways for shoppers to find what they are seeking and for marketers to position their brands and products. A new effortless way to shop, Voice assistants like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Google’s Assistant are growing more and more popular. According to eMarketer, voice commerce accounted for $2.1 billion last year, representing just 0.4% of online sales.

    To engage more customers to use voice throughout the shopping journey, retailers need to implement a voice strategy to make their products discoverable through voice assistants. They have to focus on guiding the user through the touch-points, build trust, make it easy for customers. Some early retail adopters have already taken the customer experience to the next level with voice. For the 2018 holiday season, H&M launched a voice-enabled gift guide spotlighting its home décor collection, powered by Google Assistant. For retailers to ultimately succeed with voice technology, they must truly understand and successfully design the customer journey based on their audience’s specific needs and expectations.

    AI and Chatbots

    AI has already invaded online shopping trends, 2019 is just another year taking it further. Customers want their favorite products and services easily and quickly. But businesses don’t have enough time or resources to cater to everyone’s preferences individually. Powered by AI, these chatbots learn from customer interactions and conversations and evolve into something even better with every conversation, giving customers a personalized eCommerce experience. They provide 24/7 service, improve the customer journey, reduce stress for the shopper, personify your brand. According to a Facebook survey 50% of consumers said they’re more likely to shop with a business that they can connect with via chat.

    As per the Gartner Report from the Chatbot and & AI conference:

    • 85% of customer interactions will be handled without a human agent by 2020

    • 50% of businesses will spend more on chatbots than mobile apps by 2021

    • $8 Billion in cost savings from the usage of chatbot conversations by 2022

    Trends come and go and keep changing but, it’s clear that Mobile Shopping, AI&Chatbots and Voice Technology will play an integral role in the retail customer experience for the masses in the next few years. Innovations and new technology need to be implemented correctly to establish a relationship and build trust with the shoppers so that it will lead to an increase in ROI and conversion rate. We are experimenting with new technology like these at GroupBy. Shoot us an email if you would like to collaborate.


  • June 25, 2019

    Demystifying Personalization in eCommerce

    If you’ve spent any time reading marketing blogs or walking the floor at an eCommerce conference, you’ve likely seen the term “Personalization” thrown around a lot. At this point, vendors have realized that they need to claim some form of personalization to stay relevant and attract attention. However, when they are questioned about the specifics of what exactly they personalize on or how personalization is used within their solution, the details and definitions remain elusive.

    How is a retailer expected to understand the value or impact of personalization if they can’t even be sure that it will solve a problem they actually have?

    First, we should start with a definition.

    If we are to define personalization for eCommerce in the most generic way possible, we could say something like “customizing the shopping experience by incorporating one or more characteristics of the shopper.”

    This is an intentionally broad definition because there are a lot of ways that a retailer could conceivably customize the shopping experience and there are a lot of signals that a hypothetical personalization solution could account for when considering which characteristics of the shopper to personalize on.

    Let’s start with a few examples of how personalization can be applied on a retailer’s site.

    One of the most prominent forms of personalization in the industry today is in the content management space. Given that I am a shopper in Toronto, when I go to the J.Crew website, the first thing I see is a banner saying “Hello, Canada!” with a list of country-specific benefits to shopping with J.Crew.

    The problem that this specific application of personalization solves is that when I’m shopping with American brands from my home in Canada, I want to be sure about what the products I’m purchasing will actually cost (i.e., in my native currency). I don’t want to end up being shocked by a huge international shipping fee when I get to the checkout. Knowing these things up front makes me much more likely to have a low-friction experience with a better chance of converting than I would be on a site where I have to research whether they even ship to Canada.

    Another common form of personalization is through email campaigns.

    Every Gmail user’s ‘Promotions’ folder is filled with targeted emails that we’ve received because we added some product to a cart without converting, or we need to know about a deal that’s running on flights from our area to a tropical destination over winter. These targeted messages are a great way to capture attention and get shoppers in the funnel, but they can go awry as well.

    For example, I once shopped at a high-end department store because I wanted to buy my partner a nice purse for her Christmas present. Ever since then I have received targeted emails regularly for women’s clothes and jewelry that I will almost certainly never purchase.

    The last form of personalization that I want to address here is one that’s close to my heart, given my role at GroupBy.

    Personalized search is not nearly as prominent as email campaigns or targeted content; according to a recent study, only 19% of retailers surveyed said that they utilize personalized experiences within search.

    In the conversations I’ve had with retailers, a number of them are understandably skeptical. They worry that shoppers will get frustrated if they’re searching for something and a product gets pushed into their results just because they’ve bought it before.

    This is unquestionably true - given that search is about understanding a shopper’s intent and bringing back products that match that intent, any search engine needs to respect that intent first and foremost and not muddy the waters by bringing in unrelated products that diminish a shopper’s sense of discovery.

    However, if the search engine is sophisticated enough that it can subtly influence the order of results by learning from the shopper’s behavior on the site while still only bringing back products that match the original query, this will lead to a much less jarring experience for the shopper.

    As a shopper using personalized search in this way, I am much more likely to see the products I’m interested in near the top of the results and I don’t have to spend time hunting through pages of results to find what I’m looking for. Imagine the experience of walking into a brick-and-mortar store where on every shelf, the first article of clothing you pick up is in your size and the fit is exactly how you like it. That’s the sort of experience personalized search should look to replicate.

    There’s a lot more I could say about personalized search since it is a project that I’ve been working on for much of my time at GroupBy, but I’ll leave the details for another time.

    Suffice it to say that we at GroupBy see a lot of potential in the power of personalized search, and are introducing capabilities that we believe can take a retailer’s ability to personalize their overall site experience to the next level. If you’re interested in learning more about GroupBy’s personalization journey, please contact us today at support@groupbyinc.com

  • May 31, 2019

    B2B Retail’s Coming Transformation

    I recently had the privilege of attending the B2B Online conference in Chicago, led by a collection of prominent digital marketing and eCommerce executives from across the B2B retail industry. As with many industries, there is an ongoing generational shift within the workforce. In particular, the people making purchasing decisions within buying organizations are accustomed to a specific type of shopping experience - namely, one that does not involve a fax machine, or a phone call with a sales rep in order to complete a purchase. In a country where 1 in every 3 people is an Amazon Prime member, offering a subpar digital commerce experience regardless of industry is a major risk.

    Why is the digital transformation for B2B retail so complicated?

    At the risk of oversimplification, it is because the purchasing agreements between two enterprise organizations are deeply complex.

    Firstly, there are restrictions on the products that the buyer is able to view and purchase. Depending on their industry, or even different regulations from one region to another, there could be products that one buyer can see and purchase that should not be visible to the other buyer at all.

    Secondly, prices for the same product will often differ from one buyer to another, depending on the agreement they were able to make with their sales rep. The last thing a seller would want is for their buyers to know that another buyer has a preferential rate on one of the products in their assortment, so it’s critical that the correct price is shown and that the engine is able to sort and filter products by the relevant price.

    While the ordinary B2C retailer can simply index all of the products they have with whatever price they’ve chosen to sell them at, the B2B retailer needs to be more cautious about how products are shown and what prices they contain.

    Key Takeaways from B2B Online

    The B2B buyer is a multifaceted organization, rather than a single person who has decided to browse and make a purchase. The concept of an “impulse purchase” is rarer, when the average B2B buying decision is made by 6-7 people, all of whom may have very different priorities and motivations. As Jill Steinhour, Adobe’s director of hi-tech strategy pointed out in her keynote, buying priorities vary depending on the buyer’s industry and their interests (Steinhour, B2B Online, 2019)**. She also noted that a growing share of younger buyers are looking to social media and search engines to research products before buying, as opposed to speaking with a sales rep to gather information. It’s increasingly critical that B2B retailers understand the behavior of the companies that buy from them and are prepared to provide an online experience that caters to that company’s buying style and preferences.

    One of the other key messages of B2B Online was that any digital transformation within B2B retail has to align with the success of those organizations’ sales teams. Abhishek Shastry, the Director of Product Strategy for Dell, shared an initiative that they had recently introduced to use bots to cut down on simple interactions that their sales reps would ordinarily handle so that they can stay engaged with more complex and high-value engagements. Similarly, the shift towards online-centric buying will provide sales reps with more comprehensive tooling on how their buyers behave when making purchasing decisions, ultimately giving sales the opportunity to be more productive and more profitable if they’re able to take advantage of the technology.

    How does all of this make a difference for us at GroupBy?

    We believe there are two major ways we can help B2B retailers differentiate their digital commerce experience from the competition. The first is by following the example of their counterparts in the B2C space and using a best-in-class search provider to power product discovery for their shoppers. At B2B Online, there were plenty of manufacturers and distributors who spoke about the pains of trying to customize open-source search platforms like SOLR for their use case. Often this means hiring a range of consultants and system integrators to try and help the enterprise build a search experience in-house, losing time and money on basic search tuning rather than focusing energy where it matters most. At GroupBy, we know that we can give retailers a differentiated eCommerce search experience with minimal effort because we have been doing exactly that for retails across a range of industries for years.

    The second point of differentiation is when it comes to product data. As everyone who works with search knows, the search experience is heavily dependent on data quality. However, most B2B retailers have a huge problem classifying and organizing the volume and diversity of products they sell. This problem is exacerbated by the trend of retailers either picking up new suppliers or acquiring other companies. In order to provide a unified experience, these companies need to easily standardize their new product assortment with the rest of their catalog. GroupBy’s Enrich product specializes in solving this problem for improved search relevancy and navigation filters.

    Lastly, given that our search services are independent APIs, we can add value without requiring complex implementations or incurring overhead to manage. Our products can easily be integrated into an enterprise’s existing eCommerce system with minimal difficulty, and improve relevance without requiring extensive customization from a third-party vendor. As we’ve said before, headless services are the future of eCommerce as they allow retailers to innovate more quickly and truly own the customer experience across the site.

    If you’re interested in learning more about how GroupBy can apply these learnings to your business, please contact us at sales@groupbyinc.com for more information.



  • May 1, 2019

    GroupBy B2B e-Commerce Suite

    GroupBy recognized that B2B experiences weren't getting the same love as B2C. That's why we tweaked and translated our data-driven personalization for B2B retailers. Please read our white-paper below to learn more.

  • April 23, 2019

    How should I measure my search performance?

    I often ask our customers how they measure how well search is performing on their site. I’ve heard a range of answers, but broadly speaking they fall into these categories:

    We don’t. We measure traditional metrics like site traffic, conversion rate, and average order value, but we don’t attribute that to search.

    We look at the conversion rate for sessions in which a shopper searches, and compare this with sessions where a shopper doesn’t use the site search.

    We use anecdotal evidence. We take a look at a handful of the top search results, and if they look sensible to us, then we assume search is working well.

    The question usually gets fired back to me. How should they be measuring their search performance?

    My answer is always the same: it depends on what they are trying to achieve.

    Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) are purely an indication as to whether you are achieving your goals. If you have a different goal, you should change your KPIs to match the goal you are trying to achieve.

    The KPIs that should always be tracked

    There are some KPIs that I recommend all customers track, which gives the most reliable depiction of how well search is performing. These are:

    1. Search conversion rate: This is a measure of what percentage of search queries lead directly to an order of a product in that results set. It’s the best indicator of how relevant the search results to the shopper.

    2. Revenue per search: This is a measure of how much shoppers are spending per search query. For companies that are trying to optimize for revenue, not conversion, this is a good alternative to the search conversion rate.

    3. Search clickthrough rate: Similar to the ‘search conversion rate’, this is a measure of what percentage of search queries lead directly to a shopper viewing a product page.

    The KPIs that should sometimes be tracked

    Our customers have different goals. Let’s take two example companies:

    1. The Adaptor: A traditional company keeping up with the demands of consumers by building a complementary eCommerce store.

    2. The Influencers: A company, typically fashion or cosmetics, driving up brand loyalty through delightful user experience.

    These companies have different goals, and therefore their KPIs should not be the same.

    Let’s take the example of the Adapter. Their goal is to provide the same online experience as they see in the store. They will be very wary of losing existing customers through poor user experience. The KPIs I would recommend that they monitor are:

    Null search rate. How many customers are searching for something that they would expect from this company, but aren’t getting results?

    Search bounce rate: How many customers are leaving the site, frustrated with their search results?

    The Influencers aren’t too concerned about online conversion. While their ultimate goal is to get shoppers to buy, it’s far more important that their shoppers are loyal and engaged with their site, and are likely to return. They should be worried about:

    1.Product views per search:We want shoppers to browse and view products that they are interested in.

    2. Time after search:We want shoppers to be engaged with the search results.

    The red herrings

    A word of caution about the following KPIs, which I find is common across our customers for tracking search performance.

    • Site conversion rate. Site conversion rate is driven by a huge number of factors, only one of which is search. We have observed a decreasing site conversion rate even when our search performance at the stable, even increasing. Focus on the search conversion rate to get a measure of how search is a contribution towards your overall conversion.

    • Revenue attributed to search. If the percentage of your revenue that is attributed to search is going up or down, it doesn’t necessarily mean that search performance is improving or reducing. It can be down to a shift in consumer behavior, or an improvement of your site navigation.

    • Average click position. A high average click position indicates that the top results are most relevant. However, a low average click position can indicate a large number of relevant results, that shoppers are happy to engage with.

    GroupBy recently released Search Analytics - easy, intuitive analytics dashboards to help merchandisers make better decisions around their shoppers.

    For more information, get in touch with GroupBy at support@groupbyinc.com

  • April 23, 2019

    How data enrichment drives higher search conversions and better relevancy for your customers

    Most retailers realize that the performance of their search and recommendation engines and overall customer experience directly depends on having accurate, enhanced and complete product data.

    Classifying your products and defining those attributes can lead to better search results since the search engine gets a better understanding of the context behind the search terms.

    Though improved search relevancy is a major benefit, we believe that data enrichment has more than one use case. In this blog, we’ll talk about using data enrichment for content generation.

    Once your product catalog is enriched, each of your products gets a list of relevant attributes and values that are fundamental for the search experience on your website. There are thousands of different attributes that retailers can add to their product catalogs, the most common are:

    • Brand

    • Color

    • Size

    • Pattern

    • Material

    At the same time, these attributes can be converted to special “tags”, similar to tagging in Content Management Systems. “Tags” are small keywords or metadata that can be assigned to your products or posts that act as labels to tell what it is or what the page is about.

    Let’s imagine that you’re writing a blog post about newest photo cameras and their different features, using tags would allow you to recommend the most relevant products on that page. Instead of showing all products categorized as “photo camera” you’ll use tags to only pull out products that have attributes or features relevant to your topic, ex. “Aperture Priority Mode”, “ Shutter Priority Mode”, “Exposure Compensation” and etc. This creates more upsell opportunities by introducing your customers into the most relevant product offerings.

    Overall, enriched data and tagging helps to get more precise information about your customer interactions that result in a higher accuracy of your campaign targeting and more relevant product suggestions, which means customers get more value from interactions with your website.

    GroupBy successfully helped clients in a variety of industries including beauty, apparel, home goods, pharmaceuticals and many more.

    Below you can see how data enrichment helped one of the major beauty companies to improve their conversions and revenue.

    Interested in learning how GroupBy can help your business? Contact our sales team at sales@groupbyinc.com to request a demo.

  • April 2, 2019

    Why Headless eCommerce Is The Future Of The Retail Industry

    As a fast-moving industry with plenty of competition, retail is always on the lookout for the next technological trend that will shape shopper behaviour and increase their margins. These trends don’t always come to pass, and large retailers can be understandably hesitant to make expensive bets on whether or not a particular trend is the wave of the future when it could turn out to be just the flavour of the month. However, as I spend more time speaking with our customers, I’ve learned that what we call “Headless eCommerce” is no longer just a trend, it’s the dominant direction of the retail industry.

    First, some context:

    Historically, eCommerce companies were oriented around monolithic platforms. Generally deployed on-premise, these platforms can handle everything a retailer needs to get an online shop up and running. The appeal to customers is that of a one-stop shop; if there’s a problem with your search engine, or your merchandising tools, or your on-site analytics, you could call the same support line since everything you used daily all came from the same vendor. However, the problem with a platform that does everything you need becomes apparent when those platforms effectively function as closed ecosystems. What retailers came to realize is that when they are only able to depend on one product to solve all of their problems, their ability to provide the best possible service to their shoppers is limited to what a single vendor can support. The retailer is locked into that vendor, and switching to a new platform altogether can be stressful and expensive. The purpose of Headless eCommerce is to give retailers the flexibility they need to pick and choose the services they use to power their online shop based on what provides the most value to their business and their customers. In effect, headless eCommerce turns the retailer into the platform, allowing them to take back ownership of their customer experience. This enables the retailer to drive more value from their partners and providers since testing and even switching to a brand-new service becomes exponentially more accessible and less risky than it was in the platform era.

    Explained simply:

    Headless eCommerce is built on the concept of a microservices architecture, where complex business workflows and processes are supported by many granular components that perform individual tasks and deliver value independent of the other components within that workflow. Every service provided by the old monolithic platforms becomes its own API, and you can pick and choose which services work best for your business when building your online marketplace. It would be easy to assume that eCommerce providers would not welcome the advent of headless eCommerce, and it’s possible that for some companies that may be true. However, GroupBy was conceived as an API-first eCommerce provider, and we are big believers in the value of headless solutions. The reason why is simple: we want to provide the most value to our customers. We want our customers to be able to pick and choose our services because they are the best in the market, not because you have to use one to get value out of the other. For example, our Searchandiser product works incredibly well on its own (just ask our customers.) However, pairing Searchandiser with GroupBy Enrich to improve the product data made available to the Searchandiser engine provides exponentially more value to the business overall. Our catchphrase on the product team is that each service should be “great on its own, but better together.” We believe that the customer should get to decide what makes the best experience for their shoppers and their business, rather than be limited to whatever they’re able to get from a single provider. If you’re interested in learning more about headless eCommerce or considering migrating away from monolithic platforms, please contact sales@groupbyinc.com for a conversation about what GroupBy’s API-first approach can do for your business.

  • April 2, 2019

    GroupBy Included in Gartner’s Market Guide for Digital Commerce Search

    TORONTO – March 13, 2019 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced the company’s inclusion in Gartner’s Market Guide for Digital Commerce Search, published on Feb. 25, 2019. The guide analyzes the eCommerce search market to support those looking for products or services that can support related customer experience initiatives.

    Gartner estimates that “by 2020, 30% of customer interactions with technology will be through “conversations” with smart machines.” However, a lack of dialogue capability has consistently posed a challenge to product discovery on eCommerce sites. The guide notes GroupBy’s as a representative vendor for its Searchandiser solution.

    Fusing best-in-breed machine learning with hand-curation tools, Searchandiser allows for total merchandising control. Retailers including CVS Pharmacy, Zoro Tools, Urban Outfitters and the Container Store are already experiencing the benefits of features such Search-As-You-Type, Recommendations Manager, Personalized Relevance™ and Responsive Design. With these advanced search capabilities, Searchandiser combats dialogue barriers, accounting for nuances in a customer’s language when they search and providing results that accurately match their queries.

    “We are extremely honored to be included in Gartner’s Market Guide for Digital Commerce Search this year,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “Conversational search is the way of the future, and GroupBy's Searchandiser has been built to be customer-centric to help shoppers to find the products they love easily and quickly, so our retailers can benefit from increased conversions and customer satisfaction.”

    A copy of Gartner’s Market Guide for Digital Commerce Search can be found here.

    Gartner Disclosure Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.

    About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.

    Media Contact Mikaela Cannizzo Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) mikaela@ketnergroup.com  512-794-8876

  • March 15, 2019

    How to Ease Merchandising Problems with Visual Rule Builder

    Often merchandisers create the rules, but they don't have a way to preview the results of the rule conditions. Sometimes companies have incentives for promoting a particular brand. For example: when a shopper searches for “shoes,” the merchandisers want a way to promote Adidas shoes first, or a specific combination of shoes sorted in a particular order. As a result, merchandisers have to spend hours tweaking logic in rules or creating custom curated pages to reflect these results on the live site pages. Businesses are not able to keep up with the trends in the market and fail to deliver an engaging experience to the shoppers. Therefore, they are losing out on top-line revenue plus achieving a higher ROI during the promotional events. As per industry research,

    • 80% of shoppers are likely to buy from a company that offers personalized experiences.

    • 53% reported personalization helps companies achieve KPIs including conversion rate, lead generation, and revenue.

    As part of our customer research, at GroupBy we take note of problems and requests from all of our clients. When a particular pain point keeps getting raised, we think about how we can solve it. Visual Rule Builder is our solution that came out of this process. "We have over 4000 rules, and our merchandisers spend 4-5 hours every day refining rules and validating the results set in the reference application." - An industrial and business supplies company Visual merchandising, if done correctly, will allow clients to maximize sales and improve brand visibility. Merchandising is a continuous process and companies have to adapt to the market needs and shopper’s behavior constantly. “Push to Top” allows merchandisers to push select products from the collection to the top of the search result. Push to Top eliminates the frustration of having to do the guesswork of tweaking the logic and verifying with the live site. [caption id="attachment_4700" align="aligncenter" width="1024"] Push To Top[/caption] [caption id="attachment_4698" align="alignnone" width="1236"] Restrict To ID[/caption] “We have many brands under our parent company, and we manage individual websites for each of the brands. We find it hard to customize product results for certain promotions.” - A jewelry brands retailer On certain promotional pages, clients usually want to restrict the products that are shown, such as closing out sales (Men’s shoes) or special event sales such as Valentine’s day. This problem can be handled on the backend by the merchandisers using the Visual Rule Builder’s “Restrict to ID” functionality. It allows merchandisers to create a curated set of results, and only these restricted products will be displayed. Instead of waiting until the last minute, merchandisers can create rules ahead of time during the festive or seasonal sales campaigns that can be set to run for a specific period of time. Another feature we introduced is Sort by ID, which allows merchandisers to sort the result set in a particular order. If there are some products already added in Push to Top, they take precedence, but a combination of Push to Top and Sort By ID can be applied to ensure the exact order of the result set. Combination of these features together with the visual preview helps merchandisers put together curated results for their campaigns that drive the best business outcomes for their site. We at GroupBy are always looking to solve business problems for our clients. Get in touch with our team to get a live demo of this feature and enable your merchandisers to create an exceptional site experience for your shoppers.

  • February 8, 2019

    Up-leveling Your Digital Shopper’s Experience Through Seamless Product Discovery & Personalized Relevancy

    The days of looking at the shopping journey as a series of separate channels are over. Instead, shoppers expect their journey to seamlessly flow between the digital and physical without skipping a beat. This means that no matter the channel, shoppers expect all of their search history, wish lists and personalized messages to be there. Looking at this consumer mandate in further detail, we find that the stakes increase as customers desire to complete their entire shopping journey online…

  • January 28, 2019

    GroupBy Reports 58% Increase in eCommerce Search During 2018 Holiday Sales Season

    TORONTO – Jan. 29, 2019 — GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced its retail customers saw significant increases in eCommerce search during the 2018 holiday season. The company reports its customers saw a total of 2.72 billion searches between Nov. 20 and Dec. 31, a 58% increase, compared to 1.72 billion searches in 2017 during the same time frame. GroupBy customers also averaged 66.8 million searches a day during the 2018 holiday season. “This data demonstrates that more consumers are shopping online than ever,” said Roland Gossage, GroupBy CEO. “With the volume of online purchases continuing to increase, 2019 will be a critical year for eCommerce retailers to ensure that their search and product data is optimized to make the shopper’s buying experience convenient, relevant and personalized, otherwise they will risk losing their consumers to competitors.” In October 2018, GroupBy estimated its retail customers would capture a total of $420M during the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, emphasizing the rise of eCommerce sales during traditionally brick and mortar shopping holidays. GroupBy’s Personalization, Product Recommendations, Search As You Type (SAYT) and Intelligent Navigation solutions ensure that eCommerce retailers are equipped with the right tools to make products more findable to shoppers and provide real-time insight into operational performance. What’s more, enhanced product descriptions can lead to an improved shopper experience and increased conversion rates. About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com. Media Contact Catherine Seeds Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) catherine@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • January 23, 2019

    Connecting more shoppers to your products by fusing highly relevant recall with personalization

    The days of looking at the shopping journey as a series of separate channels are over. Instead, shoppers expect their journey to seamlessly flow between the digital and physical without skipping a beat. This means that no matter the channel, shoppers expect all of their search history, wish lists and personalized messages to be there. Looking at this consumer mandate in further detail, we find that the stakes increase as customers desire to complete their entire shopping journey online.

  • January 23, 2019

    Giving you the insights you need to improve your site experience continuously

    We love empowering merchandisers to do what they do best - create site experiences that delight their shoppers. However, we recognize that merchandisers need feedback on whether their experiences have the desired effect. They also a need a helping hand in making sense of the thousands, if not millions, of experiences that their shoppers have. That’s where the GroupBy Cloud’s Analytics comes in.

  • January 23, 2019

    Align your product data to your customer’s shopping journey

    Hidden inventory is the plague today’s online retailers must deal with, where inventory is missing key attributes or metadata needed to recall specific products through to your navigation filters. Please read our whitepaper below to learn more about us.

  • January 11, 2019

    2 Minute Read: Solving Search Relevancy for the Grocery Industry

    In our latest episode of the 2 Minute Podcast, Brent Dunham talked about his experience at the GroceryShop conference last October in Las Vegas, NV and explained why the Grocery Industry is hurting for improved ecommerce search relevancy and personalization. Here’s what Brent had to say: Pressed for time? Listen to the audio version of the 2 Minute Podcast here Online Grocery has a certain uniqueness within the E-commerce realm. As discussed at GroceryShop, from a macro level, online grocery is still early in its evolution and accounts for only 1% market share among grocery purchases. With the low market share and the uphill battle to change consumer behavior, retailers need to be thoughtful about their e-commerce investments.  However, we can’t look at online solely as a separate channel with 62% of customers reportedly using some digital channel prior to visiting the brick-and-mortar, according to a keynote speaker at GroceryShop. So whether its content, searching for products online, or purchasing online and picking up in-store, online grocery is a critical part of the customer journey. We had the chance to attend GroceryShop, a forward-thinking conference focused on innovation with industry leaders in Supermarkets, CPG and consultancies in attendance. The SVP of Digital at Albertson’s called Grocery e-commerce: Deceptively similar, significantly different. For one, when comparing grocery to traditional retail, there are more items in the cart. With an average of 20-30 items there’s more work to be done in understanding the shopper's intent and providing a frictionless experience. Is the shopper looking for convenience items, building a recipe or ordering groceries for their family? These are all things grocers need to consider when trying to transfer the in-store experience to the online world. These differences are why GroupBy custom-built a front end experience solution to provide a seamless and intuitive online grocery shopping experience. With retailers focused on increasing conversion, and average order value, GroupBy’s ultimate goal is to bring the impulsiveness of in-store grocery shopping, to the ecommerce experience. This is where a data-driven recommendations and customer experience engine is critical. The opportunities for dynamic data-driven recommendations within e-commerce are exponentially higher than in-store, as the physical limitations of the store are removed. While it is important to digitally walk your customers through the store, the benefits of e-commerce allow you to begin to understand the core mix of products that someone is adding to their basket and seamlessly transition them across the digital store in a highly efficient manner to drive higher basket sizes. These recommendations are also highly personalized to the individual user. For example, a shopper over time orders a particular brand of lunch meat. Our system will recognize this shopper's preference and move that brand's products to the top of the page for this shopper, allowing for a much smoother customer experience when searching for “lunch meat”. Alongside intelligent recommendations, our solution contains other features adding to a more pleasant online journey. Features such as:
    • Recipe pages where shoppers can easily add all ingredients from a recipe to their cart and click out of ingredients they already have
    • Easy re-order where you’re able to quickly build a cart from previous orders
    • Search As You Type (SAYT) enables shoppers to add items to their basket directly from the search bar as they type out the products they are looking for
    We can also ingest in-store data to drive online personalization based on previous in-store purchases. Bridging online + offline worlds are critical in providing a consistent customer experience. As one of our key differentiators, I couldn’t wrap up this podcast without mentioning the impact of product data in powering online grocery. Managing product data is time-consuming, error-prone and often slips through the cracks amongst customer experience priorities. Grocery has its own data challenges in managing large catalogues with hundreds of brands and unique attributes like allergy specific and religious restrictions amongst others. Our solution uses a combination of humans and machines to clean, normalize and enrich product data feed’s creating a scalable solution to maximize results from your on-site experience engines. As voice search online and through connected devices becomes more mainstream, it’s paramount to have rich product data in order to surface relevant results. If you’re interested to learn more about GroupBy’s customer experience management solution for Grocers click here to request a demo.
  • December 7, 2018

    ‘Tis the Season for Reflecting on Cyber Weekend and What’s Next for Santa’s Arrival

    From Thanksgiving Day to the following Monday, retailers across the country hold their breath as they anticipate the results of Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the two largest selling days of the year in the United States. This particular Cyber Weekend, GroupBy saw 100% uptime across the board for its digital retail clients. Cyber Monday 2018 marked our highest traffic ever with shoppers making 96.3 million searches in just one day, 2.5 times higher than results from the previous year. According to Adobe Analytics, Cyber Monday 2018 broke the online sales record with spending in the U.S. reaching $7.9 billion, nearly 20% above last year. Thanksgiving and Black Friday also yielded their highest revenues yet at $3.7 billion and $6.2 billion. Saturday and Sunday, Nov. 24-25, additionally set a new record as the biggest online shopping weekend in the U.S. at $6.4 billion. For our retail customers here at GroupBy, we saw similar spikes. Compared to the weekend prior, Black Friday to Cyber Monday reaped increases of 72% in visits, 264% in orders and 185% in revenue. For the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, GroupBy customers recorded $240 million in orders on the online platform and we estimate $450 million in online transactions. The sector with the largest increase was clothing and apparel, which saw a more than 300% jump in ecommerce order volumes compared to the previous weekend. As we reflect on this peak shopping period and what’s next until Santa arrives on December 25, we believe some noteworthy tactics contributed to our success. The inevitable increases in online orders and site visits mean the competition will only grow stronger in the coming years, so a proactive approach to winning customers over will help prepare you for the most important retail weekend of the year. Consider the following tips and remember, it’s never too early to start planning for next year!

    Comprehensive product data does the trick

    Whether a shopper is browsing or visiting your site with a specific product in mind, a user-friendly search experience could make or break the sale. Ensuring product descriptions are both accurate and detailed is a good place to start as consumers value being well informed before making a purchase. Enhanced descriptions also increase the chances a consumer will find the products they are looking for, which potentially saves retailers from losing a shopper to a competing site. Limited time to buy gifts as the holidays inch closer means more shoppers are turning to online as a fulfillment option. For some, this may even be their first time. Keep this in mind as you strive to provide them with a first impression that will keep them coming back for more. To fight through the barrier of the screen which prevents familiar in-store experiences like touching, feeling and trying on, more precise and complete product data and information does the trick when it comes to increasing conversion rates and bolstering customer loyalty.

    Dazzle your site with a personalized online shopping experience

    In the midst of holiday shopping madness and hunts for the best deals, make your site stand out by curating a personalized online environment for your customers. Rather than bombarding visitors with promos based on previous purchases or demographics, online retailers increasingly need to live up to expectations of a more custom-made approach. To provide customers with experiences that truly capitalize on their interests and ultimately increase conversion rates, retailers should realize data is the force that drives contextual relevancy. Using data for personalization can go a long way as customers are more likely to explore a site longer and purchase more items when they feel the shopping experience has been created for them. In place of a store associate gauging a customer’s interests, online retailers can create a dialogue with each site visitor, which allows discovery of real-time intent with purchases. Matching data with relevancy is also crucial and implementing the right tools and procedures to solve for relevancy will create the best one-to-one experiences across all of the individual shopper’s touchpoints. Looking at the whole picture and combining product data, behavioral data and improved search capabilities is your best bet at delivering true value to each shopper. Catering to unique search queries can also ramp up personalization efforts. With hundreds of ways to search for a single item, implementing an elevated machine learning component will benefit retailers and shoppers alike.

    Check your progress with analytics

    By now, your to-do list is probably pretty lengthy as thoughts of data and personalization race around in your head. As you start implementing these best practices, consider tracking your progress with analytics to evaluate shoppers’ responses, which will indicate the impact of your efforts. Tools such as interactive dashboards and regular health checks will allow you to visibly see where you stand and obtain real-time insight into operational performance. While it seems like Santa will arrive any day now and Cyber Weekend 2019 is light years away, it will sneak up without warning. To make the most of the five days of the year where online retailers receive the most searches and secure the most sales, start endeavoring to make your site a more data-rich, personalized experience for every customer who interacts with you. This season’s proactive efforts will easily turn into next season’s rewards.
  • November 12, 2018

    GroupBy to Host Forrester Webinar on eCommerce Personalization

    Webinar featuring guest Forrester Vice President Brendan Witcher to take place Wednesday, Nov. 14

    AUSTIN, TX – Nov, 12, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced that GroupBy’s CEO, Roland Gossage, will be hosting a free webinar with guest Forrester on Nov. 14 at 2:00 p.m. E.T. The webinar, entitled “The Key to eCommerce Relevancy: Data-Led Personalization,” will focus on the latest eCommerce personalization research and market trends among today’s tech-savvy consumers across industries and regions. GroupBy’s Roland Gossage and Forrester VP and Principal Analyst, Brendan Witcher, will discuss what it means to leverage data and ultimately create optimal site experiences, including:
    • The ubiquity of personalization and what separates good from bad
    • Individualization vs. personalization
    • Using data-led individualized experiences to create customer loyalty through better relevance
    • What it means for eCommerce retailers to be truly data-led
    “Personalization is essential in creating a frictionless eCommerce site experience that connects shoppers to the products they love, which ultimately strengthens the retailer-consumer relationship,” said Roland Gossage, GroupBy CEO. “I look forward to discussing how retailers can tap into their data in order to optimize the online shopping experience for consumers.”  Challenges in personalization often occur as a result of misaligned product data or not thoroughly delving into each individual’s wants and needs, leading to hidden inventory, missed opportunities to generate additional sales, or a poor user experience for customers. With over 100 global customers in every retail vertical, GroupBy Inc. bridges the gap between online retailers, their products, and their consumers – leading to more relevant, personalized eCommerce search results and ultimately better customer site experiences. Register for the free webinar today.   About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.   Media Contact Catherine Seeds Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) catherine@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • November 7, 2018

    GroupBy Inc. to Sponsor The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair’s Key Equestrian Events

    GroupBy will present the Longines FEI Jumping World Cup as well as the “Big Ben” International Challenge

    Toronto – Nov. 07, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced it will be a major sponsor of The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (The Royal), taking place in Toronto, Ontario, Nov. 2 -11. Now in its 96th year, The Royal is the world’s largest combined indoor agricultural and equestrian event. Since its origins in 1922, The Royal has established itself as a world-leading agricultural event, creating a legacy of excellence in showcasing the “best in breed” in food, livestock, and horsemanship that Canada has to offer. As such, attendees will be able to see Olympians in addition to top caliber riders and horses compete at the highest level in show jumping, indoor eventing, and dressage. During the fair, GroupBy will proudly sponsor two key equestrian competitions, beginning with the “Big Ben” International Challenge on Thursday, Nov. 8, a fan-favorite event in which GroupBy will present the winner with $85,000. As well, on Saturday, Nov. 11, GroupBy will co-present the $205,000 Longines FEI Jumping World Cup, the crown jewel event celebrating The Royal’s top athletes, taking place on the final evening of international competition. “The Royal is not only a unique and integral part of Toronto’s history, but it is also a world-class event that highlights the best in the industry,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “We are honored to be able to take part in this high-caliber international competition that makes GroupBy’s backyard, Toronto, stand out above the rest.” About The Royal The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair is the world's largest combined indoor agricultural and equestrian show. Now in its 96th year, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair runs November at Exhibition Place, Toronto. For more information, please visit http://www.royalfair.org/ About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2013, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com. Media Contact Mariana Fischbach Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) mariana@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • November 5, 2018

    GroupBy Inc. Announced as Sponsor of 12th Annual Stand Up for Heroes Event

    TORONTO – Nov. 5, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, announced today it will be a sponsor at this year’s Stand Up for Heroes, a celebrity charity event taking place in New York City on Nov. 5. Branded as New York’s biggest night of hope, healing and laughter, all proceeds will go to more than 100 injured service members, veterans, and their caregivers from across the country to help provide them with healthy, positive futures. “GroupBy is a proud supporter of the Bob Woodruff Foundation,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy. “Having served in the military for over 10 years as part of the Armoured Corps as well as having members of the GroupBy team that have or had friends or family serve their country, this is a cause that is near and dear to our hearts.” The Bob Woodruff Foundation, a leading national nonprofit with an authentic connection and commitment to U.S. veterans, is partnering with the New York Comedy Festival to host the 12th Annual Stand Up for Heroes event. Throughout the last 10 years, the event has raised over $45 million, secured 390+ grants as part of its initiative to find, fund and shape innovative programs for veterans and reached more than 2.5 million veterans, service members and their families. The event, which will take place at the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, serves as the kickoff to the 15th annual New York Comedy Festival and will feature top performers such as the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bruce Springsteen and Jon Stewart. In addition to the show, which will draw an audience of approximately 5,600 people, clients will have access to networking opportunities with donors, influencers, veterans and leaders in military and government. About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.   Media Contact Mikaela Cannizzo Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) mikaela@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • October 19, 2018

    The Case for Data Enrichment

    Most organizations have a team responsible for data acquisition — a PIM team or buyers for example. Their responsibility is to ensure that they have all of the right data across their product catalog, not necessarily having the data ready for e-commerce

  • October 9, 2018

    GroupBy Forecasts Retail Customers to Secure $420M in Retail Transactions During Cyber Weekend 2018

    TORONTO – Oct. 9, 2018 —GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced its projections for the 2018 Cyber Weekend, estimating its own retail customers will capture a total of $420M during the five-day period between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday of this year, based on historical analysis from the company’s customer base. Based on orders recorded for this year, GroupBy expects to capture $9.35B of transactions for all of 2018. Adobe Analytics reported American consumers spent $19.62B online during the five days between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday of 2017. To estimate, the approximately $20B in sales during this period accounts for 4.5% of the $448B annual sales for the year. Given this calculation, 4.5% of GroupBy’s forecasted $9.35B in annual sales comes to $420M*. With 2017’s online sales during these five days increasing by $2.6B, or 15%, compared with 2016, according to a Practical Ecommerce sales report, GroupBy offers a few initial tips for how retailers can prepare in anticipation of the holidays based on the expected transaction numbers: Comprehensive Product Data With the volume of online purchases continuing to increase, ensuring product data is both comprehensive and complete, especially during the holiday sales crunch period, is vital. The barrier of the screen means no touching, feeling or trying on products, making accurate and detailed product descriptions an important source of reliability. What’s more, enhanced descriptions make products more findable to site visitors, ultimately increasing conversion rates, decreasing returns and bolstering customer loyalty. Personalizing the Online Shopping Experience Given that a direct correlation exists between shopper experience and increased conversion rates, customers are much more likely to explore a site longer and purchase more items when they feel the shopping experience has been created for them. Retailers can cater to this need by implementing Personalization, Product Recommendations, Search As You Type (SAYT) and Dynamic Navigation solutions. Retailers who commit to understanding what their customers are interested in, what they’re in the market for and what they’re most likely to add to their cart and purchase will reap the benefits when sales spike during the holidays. Analytics for regular health check As well, using analytics to evaluate a shopper’s responses to your company’s is another component to maximizing sales. Sophisticated business intelligence tools such as interactive dashboards and regular health checks allow retailers to track their progress and have real-time insight into operational performance. “As retailers prepare for the upcoming holiday sales season, improving site search capabilities should be at the forefront of their strategies”, said GroupBy CEO Roland Gossage. “Each of our clients bring thousands of new products to the table, with some affixed data. Now it’s our job to search out the gaps in this data and deploy strategies to fill them, resulting in proper classifications, increased product findability and more relevant search results. In order to achieve this—taking good product data to greatness—we combine the very best of manual curation with cutting edge machine learning technology.” *Methodology GroupBy arrived at this estimate by taking the following data into consideration:
    • The estimate is based on the assumptions that the order data covers all customers and that all orders are valid.
    • According to S. retail data, $448B in online sales occurred throughout 2017.
    About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com. Media Contact Mikaela Cannizzo Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) mikaela@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • September 18, 2018

    Julia Cartwright Joins GroupBy as Head of People and Culture

    AUSTIN, TX – Sept. 18, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced it has hired Julia Cartwright as Head of People and Culture. In her role, Cartwright will help craft, execute and build out GroupBy’s human resources function. Cartwright will be based in GroupBy’s Toronto headquarters. With more than 15 years of experience in HR, communications, marketing and coaching, Cartwright will work with the GroupBy team to ensure the company maintains its inimitable culture while continuing to scale in size over the coming years. “I’m absolutely thrilled to help build GroupBy’s value proposition by focusing on its company culture and values,” said Cartwright. “With an internal focus on creating a robust employee lifecycle experience, including onboarding, training and leadership, we can ensure that GroupBy maintains its entrepreneurial spirit that makes the company so unique.” A certified Adler Coach, Cartwright has served in various HR leadership roles, most recently as Edelman’s SVP of Human Resources for Canada and Latin America. Cartwright also served as HR Director at Aon Hewitt and ADP, where she focused on business strategy implementation, human capital management, organizational/talent management, policy implementation and training.  “Julia’s experience and approachable, open-door leadership style makes her ideal for our company,” said Roland Gossage, CEO of GroupBy. “With Julia, GroupBy will continue to hire the best talent and maintain our exceptional company culture as we grow.”   About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com. Media Contacts: Catherine Seeds Ketner Group (for GroupBy) catherine@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • September 13, 2018

    GroupBy Included in 2018 The Gartner Digital Commerce Vendor Guide for Commerce Search and Personalization Engines

    Intelligent site search and personalization capabilities allow GroupBy to provide customers with elite benefits among thriving digital commerce companies Austin, TEXAS – Sept. 13, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced the company’s inclusion in The Gartner Digital Commerce Vendor Guide, 2018 as a leading business for commerce search and personalization engines. Gartner’s analysis of the expanding digital commerce field includes defining key characteristics of this market and identifying growth patterns and trends. The report also categorizes vendors under different functionalities related to digital commerce platforms such as distributed order management, digital and customer journey analytics and marketplace/channel integration platforms. Commerce search with increased accuracy and ease for the shopper in addition to data-driven personalization software are two core components of GroupBy’s offerings to its retail customers. When it comes to intelligent search, the company’s Searchandiser product, powered by best-in-breed machine learning technology, lifts conversion rates from day one of implementation and continues to lift them further over time. In terms of a personalization engine, GroupBy focuses on a unique approach to monitor every action taken on the website. Through Personalized RelevanceTM , retailers have the ability to understand each shopper and suggest more thoughtful recommendations, retargeting and other marketing strategies. “We are extremely honored to be included in Gartner’s Digital Commerce Vendor Guide this year,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy. “Digital commerce is at the heart of our industry and we believe Gartner’s acknowledgment of our company as a vendor in commerce search and personalization engines further demonstrates the need for our offerings in the retail realm to help our customers succeed and create a personalized shopping experience for their shoppers.” GroupBy’s search and personalization solutions assist key industry leaders the company partners with including Urban Outfitters, CVS Pharmacy, Sears and Cabela’s. The Gartner Digital Commerce Vendor Guide, 2018 can be found here. (Gartner Subscription required) Gartner, The Gartner Digital Commerce Vendor Guide, 2018, Jason Daigler, Christina Klock, Sandy Shen, Penny Gillespie, Mike Lowndes, Mark Lewis, Dayna Ford, 29 August 2018 Gartner Disclosure Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in our research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner's research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com. ###   Media Contact: Catherine Seeds Ketner Group (for GroupBy) catherine@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • September 11, 2018

    2 Minute Read: On-Premise vs. Cloud Solution, Differences and Benefits

    In our second episode of the 2 Minute Podcast, Jason Chidester explained the differences between hosting your own on-premise IT solution vs. leveraging a cloud solution and three benefits for moving to a cloud solution. Here’s what Jason had to say: Pressed for time? Listen to the audio version of the 2 Minute Podcast here In general, cloud solutions like GroupBy’s provide 3 major benefits over an on-premise software solution: time-to-market, scalability and risk mitigation, and the benefits to better utilizing your human capital. Now let’s go into more detail about those. First, we’ll talk about time-to-market. With on-premise software, additional infrastructure such as servers, load balancers, and additional network equipment is often required by an organization to get an on-premise software solution up and running and out the door. Procuring, configuring and deploying this infrastructure adds cost and, more importantly, adds significant time to get your solution to the market. Needing to account for infrastructure to support additional environments like development and testing – which are often part of getting any solution up and running – only makes the problem worse. With a cloud solution like GroupBy, you are immediately provided with an endpoint which can support multiple environments. There’s no additional time or cost needed for server setup, installation, or configuration. Now let’s talk about scalability and risk mitigation. It’s often difficult for customers to anticipate spikes in their user traffic. When this occurs, with on-premise software, the solution can easily be overwhelmed and performance degrades significantly and rapidly – with the result being a poor customer experience for your users. To scale an on-premise solution to meet the spike in traffic often means purchasing additional infrastructure which in many cases will remain idle during non-peak activity times. What this means is that you have additional costs for either non-utilized or under-utilized capacity. With a cloud solution like GroupBy, it scales automatically to meet unanticipated customer demand, and it does it in a fluid, non-disruptive manner – always maintaining a consistent and positive customer experience – without additional costs. Lastly, let’s talk about human capital benefits. How are you getting the most out of your talented workforce? When an organization goes with an on-premise solution, it must dedicate a significant amount of human resources to constantly maintain and support both the software and the underlying infrastructure needed to run that software. Monitoring network traffic, applying patches and troubleshooting issues are not activities that add value to the business. This is not the case with a cloud solution like GroupBy. By leveraging a cloud solution, an organization can better use its talented workforce to focus on activities that advance a company’s key strategies. Those are 3 key benefits when looking at a cloud solution versus an on-premise solution. To learn more about GroupBy’s cloud solution, connect with a personalization expert.
  • September 6, 2018

    GroupBy Named a 2018 LinkedIn Top Startup in Canada

    AUSTIN, TX – Sept. 6, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced that the company has been named one of LinkedIn’s 25 Top Startup Companies in Canada. LinkedIn Top Startups ranks the most sought-after startups making an impact in the professional world as well as creating a company where job seekers want to work. “GroupBy is extremely thrilled to be awarded the distinction of a Top Startup by LinkedIn,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “Our growth in the past year and continued focus on our company culture, as well as delivering the best solutions to our customers has set us apart from the competition.” The first annual distinction for Canadian companies, LinkedIn Top Startups measures companies based on four core areas: employment growth, engagement, job interest and attraction of top talent. The timeline for measurement was July 2017 through June 2018. GroupBy is continuing to deliver its unique solutions to an expanded and growing retailer base. Since last July, GroupBy has announced Series B funding, and plans to more than double its staff in its Toronto and Austin, Texas headquarters. As well, the company just announced the opening of its first European office in London and plans to open additional offices in Europe by 2019. This year, GroupBy announced a series of C-level appointments, including COO, CFO and CIO, as well as continued customer partnerships with Urban Outfitters, CVS Pharmacy, Sears and Cabela's. About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com. Media Contacts: Catherine Seeds Ketner Group (for GroupBy) catherine@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • August 21, 2018

    Vish Srivastava Joins GroupBy Inc. as Country Manager of New London Office

    TORONTO – Aug. 21, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced sales veteran Vish Srivastava will join GroupBy as Country Manager of the company’s first European office in London. GroupBy is the first data–driven individualization platform that engages the consumer on a one–to–one basis while allowing the retailer to influence its shoppers in a non-intrusive or obvious way. In his new role, Vish will be responsible for various tasks including sales, marketing and managing products and implementation as well as educating European retailers about GroupBy’s differentiating factors. “As GroupBy expands to Europe, Vish will play a key role in leading the company’s expansion,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy. “With almost 10 years of experience in the same vertical GroupBy operates in, and his previous positions in sales, marketing, site search and eCommerce, Vish is equipped to excel as our country manager and we are thrilled to have him onboard.” After spending 14 years in the eCommerce industry and 10 years in site search navigation and search engine optimization (SEO), GroupBy sparked Vish’s attention due to the company’s end-to-end customer experience offerings from product data mining to transparent analytics. “While many companies offer site search, GroupBy’s offerings excel above the competition with a comprehensive and innovative data-driven ecommerce suite that you just can’t find anywhere else. What’s more, the company was founded on the principle that they are fully prepared to serve each retail customer based on their unique requirements, and to give their shoppers a superior ecommerce experience,” said Vish. “I am excited to serve as GroupBy’s country manager in Europe, and look forward to growing the London office into another major headquarters along with Toronto and Austin.” Vish has held a variety of sales management positions at leading companies including SLI Systems, BE EXCELLENT GmbH and Pitney Bowes. Additionally, he has collaborated with more than 600 retailers and brings international work experience from holding various positions in India, New Zealand, Australia, the UK, Ireland and other European countries. His global background will correlate directly into his new role at GroupBy, as he will be communicating with customers and partners from Asia, India, the U.S. and Canada.   About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.   Media Contact Mikaela Cannizzo Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) mikaela@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • August 15, 2018

    GroupBy Inc. Announces European Expansion, Will Open First Office in the U.K. This Fall

    TORONTO – Aug. 15, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced plans to open its first European office in the U.K. in early fall. GroupBy’s first European hub will focus on sales, marketing, operations and business development, starting with the appointment of a sales director who will oversee the U.K. office.  GroupBy is the first data-driven individualization platform that engages the consumer on a one-to-one basis while allowing the retailer to influence its shoppers in a non-intrusive or obvious way. Through GroupBy’s platform, retailers and brands are able to solve some of the toughest user experience pain points in the eCommerce market by powering search, browse, recommendations, SEO and SEM, in a highly relevant and personalized way. By expanding its global footprint to the U.K., GroupBy will continue to deliver its unique solutions to an expanded and international retailer base.  “As retailers across the world look to personalize the customer journey by bringing an ‘in-store’ experience to the online world, we are thrilled to open our first European office to provide our EMEA customers with resources located in their same time zone,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “Our offering will help European retailers scale large inventory eCommerce stores for the highest-quality customer site experience through product search relevancy and findability in an effort to increase revenues and conversion rates.”  About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.   Media Contact Mariana Fischbach Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) mariana@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • August 6, 2018

    GroupBy Announces Command Center 3, Gives Retailers the Power to Quickly Manage Their eCommerce Solution Suites

    Command Center 3, built on React.js, allows GroupBy to quickly and continuously develop new features to manage eCommerce sites, giving retailers the latest technology to navigate their GroupBy solutions 

    AUSTIN, TX – August 6, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced the release of Command Center 3, the latest version of GroupBy’s admin portal designed for retailers to monitor and make quick and easy changes to their eCommerce solutions without requiring any code deployments to their sites. With Command Center 3, GroupBy is moving away from JSP technology to React.js, allowing the company to speedily develop features that enable retailers to take advantage of configuration areas, which will power their development environments and help them manage multiple eCommerce sites.  Command Center 3 will allow users who create and operate within specific areas of the GroupBy solution suite to make updates without requiring additional data sets. The new technology will also help users test and preview with no cross-pollination or impact to production. All changes that are made within Command Center 3 take effect immediately and can be previewed on the retailer’s site or within the reference view. Additional features of Command Center 3 include:  Managing Reporting with Real-Time Analytics  GroupBy customers can now benefit from access to real-time analytic reports through advanced business intelligence tools and interactive dashboards within Command Center 3, allowing for regular health checks and insights into their operational performance for better decision-making. For example, with GroupBy’s analytics capabilities, customers can identify patterns and areas of opportunity in how they are positioning their GroupBy solutions for consumers, with the ability to instantly take action and create new rules to deliver an optimized customer experience to each and every one of their consumers.  Managing Search and Browse: From Curation to Machine Learning Command Center 3 allows retailers to manage search and browse results at multiple levels of granularity. From specifying exactly which products should show up first to applying machine learning-based relevance scoring, retailers can decide exactly how much manual control needs to be applied. What’s more, retailers also gain the ability to create multiple levels of influence (from site-wide defaults, to category-specific, to even more specific customer journeys), enabling quick changes without requiring the retailer to curate and manage every path.   Managing Relevancy As well, with Command Center 3, retailers have the ability to manage specific search and relevancy tasks including redirects, synonyms, spell corrections, stop words and other standard search engine controls. Retailers can also create relevance scoring based on product-metadata (such as margins, sales volume, newness, ratings and more), product attributes (such as categories) and the customer’s actions.  Managing Navigations Retailers, along with their merchandisers and administrators, can use Command Center 3 to define what kind of refinements should exist - including Value, Range (merchandiser defined and controlled), and Dynamic Range (which enables the creation of price histograms). Additionally, merchandisers can set the default order of navigations, and control which navigations show for any given result page. Additional functionality can be enabled via metadata for retailers’ IT teams, enabling customizing navigations for specific business requirements and shopper needs.  “As today’s retailers continue to create a personalized eCommerce environment for their customers, they need the ability to quickly innovate and deliver responsive features that resonate with them,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “With Command Center 3, we are putting the power at the fingertips of our retail customers, allowing them to quickly analyze, update and make changes to their solution suite to evolve as quickly as their customers.”     About GroupBy Inc.  GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.     Media Contact  Mariana Fischbach  Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy)  mariana@ketnergroup.com  512-794-8876     
  • July 31, 2018

    GroupBy Appoints Mark Stibbe to Chief Information Officer

    AUSTIN, TX – July 31, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced that Mark Stibbe has been named Chief Information Officer. As CIO, Stibbe will oversee GroupBy’s IT initiatives as well as the company’s SOC 2 processes, internal reporting and analytics, and integration of GroupBy company acquisition’s IT systems. Additionally, Stibbe will take on the role of GroupBy’s Privacy Officer. He brings more than 25 years of experience in progressive leadership to his role as CIO. 
    Stibbe initially joined GroupBy as a Partner in 2013, and during the company’s startup phase he led several of GroupBy’s departments including consulting services, finance, HR and legal. Most recently, Stibbe served as Vice President of Customer Solutions before being appointed to CIO.  
    Stibbe has also served in various leadership roles at Oracle Endeca, most recently as Oracle’s Practice Director for North America East, where he was responsible for eCommerce consulting, and eCommerce and enterprise search solutions. Stibbe also served as Client Director at Cognos, where he was responsible for positioning and selling large multi-year performance management service programs. 
    “For the past five years, I have had the privilege to serve in multiple roles at GroupBy and have seen the company grow from a small Canadian startup, to a successful global eCommerce company helping leading retailers and brands create a more enhanced user experience with proven business results,” said Stibbe. “I am honored to serve as the company’s CIO and look forward to helping the company evolve as it continues to build out its industry-leading suite of services.” 
    “Mark’s diverse and extensive familiarity with GroupBy makes him an ideal fit for this position,” said Roland Gossage, CEO of GroupBy. “I have no doubt he will use his experience with other SaaS and software organizations to continue to improve GroupBy’s IT initiatives.” 
    About GroupBy Inc. 
    GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.  
    Media Contacts: 
    Catherine Seeds 
    Ketner Group (for GroupBy) 
    catherine@ketnergroup.com 
    512-794-8876 
  • July 24, 2018

    GroupBy Appoints Srikant Nayak to Chief Financial Officer

    AUSTIN, TX – July 24, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced it has promoted Srikant Nayak to Chief Financial Officer. In this role, Srikant is responsible for aligning GroupBy’s sales cycle, business decisions and operations to ensure GroupBy’s present and future growth. Prior to becoming GroupBy’s CFO, Srikant served as VP of Finance and Senior Director of Finance for GroupBy, having joined the company in 2015. 
    With over 22 years of international experience across multiple industries including software, natural resources, infrastructure and medical devices, Srikant brings superior experience in managing the accounting and finance functions of companies and understanding the complexities of the enterprise sales cycle. Srikant holds a CPA, CA designation from Canada and is also a Chartered Accountant from India. 
    GroupBy is the first data-driven individualization platform that engages the consumer on a one-to-one basis while allowing the retailer to influence its shoppers in a non-intrusive or obvious way. As GroupBy continues to expand its client portfolio as well as increase its employee presence in both its Toronto and Austin offices, Srikant’s leadership will ensure capital efficiency in this next stage of company growth.  
     “We are currently in one of the most exciting stages of our journey at GroupBy as we continue to witness unprecedented growth,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy. “Srikant has been a key component in ensuring we are being smart and efficient as we continue to innovate. We are thrilled to have his breadth and depth of experience as we continue to evolve and deliver a best-in-class eCommerce experience to our customers.” 
    Prior to joining GroupBy, Srikant served in various finance leadership roles, most recently serving as director of Homeland Energy Group, a coal producer with operations in South Africa, where he oversaw the audit and governance committee. Srikant also served as VP of finance for Toronto-based Unit Park, a parking management company, where he was responsible for the overall capital plan and ensuring revenue controls and audit procedures maximized the company’s revenue integrity. Furthermore, Srikant’s rolodex of finance leadership includes prominent roles in international companies including Thinet Emirates in Abu Dhabi, El Dukair in Saudi Arabia and Tata Elxsi in Bengaluru, India. 
    “At GroupBy, I have seen our customer logos expand qualitatively due to the amazing offerings we have, developed and serviced by a team of very smart and enterprising individuals,” said Srikant Nayak, CFO, GroupBy. “As CFO, I am excited to play an important role in helping the management team steer this amazing startup to its full potential. I believe we have entered the most exciting stage of our journey as we have doubled ourselves every year, and have a strong pipeline that will ensure we not only keep but exceed that pace.” 
      Media Contacts: 
    Catherine Seeds 
    Ketner Group (for GroupBy) 
    catherine@ketnergroup.com 
    512-794-8876 
     
    About GroupBy Inc. 
    GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.  
  • July 16, 2018

    GroupBy Appoints Peter Messana to Chief Operating Officer

    AUSTIN, TX – July 17, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced that Peter Messana has been named Chief Operating Officer. With over 25 years of retailing experience, in his role as COO, Peter will focus on client success and support, ensuring that GroupBy meets its goal of developing and delivering best-in-class eCommerce products to retailers and brands worldwide. As well, Peter will align GroupBy’s teams to be equally focused on existing and new clients. Peter began his relationship with GroupBy as a retail client in 2014 and joined the company as SVP of Product and Support in 2017. Prior to joining GroupBy, Peter served as the founder and CEO of award-winning Austin Kayak for more than 10 years, successfully selling the company to Private Equity owned Summit Sports in 2016 where he then served as CEO and President, as well as a member of the Board of Directors. Prior to building his own business, Peter held various leadership roles with Home Depot and Dell. “As a long-time retail customer of GroupBy first, I was fortunate to see early on and first-hand how the platform’s power and flexibility sets itself apart from competitors,” said Peter Messana, Chief Operating Officer, GroupBy Inc. “Now, in my role as COO, I look forward to supporting many of the world’s leading online retailers and brands to create a fundamentally better user experience, like I had as a retailer, with proven business results.” “Peter first started his relationship with the company as a client of our early on-premise version of Searchandiser in 2013. Since then, he has joined our ranks starting as SVP of Product and Support, and now as COO. Peter has been instrumental in helping manage and grow the business often contributing in multiple areas of the business outside his current job scope,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “We’re very excited that Peter is continuing to grow alongside our company. His thorough understanding of online retailers’ needs has allowed GroupBy to prioritize its projects and keep the end customer in mind with every decision we make.”   Media Contacts: Catherine Seeds Ketner Group (for GroupBy) catherine@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876   About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.
  • July 12, 2018

    2 Minute Read: The Case for Data Enrichment

    Last week, in our very first episode of the 2 Minute Podcast, Matthew Cyr sat down to explain why it's so important for ecommerce retailers to have reliable and consistent data to translate into relevant and high converting online shopping experiences. Here's what Matthew had to say: Pressed for time? Listen to the audio version of the 2 Minute Podcast here The most common challenge we hear when speaking to retailers about what could be impacting their site experience is that their product data has gaps, inconsistencies, and it's often not aligned with the way people shop for products. Ensuring you have complete, normalized and enriched product data that's optimized specifically for ecommerce is critical to meeting the ever-growing expectations of online shoppers. The data challenge comes as a result of limited technology, not enough resources, and misaligned responsibilities across digital teams. We’ve found that most organizations have a team responsible for data acquisition -- this might be a PIM team or buyers for example. Their responsibility is to make sure that they have all of the right data across their product catalog, not necessarily having the data ready for e-commerce. For example, are all of the size metrics from 100+ suppliers in the same numeric format or have all of the variations of red been normalized to just red, or that the description 'drip dry clothing' actually means 'wrinkle free'. On the experience side -- your ecommerce product managers are worrying about technical integrations while site merchandisers are thinking about product placement, pricing, product discovery and conversion metrics. Neither of these teams were built with the resources, time or technology to manage granular product data at scale specifically for e-commerce performance. As they say, 'Your site is only as good as your data' and GroupBy's got you covered. Our product data enrichment solution is purpose-built to make sure that all of your product data is complete, normalized and reflects all the ways your shoppers think and speak about products. By matching our machine learning curation engine with smart data scientists and taxonomists, we guarantee 100% quality with speed and scale for any catalog size. Generally, we are at one-third of the cost and 10-times faster when compared to retailers' current process (which may be generating less data and lower quality). Interested in learning more about GroupBy? Contact our sales team at sales@groupbyinc.com to request a demo.
  • July 10, 2018

    The Vitamin Shoppe Selects GroupBy to Enhance its Digital Customer Experience

    The Vitamin Shoppe, a leading specialty retailer and manufacturer of nutritional products, will enhance its online user experience with GroupBy’s Cloud platform 

    AUSTIN, TX – July 10, 2018 – GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced that Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. has partnered with GroupBy to enrich its product data and power site search to enhance the digital experience at vitaminshoppe.com. 
    The Vitamin Shoppe selected GroupBy’s Cloud platform, which includes the Searchandiser and Enrich solutions. The Searchandiser solution will enable The Vitamin Shoppe to amplify its search result relevancy, and drive an improved experience across the customer journey. As well, Enrich will ensure the retailer’s product data is comprehensive and complete, making products easier to find to site visitors.  
    “It was important to us to find the right strategic partner that could take the eCommerce experience for our shoppers to the next level,” said Vikram Vohra, Vice President of Digital Product Management, Vitamin Shoppe. “With GroupBy’s proven ability to improve product data and search functions, our customers will not only benefit from the increased ability to quickly find the products they are looking for, but we’ll be able to more seamlessly further our mission to help customers achieve their health and wellness goals.”  
    “We are thrilled to be given the opportunity to optimize The Vitamin Shoppe’s product data in order to accurately showcase the unique and compelling qualities within each product,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “Through our work, The Vitamin Shoppe will see a more shopper-friendly site experience.” 
    About Vitamin Shoppe, Inc. 
    Vitamin Shoppe is an omni-channel, specialty retailer and contract manufacturer of nutritional products based in Secaucus, New Jersey. In its stores and on its website, the Company carries a comprehensive retail assortment including: vitamins, minerals, specialty supplements, herbs, sports nutrition, homeopathic remedies, green living products, and beauty aids. In addition to offering products from approximately 900 national brands, the Vitamin Shoppe also carries products under The Vitamin Shoppe®, BodyTech®, True Athlete®, MyTrition®, plnt®, ProBioCare®, Next Step® and Betancourt Nutrition® brands. The Vitamin Shoppe conducts business through more than 775 company-operated retail stores under The Vitamin Shoppe and Super Supplements retail banners, and through its website, www.vitaminshoppe.com. Follow the Vitamin Shoppe on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/THEVITAMINSHOPPE and on Twitter at http://twitter.com/VitaminShoppe. 
    About GroupBy Inc. 
    GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.  
    Media Contact 
    Catherine Seeds 
    Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) 
    catherine@ketnergroup.com 
    512-794-8876 
  • July 5, 2018

    New TLS Protocols for GroupBy: What You Need to Know

    In order to provide the most secure services, GroupBy will soon only support the latest Transport Layer Security (TLS) security protocol, TLS 1.2, while removing support for versions 1.0 and 1.1 effective September 21, 2018. All GroupBy customers will need to upgrade their API-based integrations to exclusively support TLS 1.2 to avoid interruptions in functionality.

    Reasons for the Transition

    We are implementing this change in order to continue providing the most secure services to our customers in alignment with industry standards, placing security at the forefront. Originally developed as Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protection in the 1990s, TLS protocols provide security when transmitting data over a network. Introduced in 2008, TLS 1.2 is the most recent version and addresses a number of security vulnerabilities that have been identified in TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1.

    What’s Changing

    After September 21, 2018, the GroupBy Platform will no longer accept inbound connections from customers using TLS 1.0 and TLS 1.1. While this affects API based integrations it is also important to note that this change will affect how your users using older browsers are impacted for any direct connections to GroupBy's platform. The following web browsers and versions support TLS 1.2 by default:
    • Apple Safari (desktop) – version 7 (or later)
    • Apple Safari (mobile) – iOS 5 (or later)
    • Google Chrome – version 30 (or later)
    • Microsoft Internet Explorer – version 11 (or later)
    • Mozilla Firefox – version 27 (or later)

    Not Sure If You Need to Upgrade?

    API testing can be done using https://tls.groupbycloud.com, which allows a connection into a test area that returns a dummy record.  If your connection is successful here, no further changes are required. Testing against the endpoint https://tls.groupbycloud.com/api/v1/search and the expected result for a successful call would be: {"id":"12341234-1234-1234-1234-123412341234","area":"Production","records":[{"collection":"Sample","allMeta":{"title":"Cool sample"},"_id":"12345678901234567890123456789012","_u":"http://groupbyinc.com/00001","_t":"Cool sample"}],"totalRecordCount":1,"template":{"name":"default","zones":{}},"pageInfo":{"recordStart":1,"recordEnd":1},"matchStrategy":{"rules":[{"termsGreaterThan":2,"mustMatch":80,"percentage":true}]},"availableNavigation":[{"name":"ranking","displayName":"Product Ranking","type":"Value","moreRefinements":true,"refinements":[{"type":"Value","count":1,"value":"100"}],"metadata":[{"key":"hidden","value":"true"}],"range":false,"or":false}]} A failed test would result in the following error: curl: (35) gnutls_handshake() failed: Error in protocol version We will provide two smoke tests where we will shut off TLS 1.0 and 1.1 for 30 minutes, one on September 11th, 2018 and a second on September 18th, 2018.  You will see a disruption in service if you have not upgraded. If you have any questions related to this transition, please contact our support for additional information.
  • June 26, 2018

    GroupBy Inc. Announces North American Company Expansion and Plans for New European Offices

    TORONTO, June 26, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced plans to more than double its staff in its Toronto and Austin, Texas, headquarters, as well as open new offices in Europe by early 2019. GroupBy plans to add 100 new positions across all divisions including engineering, sales, marketing and G&A to its two North American offices, and will add at least 30 employees for the office location in Europe. The exact European location has not yet been chosen, but GroupBy is considering one or more offices in the UK, Germany, France and Italy.

    The increase in resources, as well as an expanded global footprint will help GroupBy continue to deliver its unique solutions to an expanded and growing retailer base. “Our clients have come to expect a differentiated experience by partnering with us due to our innovative platform, but more importantly, because of the people who make up the foundation of our company,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “To build a next-generation experience for our customers, we need the best and brightest minds in software design and development, which is why we are doubling-down on our investments in our current teams in conjunction with finding new talent in North America and Europe to add to our DNA." As GroupBy’s customer portfolio continues to witness unprecedented growth with top retailers, the new positions at GroupBy will be designed to uphold GroupBy’s motto of a differentiated client-vendor relationship with each and every retailer they work with. GroupBy is the first data-driven individualization platform that engages the consumer on a one-to-one basis while allowing the retailer to influence its shoppers in a non-intrusive or obvious way. Through GroupBy’s platform, retailers and brands are able to solve some of the toughest user experience pain points in the eCommerce market by powering search, browse, recommendations, SEO and SEM, in a highly relevant and personalized way. About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com. Media Contact Catherine Seeds Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) catherine@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • June 20, 2018

    GroupBy Inc. Announces Series B Funding

    Round of financing from PeakSpan Capital will further accelerate GroupBy’s growth, enhance product innovation in key areas and expand the company’s global reach

    TORONTO, June 19, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions, today announced the company has closed its Series B financing. This round of funding from PeakSpan Capital, a premier boutique growth equity firm, is a validation of GroupBy’s industry-leading eCommerce solution, strong market position and extensive and growing retailer and brand customer base. GroupBy will use the financing to further develop its product innovation and industry partnerships in key areas, expand the company’s reach globally, and meet the increasing demand for GroupBy’s solutions in existing and new markets. GroupBy has a solid track record of solving some of eCommerce’s largest challenges around site search, product recommendations, personalization, SEO, SEM and scale – helping leading retailers and brands to create a fundamentally better user experience with proven business results. The company’s strong executive, sales, product and engineering teams, accelerated growth in 2017 and in early 2018, and its newly formed partnership with PeakSpan, sets GroupBy up to be the independent market leader in the data-driven eCommerce space. “We are delighted to partner with the GroupBy team and support this business in its first institutional financing. From our very first introduction to the company, we’ve been impressed with GroupBy’s innovation and leadership. This was reflected in the quality of their customers and what those customers had to say about the company, its platform and services,” said Phil Dur, Managing Partner and Co-founder, PeakSpan Capital. “In a technically challenging sector where competing organizations have invested hundreds of millions of dollars and, in many cases, struggled to drive disruptive value, GroupBy has scaled efficiently with impressive growth and a world-class customer base. With what GroupBy has on the horizon, combined with an already exceptional eCommerce offering, we are confident the company will continue to excel in both B2B and B2C markets.” “Looking forward, our plans to scale the business with this new investment are well underway, however, it is important as we grow to not lose sight of what got us here. We are firm believers that the customer always comes first, and internally, our order of priorities are people, product, profits,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy. “GroupBy bootstrapped the company from day one because we wanted to focus on innovation, quality and customer intimacy unencumbered, and less on a ‘growth at all cost’ model. While there is quite a bit of capital in the market today, GroupBy was seeking a partner that shared in our values around customers and innovation. I am confident to say we found that in PeakSpan and am extremely excited to have them onboard throughout this journey.” PeakSpan Capital PeakSpan Capital is a growth equity firm based in New York City and Silicon Valley, with a focused mission to be the partner of choice for growth stage entrepreneurial teams who are building amazing software targeted at business buyers of all sizes -- from very small businesses to large enterprises. PeakSpan combines deep domain expertise within a select number of themes with a homegrown, proprietary technology platform providing visibility into company and market performance, to help entrepreneurs drive resilient, risk-adjusted value creation. To learn more about PeakSpan Capital and its portfolio, please visit: www.peakspancapital.com. About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for data enrichment, search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). Founded in 2014, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com. Media Contact Catherine Seeds Ketner Group Communications (for GroupBy) catherine@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876
  • April 17, 2018

    Multichannel Merchant: Individualization is the Next Step in Advanced Personalization

    In the modern maze of countless ecommerce sites and constant increase in competition, providing shoppers with a personalized experience has become a crucial aspect of any positive shopping experience – and customers are noticing. The future of personalization is now turning to one of individualization, where shoppers are offered a one-on-one, intuitive and customized experience. And there is a major difference between the two strategies. Personalization interprets the behaviors and preferences of a wide demographic of shoppers, while individualization stretches this idea one step further by tailoring completely unique experiences to each individual shopper’s habits and preferences. In order to execute functional, individualized shopper experiences, retailers must ensure that cutting edge machine learning technologies are working in harmony with each other. As such, here are a few top factors to focus on in order to offer a true individualized experience... (read more)
  • April 11, 2018

    GroupBy knows the power of April. Do you?

    The saying, “April showers bring May flowers,” couldn’t be more true when it comes to the whirlwind seasons of eCommerce. As this month flies by and another fast approaching summer shopping season begins, now is the time for retailers to fine-tune their eCommerce presences before winter code lock, assuring their sites will flourish well passed May and into the following quarter.   And just how does a competitive retailer begin this process? Well, first and foremost, they start fast. With April nearly halfway over, it’s the last chance to begin implementing and testing new projects and changes to eCommerce sites and their merchandises in order for these changes to be executed before peak shopping season. By starting now, retailers allow themselves a generous window in order to make necessary adjustments to site experience, Individualization strategies, product data and other aspects of an engaging shopper journey for best results. Ideally, these A/B testing cycles take place over a period of 3-6 months so that they may inform the most accurate results. So, if retailers are committed to unparalleled success in upcoming shopping seasons, strategy and implementation projects should be completed, web tested and live by the end of October. But just as much as speed is the name of the game, it is just as important to start fast as it is to start smart. Luckily, GroupBy knows how to make both a reality for any retailer. GroupBy is committed to high-speed implementations, as well as the importance of software which consistently integrates well with others. This means that it’s easier than ever for retailers to make advantageous changes to their eCommerce sites without hassle, worry, and most importantly, delay. Groupby implements in as little as two weeks, allowing plenty of time for subsequent changes and adjustments. Additionally, our suite of microservices is tailored so that each retailer has flexible access to any and all services they desire. Now’s the perfect opportunity for retailers to innovate and reimagine their digital footprints, and we’re ready to help. GroupBy knows the value of time; a day, a week, a month. And we intend to continue doing as much with every minute as we can to support growing, thriving eCommerce sites while empowering their retailers every step of the way. Interested in learning more about GroupBy or in taking on a GroupBy Challenge, contact us now!
  • March 20, 2018

    ShopTalk Recap Day 2: Immerse Yourself in the Future of Commerce

    Just as eCommerce continues to affect traditional brick and mortar shopping, the rise of mobile shopping is changing how retailers should approach their eCommerce sites. Mobile shopping continuously changes what consumers are shopping for and how they’re searching for their desired items. Additionally, mobile shopping has reshaped how shoppers engage with eCommerce altogether. Search terms are becoming more colloquial and consumers are relying on online shopping for more of their day-to-day needs, not just specialty items. And just as this dependency expands, so do shopper expectations. 

    Lucky for retailers, this rise in customer expectations is also and opportunity to drive personalization on an individualized scale, adapting shopper experience for each and every person who visits an eCommerce site while also being informed on future merchandising decisions. Because just as much as products must draw shoppers in, so must their presentations. And for every incredible presentation a retailer curates, they gain the opportunity to learn what customers respond to. 

    This process is the only way to guarantee an engaging shopper journey that will attract customers time and time again. The increased prevalence of displays such as video product presentations and user generated content (UGC) are only two examples of how smart retailers are learning from mobile technologies and adapting their eCommerce site experience for this kind of engagement, while also executing successful immersive merchandising on a macro and micro scale. In this way, they are extending beyond both brick and mortar and traditional eCommerce, combining the best of both for the ultimate experience. 

    For more insights on how GroupBy is reimagining how traditional shopping and eCommerce can work together for best results, stop by and chat with our team at ShopTalk in the Emerging Technologies zone, booth ET35 or contact us to set up a demo! 

  • March 19, 2018

    ShopTalk Recap Day 1: AI is More Intelligent Than it is Artificial!

    One of the greatest challenges facing eCommerce today is continually understanding each consumer and their individual interests and needs, now and in the future. And for as much as these tastes may change, merchandising decisions much be just as adaptable. Merchandising is no longer as simple as putting objects within the customer’s reach. Now, retailers must equally appreciate how the customer is interacting with these products within the “ecosystem” that is their eCommerce site and make adjustments from there. So, how can retailers make the decisions and changes in real time for each individual customer? AI (artificial intelligence) is the answer to this question. 

    At it’s core, AI is far more intelligent than it is artificial. In fact, AI is the embodiment of humans and machines working together for the best possible outcome. In this case, a positive onsite experience which captures the essence of shopping at a physical store and provides easy, relevant access to the best, most relevant products. In turn, with each click and purchase a customer makes, AI relays this information back to the retailer in a way that best informs merchandising decisions. 

    The future of eCommerce is headed towards embracing AI and all that is has to offer, both for the customer and the retailer. It is the foundation which assured that eCommerce sites remain flexible, reactive and relevant for years to come. When this happens, “ecosystems” shift alongside their shoppers, not against them, and merchandising decisions are never misses. 

    To learn more about how GroupBy is leveraging artificial intelligence options for unparalleled results, stop by booth ET-35 in the Emerging Technology Zone (Aisle 1900-2000) at ShopTalk or send us a note! 

  • March 9, 2018

    Total Retail: Increasing Consumer Search Preferences to Fulfill Shoppers’ Needs

    In today’s time-starved world, retailers and brands are just one of the many industries competing for consumers’ attention on a daily basis. And as more and more shoppers experience increased time constraints throughout their day, the ways they search for items they need to buy online in that instant will become increasingly specific, in much the way they shop in an actual store. As Karen Katz, former CEO of Neiman Marcus Group said recently at the 2018 NRF BIG Show, “The next frontier is trying to figure out how to replicate the in-store experience online. Really try to bring a human touch to online so consumers feel they have a connection. As online grows to plus 40 percent, it’s very important to have a human touch.” While a majority of e-commerce retailers have implemented a strategy for the online search offering as part of that “human touch,” such as brand, price and ratings, shoppers are often looking for a more enriched experience during their online journey. As such, retailers need to ensure shoppers’ search queries lead to the right product, whether a shopper has a particular product in mind or is simply browsing. Giving shoppers the ability to have access to specific searches is not only critical to fulfilling consumers’ needs and having them return to a website, but can also lead to increased spending and more profit for the retailer.

    Multiterm Keywords

    To help shoppers find what they're looking for, implementing multiple search option capabilities within categories can help refine product searches even further. For example, a shopper might want to look at a specific brand of jeans, or only brown shoes instead of any other color. Through increased search precision, multiterm results can be restricted by the identified attributes. This allows for a retailer’s products to be properly detailed and appear in front of the shopper. If a specific search doesn't bring back the ideal specified results, shoppers may become annoyed with the lack of proper results and abandon the site, leading to a loss in sales.

    Natural Language Preferences

    When a shopper's time is incredibly valuable, increasing the ability to input specific search preferences will lead them to find an item more quickly. However, more often than not, consumers enter search terms using the natural language they communicate on a daily basis, which doesn't always match data in a product catalog. By using a direct semantics search, traditional keyword-based searches and more complex natural language searches can be supported. Therefore, if a shopper searches for a “cheap dress,” the results will be sorted as “Price: Low to High.”

    Shopping by Concern

    Additionally, providing search preferences that include product capabilities can deter a shopper from choosing to search products just by price. For example, our research indicates that allowing consumers to shop by concern can help lower their price sensitivity and consider other more important aspects of a product. For a category such as jackets, for example, the ability to search “staying dry” or “keeping warm” can drive customers to consider the more important critical features of the product. Ultimately, by eliminating price sensitivity, retailers can raise the average order price — and typically gross margin — by 80 percent or more. Today’s shoppers are searching and finding the perfect products faster, which means retailers must be innovative and efficient in their search optimization to put the perfect product in a shopper’s path. Offering specific search preferences can satisfy the time-limited shopper and provide more detailed products to someone who is browsing or in an information-gathering stage. However, implementing confusing or limited search results can lead to frustration and site abandonment. By creating search terms in which shoppers can specifically and successfully look for products, retailers can see an increase in customer satisfaction and profits. Roland Gossage is the CEO of GroupBy, Inc., a data-driven e-commerce platform with data enrichment, advanced search, merchandising and analytics. (Read More)
  • March 7, 2018

    This Spring, Make the Most of Your Product Data

    Spring has nearly sprung, and there’s no better time than now for retailers to make sure they’re ready for the next shopping season. One way to do this is via one of the oldest tricks in the book: a thorough spring cleaning. It’s the time of the year when we all take stock of what we have and how we organize it, as well as what can be improved and what may need to be tossed. Product data can benefit from a similar approach. Just like attics and closets get messy over time, eCommerce spaces can become cluttered by a constant, natural influx of data. But not to worry, this is nothing that can’t be solved by a little product data maintenance i.e. spring cleaning. As product selection expands with the progress of any eCommerce site, more data comes with it. Data that is often added onto or adjusted for best site search experience and SEO. But when this is the case, it’s equally important to be mindful that an excess of fresh data, and/or older data, doesn’t begin to essentially “pile up” and negatively affect product findability, search navigation and other factors along the shopper journey. Instead, as an eCommerce site expands, so too must the sophistication of product descriptions and product tagging. Retailers must make strides to describe and tag products more accurately and with more detail than ever before, while also keeping this data clean and tidy. The key lies is keeping product data within reach, manageable, adaptable and well-organized at all times by establishing and maintaining practices as satisfying and beneficial as any other form of spring cleaning. Product data must be easily modifiable for real time results that account for shopper trends, preferences, microseasons and countless other variables.   With the proper tools to carry out these practices, all product data becomes the very best that it can be, fulfilling its vast, often untapped, potential. Consequently, executing individualization strategies like product recommendations, purchase memory, and other facets of cutting edge eCommerce couldn’t be simpler, ensuring a more convenient and engaging shopper experience within the retailer’s control. Learn more about how GroupBy puts product data, and much more, within retailer control, here.
  • March 5, 2018

    GroupBy is Coming to ShopTalk!

    Are you interested in taking your eCommerce site to the next level? Stop by and meet the GroupBy team at ShopTalk 2018. We can’t wait to chat about how to enhance every aspect of your site experience, from individualizing the shopper journey to enriching product data, and everything in between. GroupBy is committed to driving brands towards the future of eCommerce. So, don’t forget to come say hi, March 18th-21st at the Venetian in Las Vegas.
  • February 27, 2018

    Northwest River Supplies Powers Next-Generation eCommerce with GroupBy Inc.

    TORONTO, Feb. 27, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions and one of Canada’s fastest growing technology companies, today announced that NRS, a leading manufacturer of high-performance outdoor gear, has successfully deployed GroupBy Inc.’s Searchandiser solution on NRS.com. With GroupBy, NRS can now power its online search capability with the latest intelligent search capabilities and enhance the overall digital experience for site visitors.

    NRS selected GroupBy’s Searchandiser platform to replace SLI’s site search and merchandising solution previously used on NRS.com. The GroupBy solution brings a wealth of user experience improvements to NRS.com including amplified search result relevancy, a fusion of machine-learning and hand-curation merchandising capabilities. “After spending many years with SLI Systems, we felt the need to be able to fully control our search experience on our own site. We were looking for a provider that would allow us full integration over the site search experience,” said J Maxfield, eCommerce Manager, NRS. “GroupBy fits that bill and brings with it other features we're excited to bring to our customers in the near term. We are just scratching the surface of what we can do with GroupBy, but we're very encouraged by our experience thus far.” NRS.com and its site visitors will benefit from continued innovation and new features from GroupBy throughout the duration of the multi-year agreement which includes deeper personalization for NRS customers. “At GroupBy, we are proud to bring an advanced approach to the market, providing online retailers with a seamless way to replace their legacy systems with a powerful solution that is rooted in intelligent search and focuses on improving the entire consumer experience,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “On behalf of our entire team, we are thrilled to welcome NRS to our roster of global clients and are committed to continuing to advance their digital commerce efforts.” About NRS 100% employee-owned NRS is the world’s leading manufacturer of paddlesports apparel and accessories. Founded in 1972 in a college professor’s garage, NRS has become a major force in the outdoor industry, inspiring and equipping countless anglers and paddlers in the U.S. and around the world from its headquarters in Moscow, Idaho. For more information, please visit www.nrs.com. About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). On June 5, 2017, GroupBy had announced that it had acquired US-based product data enrichment software provider, Edgecase. Founded in 2013, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.
  • February 26, 2018

    Website Magazine: Enhancing The Online Experience Through Data Enrichment

    The modern consumer relies on a continually increasing amount of information when shopping for items online. Needless to say, accurate and extensive product details are essential for a superior shopper experience.

    As eCommerce continues to evolve, however, issues due to lack of this information or products associated with incorrect information are no longer acceptable. One of the main reasons eCommerce has risen in popularity over shopping at a traditional brick and mortar store the ability for shoppers to quickly and easily purchase an item they are in search of from the convenience of their mobile device or desktop. In fact, according to a recent survey by comScore and UPS, 51% of consumers preferred to do “their shopping online, compared to the 48%” the year before. But while this may be the case, electing to go the eCommerce route can result in losing out on a few of the key elements that drive them to make a purchase, such as touch and feel, or the additional value of getting to “try” the product before they buy it. Nonetheless, this is not to say that consumers cannot have an enhanced experience while shopping online if retailers and brands do their due diligence to provide each and every consumer with the ability to find exactly what they are looking for, and in some cases to help them find what they didn’t know they needed! But in order to offer these kind of enhance online shopping experiences, retailers must first be able to create an enriched product data environment. So, what does data enrichment entail? By definition, “data enrichment is a general term that refers to processes used to enhance, refine, or otherwise improve raw data.” In the eCommerce world, retailers can use this approach as a strategy to provide the most memorable online shopping experience possible by considering the following best practices: Start with a comprehensible site search experience An enhanced eCommerce experience begins with giving shoppers the ability to easily and quickly find the product they are in search of. That said, a consumer’s search journey will not always follow the direct product description logged within your search engine. For example, while your product description may be labeled as “ivory sun dress,” consumers may type in “white sleeveless dress,” or for a more descriptive angle, “summer dresses for a Fourth of July picnic.” In order to guarantee customers do not become frustrated with limited results, retailers must utilize their shopper’s historical search data and enable their eCommerce site to interpret every search query. From here, consumers will be able to effortlessly arrive at the product they are in search of. Traditional semantic classification and natural language models often fail to measurably improve search relevancy for eCommerce. With that in mind, retailers and brands should look to add a layer of recognition to their data queries that allows an increase in query complexity now necessary with the rise of mobile shopping and voice search devices. Ensure your attribution is seamless A good site search experience should be followed with good product data. For example, shoppers are more likely to abandon their carts if they encounter incomplete or incorrect product data across a retailer’s site. To provide better findability for their visitors, retailers must establish accurate titles and descriptions for each of their products. Additionally, retailers must make certain that all product are tagged correctly and in the correct order to boost SEO traffic and safeguard product integrity across all digital channels. To achieve this seamless attribution, retailers must automate product attribution across every department with comprehensive taxonomy so that every product is well-attributed and covered. Create product relevancy Compared to shopping at physical stores, eCommerce shoppers do not always have the opportunity to imagine how the product they are viewing can be valuable to their lives. As such, it’s important that product data and overall site experience provide the these individuals additional, contextual reasons as to why making the purchase is a good idea. For example, adding components such as videos and reviews, as well as showcasing additional scenarios in which the product can be utilized, can provide consumers more and more reasons to make the purchase, ultimately saving the sale. Create an opportunity to upsell with personalized recommendations Once product relevancy is established, retailers have an opportunity to upsell by identifying relevant products that fit in combination with the item the shopper has added to their cart. The key to executing this process successfully lies in making sure that each item recommendation is relevant to the individual and truly compliments the product the shopper was originally in search of. For example, if a shopper just finished adding a shower curtain to their cart, recommending additional bathroom items, such as bathroom rugs, curtain liners and soap dispensers can help the retailer make the a larger sale. On the other hand, this same retailer must not forget that if a shopper just finished purchasing a shower curtain, the last thing they want to see are additional recommendations for other shower curtains shoppers. To achieve this—the ultimate shopping experience—retailers must have the ability to connect with each and every single one of their consumer data sets in real time. When this happens, they can begin to learn from previously viewed and purchased items, repeat purchases, or abandoned items left in shopping carts, adjusting the shopping journey accordingly and thereby connecting this data to tangible results. It is only through forming this connection and building unique profiles for each shopper that retailers and brands can make incredible product recommendations and deliver an online experience that competes with traditional, in store shopping. While eCommerce may have its advantages and disadvantages in comparison to this brick and mortar experience, creating a data-rich and data-led eCommerce organization is the key to leveling the playing field and providing shoppers with a memorable, exciting and altogether superior experience. And as consumer expectations continue to rise, it has never been more important for brands and retailers to be sure their shoppers always find exactly what they are looking for. Without enriched data, none of this is possible. But with it, the possibilities are absolutely limitless. (Read More)

  • February 14, 2018

    Valentine’s Day: Millennial Microseason of the Year?

    Valentine’s Day has always been a highly grossing retail holiday, and every year more shoppers turn to eCommerce to find those special somethings for their special someones. With countless products only a click away, this journey should be simple, and more importantly, fun. Microseasons like Valentine’s Day are all about capturing the essence of the holiday or celebration, and it’s the retailer’s job to translate this into a unique experience for shoppers. Valentine’s Day, in particular, is the perfect opportunity to do just this. Traditionally, Valentine’s Day inspires images of things like chocolate covered strawberries, teddy bears and flower arrangements. The works. And while oldie-goldies like the quintessential box of chocolates will likely never go out of style, as more millennials flood eCommerce markets with their business, the essence of Valentine’s Day is expanding. For example, this day has recently become a widespread celebration of #selflove as much as, if not more than, romantic love. Millennial shoppers are approximately fifty percent single and one hundred percent  #selfcare obsessed, and are just as likely to treat themselves as they are a loved one. Hashtags like #galentinesday, #palentinesday and #treatyoself are only a few of those booming across social media as people make this holiday their own. And lucky for retailers, they can also be the key to enticing shoppers. Whether the individual is shopping for a spouse, partner, or friend, or looking for something to make themselves feel great, this strategy ensures an incredible selection of relevant products, during microseasons and year round. Millennials are the hashtaggers of all hashtaggers, leaving a trail of digital breadcrumbs wherever they go. Here at GroupBy, we follow this trail to the source, identifying what these they’re looking for and how they’re searching. With this information, we can effectively tag retailers’ products for each microseason and with every shopper in mind. In doing so, these individuals are always exposed to an incredible selection of attractive products, regardless of when they’re searching. Because while holidays like Valentine’s Day are wonderful, it is just as important to take advantage of any and all other microseasons. For example, products like essential oils, tagged for ‘health and wellness’ should be adjusted for ‘Valentine's Day’, as well as other microseasons like ‘allergy season’ or ‘cold and flu’. GroupBy’s Edgecase Enrich makes this a reality, guaranteeing products remain relevant, findable and attractive no matter what. With cutting-edge machine learning technology, Enrich tags products and makes adjustments like these ten times faster than ever before. This speed and unbeatable intelligence ensure maximum product findability and incredible shopping experiences, during and outside of microseasons like Valentine’s day, without hassle to the retailer. Additionally, GroupBy’s unlimited product tagging means capturing the essence of each microseason is not only fast and uncomplicated, it is totally flexible. Products tagged for standard qualities like ‘decor’, ‘beauty’, ‘entertainment’, etc. can now be tagged for additional, widely used search terms respective to the microseason, like ‘Valentine’s Day’ or ‘self love’. These same products can then just as easily be retagged for ‘Mother’s Day’, ‘new year new you’ and/or a plethora of other microseasons. When this data enrichment is smart, fast and continuous, retailers become their customers’ one-stop shops for much more than Valentine’s day.   The time to commit to enriched product data, mindful of microseasons and the potential they possess, is now. Millennial shoppers rely on eCommerce to satisfy a massive portion of their needs and wants, and never more so than on days like February 14th. With GroupBy’s Edgecase Enrich, understanding and adapting to their continued presence in the eCommerce market is effortless and extremely advantageous for the modern retailer. When this commitment is made, microseasons like today will never be wasted.
  • January 31, 2018

    Adapting Search Experience for the Digital Native

    When it comes to the success or failure of an eCommerce site, there is no shortage of critically important factors—aspects of an online shopping experience which can either be assets or missed opportunities. And not only are they many, they are multiplying. Because for as long as online shopping remains a mainstay in our culture, it should continue evolving alongside its users. Otherwise, eCommerce sites become monuments of the past, left in the dust by savvy users who constantly expect more. These Digital Natives—hungry for the best experience eCommerce has to offer—are the target customer, as well as the teachers from which GroupBy learns. For as much as customer dependence on online shopping has risen, so too have their standards. As such, the success of an eCommerce site now rests on more than simply knowing what the customer wants and providing them with a wide selection. Today, it is just as vital to understand and anticipate how this customer will go about finding a product. As personal as a signature, each customer’s shopping strategy is intricate and unique, and in a room full of people searching for the same item, each will approach the hunt differently. Here at GroupBy, we work to harness this stream of diverse behavioral data so it may be our guide to future innovations and our clients’ greatest resource. Not only does this data hold the key to knowing the customer, personalizing their experience and predicting their preferences, it is also both inspiration and blueprint for tools aimed at keeping up with the aforementioned, unstoppable evolution of eCommerce. Searchandiser and Semantish are two of such tools GroupBy is proud to have pioneered—putting the power of behavior data in the hands of the retailer. Each hold the promise of a modernized and flexible search experience, strengthened by the continuous evolution of Digital Natives and guaranteeing an intelligent, personalized experience without possibility of falling behind. How? Searchandiser, for one, utilizes each customer’s behavioral data to interpret shopping preferences and habits. For instance, which brand of denim does someone most often search and/or purchase on a retailer’s eCommerce site? What price range does this customer generally shop within? Do they filter their search in any particular ways? Searchandiser collects this information and converts it into a personalized search experience in the future, displaying results in a way most relevant to this particular customer. Similarly, Semantish looks towards the future by learning from each customer’s search rhetoric. As Digital Natives are increasingly comfortable navigating eCommerce sites, their language has become equally colloquial. This means one of two things for retailers. One: more and more products will turn into hidden inventory—items unfindable to customers because they are not searching verbiage found within product descriptions. Or, two: colloquial language becomes yet another lesson in modernizing the search experience. With Semantish, retailers can rest assured their products are more easily findable than ever, as well as their future inventories. Because for every customer search, no matter how informal or aimless, Semantish is more capable of carving the most efficient path from customer to relevant products. Searchandiser and Semantish are only two of many tools GroupBy has to offer retailers. Tools which convert data into a means of adapting alongside the future of eCommerce. For more information on how we turn data into tools at the retailers disposal, click here.
  • January 29, 2018

    Come Meet GroupBy at eTail West 2018: The Retail eCommerce Conference in Palm Springs

    Have you been hoping to learn more about GroupBy? Are you eager to explore options for ramping up your site search, personalization or product data? Interested in discussing how we combine Machine Learning with a team of human curators to solve the most complex B2C and B2B eCommerce search and data problems? Let’s meet at eTail West this year! Our team will be onsite in Palm Springs, from February 26th – March 1st, ready to talk all things data, search and eCommerce. We can't wait to meet you!
  • January 29, 2018

    The Power of Great Product Data

    For as important as it is retailers continuously collect behavioral data from their shoppers, it is also key their product data is just as rich and functional. Lack of physical contact is perhaps the greatest pitfall of the eCommerce experience. No matter how tirelessly the retailer works to put the perfect item within the customer’s click, product and person are still separated by a screen. There can be no touching. No feeling. No trying on. Therefore, product descriptions are the only opportunity to take each item from a 2D image to something almost tangible. For the purposes of this blog, Customer X is searching for the perfect pair of shoes for their upcoming camping excursion. With nearly endless options at their fingertips, how does the retailer ensure their products are findable, appealing, and, ultimately, purchased by X? Here at GroupBy we’ve seen the difference great product data can make time and time again, serving a multitude of purposes and improving the overall shopper journey. This data—these product descriptions—should both inform and entice the customer. Sounds simple enough, but this data must be so much more than baseline bullet points: style, size, height, material, weight, etc. While this information is necessary, in the right hands product data is nuanced and stylish, expertly tailored to reflect the retailer’s professional personality and subtly setting the mood of the shopper experience. Customer X wants to read about how the hiking boots they’re browsing have a classic look and were built to support any arch no matter the elements. Data like this, in unison with proper classifications increases conversion rates, decreases returns and bolsters customer loyalty. So, how does GroupBy do all this—taking retailers’ product data to the next level? Each of our clients bring hundred, thousands and hundreds of thousands of new products to the table. Each of these products already have some affixed data. Now it’s our job to search out the gaps in this data and deploy strategies to fill them, resulting in proper classifications, increased product findability and more relevant search results. In order to achieve this—taking good product data to greatness—we combine the very best of manual curation with cutting edge machine learning technology. Manual curation assures that a human being looks at Customer X’s shoe and classifies it appropriately. From here, our suite of microservices can deploy rules which will integrate product data into our constantly evolving global taxonomy; a collective schema which learns and grows from each integrated data set. Now the boot’s data is being informed by the data of our entire global. These results—the strengths and weaknesses of the data—are relayed back to our client so that they may adjust their descriptions and data to most effectively sell Customer X a boot he will be satisfied with and excited for. Click here to learn more about utilizing the power of this data.  
  • January 24, 2018

    alphabroder Enhances Its Digital Commerce Experience With GroupBy’s Technology

    alphabroder, the leading North American provider of promotional products, advances its user experience with Searchandiser and other key technologies from GroupBy Inc.

    AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 24, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions and one of Canada’s fastest growing technology companies, today announced that alphabroder has signed a multi-year agreement with the company to power site search and enhance the overall digital experience at alphabroder.com for its customers.

    alphabroder selected GroupBy’s Searchandiser platform to drive an improved experience across the customer journey. The cloud-based Searchandiser solution enables any online retailer to augment their existing legacy systems, including amplified search result relevancy with a fusion of machine-learning and hand-curation merchandising capabilities. “It became evident that the technology and tooling GroupBy brings to alphabroder will drive a greater site experience for all of our customers,” said David Clifton, Chief Marketing Officer, alphabroder. “Our goal at alphabroder is to be the premier destination for promotional products. Continuing to improve our overall customer experience is essential to fulfilling that mission.” “At GroupBy, we are proud to bring an advanced approach to the market by providing online retailers with a seamless way to replace their legacy systems with a powerful solution rooted in data enrichment, intelligent search and that focuses on improving the consumer experience across the entire journey,” said Roland Gossage, Chief Executive Officer, GroupBy Inc. “On behalf of our team, we are thrilled to welcome alphabroder to our roster of clients.” GroupBy anticipates full implementation of its Searchandiser platform to be completed with alphabroder this February. Media Contacts: Liz Bernardo GroupBy Inc. Liz.bernardo@groupbyinc.com Catherine Seeds Ketner Group (for GroupBy) catherine@ketnergroup.com 512-794-8876 About alphabroder Founded in 1919, alphabroder is North America’s largest distributor of trade, private label and retail apparel brands and merchandise to the promotional products marketplace. alphabroder offers more than 40 brands including a broad selection of retail and trade brands from Under Armour, Bella + Canvas, Next Level, Threadfast, adidas, Columbia, Marmot, Gildan, Fruit of the Loom, Hanes, and many others as well as sourcing our own Private Brands. https://www.alphabroder.com/ About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increasing revenues through its Searchandiser platform.  GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT).  On June 5, 2017, GroupBy announced that it had acquired US-based product data enrichment software provider, Edgecase.  Founded in 2013, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world.  For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.
  • January 24, 2018

    Retail Touch Points: NRF 2018: Retail Personalization Reaches A Crossroads

    Relevance Represents The Next Generation Of Personalization

    By: Klaudia Tirico, Retail Touch Points Last year, my big takeaway from NRF 2017 was the increasing demand for highly personalized experiences for the individual shopper. This year, that demand has only gotten louder. Personalization is a key ingredient to retail success, but now it goes well beyond just inserting a recipient’s name into an email promotion. In more than a few conversations I had during NRF 2018, the talking points always led to relevance. One quote that stood out to me in a meeting with GroupBy was “personalization is prelude to relevance.” Imagine sending a customer a personalized email. Her name is in the subject line and body of the email, and you’re offering her a discount on a product she purchased before. All sounds great and personalized, right? But what if that last purchase was a gift for someone else — say a male nephew? Then the discount is not relevant to this customer, and even though her name is in the subject line, she won’t think twice about deleting the email, because your brand and the offer are not relevant to her. That’s why relevance is as important as personalization. As personalization is now the backbone for retail strategies, the impact goes well beyond marketing communications. Retail employees must be equipped with the right tools to deliver a one-on-one experience for the shopper. One tool that stood out to me at NRF 2018 was Salesfloor, a mobile application designed for store associates that takes clienteling to the next level by bringing the in-store experience online, and vice versa. With Salesfloor, store associates can create their own online storefront, with recommendations on their top product picks and an easy way for customers to interact with them after shopping with the associate in the store. This means that even though a customer may not have bought anything in the store, the associate can continue to help them online with their own personal page on the retailer’s web site. When the customer is ready, they can make the purchase virtually under the associate’s name. But empowering store associates goes beyond the fancy tools and applications. Deploying a sense of family and community within the workplace is also important, and that comes down to hiring employees that believe in your value proposition and have the same beliefs. During two separate sessions at NRF 2018, Michael Lastoria of &pizza and Catherine Laporte of DAVIDsTEA each revealed that some of their customers and employees are so in synch with their brands that they’ve gotten tattoos of their logos on their bodies! Talk about having an impact! (Read More) 
  • January 17, 2018

    GroupBy Development - Standup by Story

    Most scrum teams do daily standup by going through person by person and answering the following three questions:
    1. What did you do yesterday?
    2. What will you do today?
    3. Are there any impediments in your way?
    When we first implemented scrum, we followed the same process. About a year and a half ago, our agile coach recommended doing standup by stories instead of per person, and we’ve never looked back since. Here’s a couple reasons why I think this method is much better both for us here at GroupBy and potentially for others as well:
    Pair Programming
    At GroupBy, we do a lot of pair programming. This means that during standup, the second person in the pair usually just says “yeah what he just said,” or alternatively, “I paired with Osman on SR-153 and then paired with Amir on SR-174.” This does not make it very engaging for everyone involved. When we do standup based on tickets, both people can speak more naturally on the work completed. We can alternate on who talks about the ticket, or we may have the more junior person discuss what was done for the ticket. This helps all members of the team have a contextually relevant voice, and reduces “me too”-ism.
    Daily Work Invested Vote
    Another thing we do differently that’s enabled by this process is vote on the work invested on each ticket daily, instead of waiting to vote on effort at the end of the ticket. By estimating daily on each ticket (instead of asking each person), this supports a natural flow of closing off the discussion by ticket each morning.
    Focus on Team instead of Individual
    Scrum emphasizes team productivity and velocity, as opposed to individual contributions. By focusing on the tickets, the focus shifts to team progress. There is less emphasis on completing your ticket and more emphasis on helping the team get more tickets done.
    Better Workflow
    By going by ticket, we ensure that tickets do not get stuck in code review or demo phases. We go through all the tickets in In Progress, Code Review, Ready for Demo, and Ready to Release, and make sure that no one is being held up by a code review or product owner demo. Although we should always try to push things along, the focus on the scrum board during standup just helps as a daily reminder in case the product owner was swarmed with meetings or the team was dealing with an urgent issue the day before. Why you should try this
    • Enables pair programming with meaningful updates for each member of the team
    • Daily ticket estimate vote becomes natural and gives you better total-effort estimates, since you estimate daily in small parts
    • Focuses on team output instead of individual
    • Acts as a regular reminder for moving tickets along the workflow
  • January 17, 2018

    GroupBy Development - Agile/Scrum

    A lot of software companies use agile/scrum, and each adapts it to  their own ways. We’d like to share today some of the practices we use at GroupBy. Continuous improvement is a huge part of agile/scrum so we would love to hear back from you with your thoughts and best practices!  
    Sprint Duration
    Scrum recommends 1- 4 weeks for sprint length. At GroupBy, we have found that 1 week sprints work well for all of our teams. We have tried 2 week sprints in the past but have found that too much unplanned works ends up getting added to the sprint. All of our development teams also do sprint planning around the same time (a day after the product owners meeting - in case there are any cross-team dependencies) so the rest of the company easily understands when planning happens and when they can expect to know whether the stories they care about made it into the sprint.  
    Sprint Planning
    During sprint planning, the teams will go through and vote on any tickets planned for the near future, as well as any additional tickets the product owner may need a rough estimate on (large/important roadmap features, or features customers are watching closely). The product owner shares with the team any context for upcoming tickets, and the developers bring up any concerns such as technical debt or performance issues. A prioritized backlog is created by the product owner with input from the developers, and the top items are added into the sprint based on the team’s capacity.  
    Daily Standup/Work Invested
    During daily standup, instead of going through each person, we go through each ticket that has been updated since the last standup. This is one of the largest deviations from the norm in scrum and we find it works much better for the teams. In fact, I wrote a whole article about how great this is (and you can read it here). We also vote daily on the work invested into each ticket, instead of voting after completion of the ticket for total effort. This helps us remember all the work that was done for the ticket, especially for larger items that span multiple days. This is all done directly in the JIRA active sprint view, as opposed to a physical board. All our client facing teams and even our CEO has access to JIRA, so this just works better for us to communicate to the rest of the company what the teams are working on compared to a physical board, especially with multiple offices.  
    How does this help us deliver?
    There are a few reasons why GroupBy works in 1 week sprints. This cadence allows us to have quick and efficient planning sessions, with the capacity for the entire team to vote on each ticket. Then the developers and the product owner collaboratively put together a sprint based on company priorities, development needs, and capacity, working together to deliver value quickly and efficiently.  Tracking our work via JIRA and daily gives us the ability to manage more accurately with each iteration - making us better, faster.
  • January 9, 2018

    GroupBy's Top Three Resolutions For 2018

    Here at GroupBy, we couldn’t be more thrilled for the New Year and all it’s sure to bring. 2017 has taught us so much, and we’re already brainstorming strategies to continue evolving our suite of microservices. Much like people strive to eat healthier, go to the gym more, or stress less, our resolutions are the key to making GroupBy the best it can possibly be.

    1) Ensure retailers offer their shoppers a cutting edge, personalized experience Personalization is a cornerstone of the future of eCommerce. It is essential customers feel engaged and inspired by their shopping experience through exposure to relevant, exciting search results and product recommendations at every turn. Not to mention, personalization is the best way to guarantee higher conversion rates and return business. At GroupBy we get to know the shopper with every click they make, learning from their preferences, interests and long-tail behavior, thereby fostering a strong retailer-customer relationship.

    2) Become a market leader for B2B eCommerce This year we’re addressing B2B specific problems by building intelligent solutions from the ground up. B2B eCommerce is fundamentally different than B2C in many ways and, to date, the industry has been forced to adapt B2C search and navigation services to try to meet their needs. These solutions are lacking in many ways and have not been designed from the ground up to accommodate the size, complexity and speed needed to create the next generation B2B Experience. GroupBy B2B is the first product designed to address the unique needs of the B2B eCommerce market.

    3) Evolve alongside the rise of voice searching 2017 saw more voice searching and shopping than ever before, and with the rise of countless, voice searching technologies, the way customers search for products has been greatly impacted. At GroupBy, we see this as a groundbreaking chance to better our contextual understanding of modern search rhetoric and increase product findability. As searching becomes more colloquial, search results must keep up. 2018 is going to be a time of growth and change like never before, and we couldn’t be more eager for all that’s just around the corner.

    Everyday, we set more and more goals like these with certainty this will be our best year yet.

  • January 8, 2018

    Data Dominance: Leveraging the Power of Your Data

    2017 was a record setting year for eCommerce, and trends suggest that it will not slow down. More than 12% of all retail spending is now occurring online, with over $105 billion in sales during the second quarter alone. 2017 showed an amazing 15.7% growth in eCommerce sales from 2016.1 In fact, eCommerce accounted for almost 13% of total retail sales in the second quarter, compared with 11.4% of retail sales in Q2 in 2016.

  • December 24, 2017

    Austin Inno: 22 Austin Startups That Were Acquired in 2017

    Venture-backed startups are often faced with one of three futures — IPO, acquisition or failure. In this roundup, we’re looking at the most important acquisitions of 2017. We cover acquisitions, mergers and fundings in our daily newsletter, The Beat. You can sign up for that here if you want to get this type of news when it happens. Now, let’s take a look back at the Austin startups and tech companies that were acquired in 2017 — along with some of the investors who stood to benefit from those exits.... (read more)
  • December 20, 2017

    GroupBy’s Top Five Holiday Insights of 2017

    Here at GroupBy, we’ve learned that the holidays are a wealth of information when it comes to making sense of the tide of constantly shifting eCommerce trends. Every year, an unprecedented influx of customers turn to online shopping to find the perfect items, and never more than during the holidays. This means that it’s more important than ever to understand how it is changing and what this means for retailers everywhere. And there’s no better time to track these changes than the busiest spike in online shopping of the year--Black Friday Weekend. Three days when people are shopping more than ever and subtly showing retailers what they expect from an eCommerce experience. So, what did we learn from this online shopping frenzy and what does it mean for eCommerce retailers in the future? #1) Shoppers are spending more Shoppers aren’t just shopping online more than ever. They’re spending more, as well. Our data reflects that online shoppers spent 23% more during Black Friday Weekend than in 2016. Not only that, there has been an 18% increase in total online holiday shopping since last year.This means they aren’t just turning to their online shopping carts more often, they’re filling them fuller. #2) Shoppers are relying on eCommerce for more and more of their shopping needs From 2016-2017 we have seen a 75% increase in overall online searches within our clients alone. Shoppers are almost doubling their searches to find the perfect product. As platforms grow, learn and expand, shoppers are becoming more reliant on eCommerce to satisfy a more diverse array of their needs. Retailers must keep up with this demand. #3) Not only are shoppers expanding their searches, they’re searching faster Between 2015-2016, we saw a 33% increase in queries per second within our client pool. The following year, our data reflected another 57% increase. This means that in the last two years, queries per second have increased by an exponential 110%. shoppers are searching, shopping, and ideally finding the perfect product faster. What does this mean for retailers? The window to place that perfect product in their path is getting smaller. This demands innovation and efficiency. #4) The Black Friday ~boom~ is real If there was any doubt that Black Friday is the ideal moment to capitalize on online shopping, this year erased it once and for all. From the week before Black Friday to Black Friday weekend, our data reflects a 86% increase in shopper revenue. shoppers are hungry to jump on the best deals, and they’re willing to wait for them. #5) Black Friday is THE time to make existing shoppers happy and gain new ones In 2017, we saw a 59% increase in site sessions from the week before Black Friday to Black Friday weekend. This enormous spike in eCommerce site visitation means that it is critical to make a good, lasting impression which will guarantee the return of new and longstanding shoppers for the rest of the year. 2017 was a year of growth and change, and this means that retailers must evolve alongside their customers as they depend on online shopping for more of their needs, both during and outside of the holiday season. People are shopping more, shopping faster and spending more than ever. As this happens, they’re also becoming increasingly comfortable with and demanding of their online shopping experience. So, the time to transform with them is here. The time to impress customers with a polished, personalized and all around positive experience, subsequently increasing profits and gaining loyal customers. Looking to for more information on how to plan 2018? Download our infographic !
  • December 15, 2017

    How to Use Holiday Shopper Data 365 Days A Year!

    Every year holiday shopping kicks off with the Black Friday bang and winds down into a Cyber Monday finale, not to mention countless sales in the following days and weeks. It’s a weekend of unprecedented online shopping activity when customers depend on finding the perfect (heavily discounted) gifts for friends and family. Maybe a few unexpected splurges sneak into the cart. Who knows. Either way, it is THE time to finds the deals of the year. Deals that feel like retailers are almost giving their merchandise away. So, how can these retailers turn exponential profits during the holiday season while keeping shoppers happy and loyal? At GroupBy we have identified some simple ways to continue increasing average order values, not only for the most popular shopping days, but year-round. Just like the weekend of Black Friday sees an enormous jump in site search and sales, the week before can be a deadzone. Makes sense. Customers aren’t willing to spend until they’re sure it’s on the best deal possible. In fact, our numbers show that even site traffic and search take a significant dive during this week. By now, shoppers have an idea of what they want, and they’re willing to wait for it. And while this week may reflect low activity, it is also a window of opportunity for retailers to ensure that their Black Friday weekend deals pay off. In fact, this week is the time to ensure a larger profit margin than ever before. How? Through the implementation of successful promotion strategies. Tactics that drive activity to sites during the deadzone, assuring that discounts, coupons and above all else, products, are fresh in the customer’s mind when they’re ready to purchase. GroupBy knows there is a direct correlation between shopper experience and increased conversion rates. Customers are much more likely to explore a site longer and purchase more items when they feel the shopping experience has been created for them. Personalization, Product Recommendations, Search As You Type (SAYT) and Dynamic Navigation are cornerstones of retailers success. In order to master Personalization, retailers must get to know their shoppers. Know what they’re interested in, what they’re in the market for and what they’re most likely to add to cart and purchase. This behavior data can be collected pre-holiday by driving potential shoppers to sites during the deadzone and will go on to provide a blueprint for the perfect shopping experience during the busiest shopping weekend of the year, increasing overall sales. When shoppers can easily find products relevant to them, especially at Black Friday prices, purchase is much more likely. With proper Personalization, they should feel confident and comfortable navigating retailer’s online stores while knowing they are getting the best deals possible long before they hit that Confirm Order button. This, in combination with premium Product Recommendations, means higher conversion rates and greater profit. Here at GroupBy, our customers use machine learning technology which ensures that the more items added to cart, the better the retailers knows the shopper and can make pertinent recommendations that will result in purchase and continued business. Along with Personalization and Product Recommendations, retailers need the latest and greatest search and navigation to drive success. SAYT and Faceted Navigation are just two features included in GroupBy’s Searchandiser which help guide shoppers throughout their experience. SAYT gives the customer tools to speed up their shopper journey by quickly finding an item and directly adding to cart from the product suggestion. Meanwhile, Faceted Navigation guides the them through the online shopping aisle to find exactly what they are looking for, or to browse until they do. This is why engaging and adaptive technologies which guarantee positive experiences are so important. Because there is no better time than the holidays for a shopper to stumble across the perfect item or discover a new favorite online retailer. The GroupBy Cloud provides retailers with the tools to always put that special something within the customer’s reach and guarantees a positive and profitable relationship that will keep them coming back year round. For more information on the benefits you could gain from GroupBy contact us today!
  • December 7, 2017

    Come Meet GroupBy at NRF: The Big Show 2018 in New York City!

    Have you been interested in learning more about GroupBy? Are you ready to discuss ramping up your site search, personalization or product data? Curious to see how we combine Machine Learning with a team of human curators, to solve the most difficult B2C and B2B eCommerce search and data problems? Let's meet at The National Retail Federation's "The Big Show!" We will have our team onsite in New York City, from January 14th - 17th, ready to talk all things, data, search and ecommerce!  Click here to request a meeting! 
  • November 28, 2017

    Internet Retailer: A Maker of Scientific Teaching Aids Goes to School on Site Search

    3B Scientific, a global supplier of anatomical and biological teaching aids, makes its products easier to find by upgrading its 14 multilingual e-commerce sites with fast partial word search.

     3B Scientific is making it easier for customers to find particular products among its inventory of 111,600 anatomical and biological teaching aids. A recent technology upgrade enables the global manufacturer to provide advanced site search, including partial keywords, in multiple languages across its 14 e-commerce sites.
    3B’s products include models of human hearts and skeletons, anatomical charts and posters for medical practitioners’ offices, and supplies for professionals involved in biology, physics and physical therapy. It also sells other health-related products and software.
    About 30% of 3B Scientific’s direct sales come through its e-commerce sites, says Miles Sprott, director of global sales and marketing. The rest are through EDI transactions with hospitals, physician offices, teaching institutions, and distributors of educational and medical supplies. Sprott declines to disclose total or online annual sales.
    The 69-year-old company has been selling online for nearly 20 years, (Read More)
  • November 15, 2017

    Chain Store Age: Three Singles Day lessons for Black Friday prep

    Retailers that still don’t believe they have anything to learn from Singles Day may have a long road ahead if they want to stay competitive.
     The 24-hour shopping extravaganza, held on Nov. 11, brought in $25.3 billion in sales (or gross merchandise value), up 39% compared to 2016. In addition to more than 140,000 Chinese brands and 60,000 international brands participating in this year’s Singles Day event, 225 countries and regions completed transactions throughout the day.
    In one day, this event eclipsed the $12.8 billion in sales that happened between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday in 2016. So what exactly sets Singles Day apart from the biggest shopping weekend here in the United States? For one thing, too many domestic retailers still rely on deep discounts to attract shoppers. While Singles Day had its share of promotions, these alone will not lure shoppers. Singles Day is all about putting the customer first and making it enticing for them to shop. As retailers prepare for the make-or-break Black Friday shopping weekend, they too need to look beyond one-day sales, exclusive sneak peeks and door busters. Here are a few ideas worth considering... (Read More) 
  • November 14, 2017

    Webinar: The Next Generation B2B User Experience - Don't Get Left Behind!

    B2B eCommerce is fundamentally different than B2C in many ways. To date, the industry has been forced to adapt B2C search and navigation services to try to meet their needs. These solutions are lacking in many ways, and have not been designed from the ground up to accommodate the size, complexity and speed needed to create the next generation B2B Experience. GroupBy is revolutionizing B2B eCommerce Search. We are pleased to announce the launch of GroupBy B2B, the patent pending technology that is custom designed to address the unique needs of the B2B eCommerce market. In our first B2B webinar we will be demonstrating: - How GroupBy B2B indexes and streams data into the system - How GroupBy B2B addresses pricing and custom catalogue challenges - Personalization of B2B Catalogs - GroupBy’s Command Center Merchandising Console - The final user experience from the customer’s point of view. Solutions that have previously lead the way in eCommerce search such as, Endeca, Fast Search, and Autonomy are now obsolete and are being replaced with more modern born-in-the-cloud systems. While born-in-the-cloud e-commerce systems are easier to deploy, they are not innovating at a pace that outperforms legacy, on-premise or home-grown systems. They have not addressed the pricing and custom catalogue challenges at an engine level, nor are they able to deal with units of measure, part number searches and personalization needs of B2B catalogues. Join us on Wednesday, November 29th at 1 PM CT, as we demonstrate the next advancement in the B2B user experience, GroupBy B2B. 
  • November 9, 2017

    Washington Post: Black Friday has already begun (at least according to these retailers)

    Thanksgiving is still two weeks away, but Black Friday has already begun — at least for some retailers. Best Buy on Wednesday began offering “Black Friday” discounts on hundreds of items, including big-screen TVs, Apple Watches and tablets. Walmart followed a day later, with $6 pajamas and $998 Samsung TVs. Amazon.com, meanwhile, started its “Countdown to Black Friday” on Nov. 1, offering dozens of new deals each day. (Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, owns The Washington Post.) In an ever-frenzied race to win over shoppers — and their money — retailers are trying to fast-forward to what has historically been the year’s largest shopping day. Over the past decade, big-box chains have slowly moved up doorbuster discounts — from Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), to the Thanksgiving holiday itself, and now even earlier, as they try to lock in sales during the crucial fourth quarter, which can account for up to 40 percent of a retailer’s annual revenue.... (Read More) 
  • November 7, 2017

    Improved Search As You Type

    Search As You Type (SAYT) is our product that allows you to search as you are typing, meaning, we are returning results at each keystroke, often configured in as little as three keystrokes.  We can return both common searched for words, categories or even products while you are typing.  Recently, to improve the experience we made made some improvements to our SAYT product to improve our search term suggestions.

    Plural Search Terms

    We have enhanced our ability to handle plural search terms and return singular search suggestions. For example, a plural search for ‘shirts’ will now return search results such as:
    1. Dress Shirt
    2. Polo Shirt
    3. Flannel Shirt
    4. Shirt Dress
    We can see that we get back unpluralized suggestions for the pluralized search on ‘shirts’.

    Partial Matching

    We have also improved our ability to match partial search terms (common for search as you type). We have new flexibility to return search suggestions that aren’t an exact match for the partial search term (assuming no better exact matches exist). For example, a partial search term on ‘flas’ will return:
    1. Flash drive
    2. Flashlight
    3. Flat screwdriver
    4. Fleece sweater
    ‘Flat screwdriver’ and ‘Fleece sweater’ will now return as search suggestions where before they would not have come back. These enhancements are included in our core search and do not require any configuration changes on your site. For more information on SAYT, please see our documentation on the topic here.
  • November 7, 2017

    Preparedness for the Holidays:

    The holiday time is typically a stressful time of year for just about everyone, with an extra layer or two of stress if you are an online retailer. We understand and are fully committed and putting in extra effort to ease some of the stress. We at GroupBy employ multiple strategies to ensure our services are up when you need them most. We ensure our platform can keep up with your increased demand during this crucial time by focusing on these items:
    • Stability and Speed: Over the past few months we have been working to improve our infrastructure and architecture to handle greater throughput with higher stability and speed
    • Code Changes: We freeze our code around November 15th; this is a big change for us as we employ continuous delivery and thus we are often pushing to production a few times a day.  We will release only critical patches until volumes subside
    • Capacity: We are increasing infrastructure to handle the spikes; we will add a large amount of capacity in anticipation of the volumes and will also monitor and scale up in real-time if a large spike is observed
    In addition to the above, we also employ a caching layer that helps to ensure that we are delivering results, fast!  The cache reduces 95th percentile latency from 200ms to less than 50ms. Finally, we will staff to have all hands on deck in our site reliability engineering and support teams to monitor our systems and traffic.  Any outages will be communicated through our status page (http://status.groupbycloud.com) as soon as they are identified.
  • October 23, 2017

    Peter Messana's 9 Tips for a Smooth Cyber Monday

    The approaching Holiday season is always stressful for retailers. Not only is it a time that can make or break a retailer financially, but it is also a time in which online traffic spikes, pushing infrastructure to the max.  Nothing is more gut wrenching than your website going down on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, whether it is because of your infrastructure or a partner’s infrastructure, it doesn’t really matter, you are down and that means lost sales and lost customers.  There are large statistical correlations around slow websites and conversion rate. One thing I can assure you, is that when your site is down, your conversion rate is zero. How much of that conversion rate comes back when the site is back up is debatable and will depend greatly on your brand, repeat purchase rate, combined with organic or paid search traffic. To prepare for the holiday I recommend the follow nine items:
    1. Check your monitoring systems.  Whether you use internal monitoring or someone like New Relic, you need to make sure critical pieces of your infrastructure are alerting when down; if you don’t know you are down nothing else will matter.
    2. Make sure you have direct contacts at your 3rd party vendors. Both your support team and account managers, when you need to make a call, make sure you know who to call.
    3. Confirm your webserver/database servers can handle the spike load that is coming.  Last year’s traffic is a good measure, but if you are going to run a promo or some crazy cyber offerings, I would consider 2x or 3x what you anticipate the load so you have room. Servers are cheap compared to what down time will cost you.
    4. Double check all your email marketing campaigns. Make sure that you have a detailed plan on sends and coupled with your traffic estimates.
    5. Contact your 3rd party providers. Alert your providers of any anticipated spikes that might be outside the normal Cyber Monday load, depending on your size and your partner you may find that they want to scale up prior to handle your load
    6. Have backup plans for everything; disasters will happen. Those with the best disaster recovery plan will shine.
    7. Check your CDN and what you are pushing there. The more you can offload the less load on your servers, when was the last time you heard Akamai go down?
    8. Consider offline batch processing of payments if go down. Having real-time is better for customers but if your credit processing hiccups, it’s best to keep taking the orders and process authorizations later. Worry about the fall out of declines after the fact.
    9. Do not forget about your back-end systems. Most retailers are concerned about their websites crashing but forget the logistics of taking a million orders. Only being able to ship a half-million isn’t a good outcome.
    At GroupBy we spend a lot of time doing exactly what is above to ensure our systems stay up.  Our Storefront product does exactly this, we can power search with a simple line of javascript and keep all the traffic off your network, not only making uptime our concern and not yours, but also makes for faster site performance as you remove the traversing across your network. Peter Messana is SVP of Product & Support for GroupBy Inc and joined GroupBy from an IR500 retailer where he was CEO for 12 years.
  • October 16, 2017

    GroupBy Supports Accelerated Growth With New U.S. Head Office and Increased Presence in Toronto

    TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GroupBy Inc., a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions and one of Canada’s fastest-growing technology companies, today announced it has opened its new U.S. head office in Austin, Texas and has nearly doubled the company’s global headquarter’s square footage in Toronto to support the company’s rapid growth and to leverage both cities’ diverse, high-tech talent pools. “Our decision to expand our presence in both Toronto and Austin is a by-product of aligning our growth plans with the incredible talent that we continue to find in both cities,” said Roland Gossage, Chief Executive Officer at GroupBy Inc. “As we continue to execute against our growth strategy, whether through major client signings, our acquisition of Edgecase in June or other successes that are soon-to-be-announced, we are proud to continue to build a team of deep strength to support each of our initiatives.” Based on CBRE’s 2017 North America Scoring Tech Talent Report, Toronto was ranked the fastest-growing tech market in North America. Toronto also ranks second in terms of cost-effective operations for technology companies. Austin has remained in the top 10 of CBRE’s Tech Talent Scorecard for the past four consecutive years and ranks as the fifth most concentrated large market in terms of its tech labor pool as a percentage of its total labor pool. GroupBy serves a rapidly growing client portfolio in Canada, the United States and Europe. The company’s eCommerce-focused data enrichment, search, navigation and merchandising technologies are used by dozens of major digital retailers such as CVS, Urban Outfitters, Lancôme, Jos A. Bank, Crate & Barrel, Columbia Sports and Zoro Tools. GroupBy’s global headquarters is located in Berkeley Castle at 2 Berkeley Street in downtown Toronto. The company’s new U.S. head office is located at 720 Brazos St. in downtown Austin, Texas. About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). On June 5, 2017, GroupBy announced that it had acquired US-based product data enrichment software provider, Edgecase. Founded in 2013, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.

    Contacts

    GroupBy Inc. Liz Bernardo Demand Generations Manager Liz.Bernardo@groupbyinc.com
  • October 3, 2017

    GroupBy Achieves SOC 2 Compliance

    Leading eCommerce Solution Provider Completes Arduous Review to Ensure Data Security for Rapidly Growing Client Base

    October 03, 2017 09:02 AM Eastern Daylight Time
    TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--GroupBy Inc., one of the retail industry’s leading providers of eCommerce software solutions and one of Canada’s fastest growing technology companies, today announced that the company has achieved Service Organization Control 2 (SOC 2) compliance status in accordance with the Trust Services principles as established by CPA Canada. The newly achieved status verifies that GroupBy’s information systems, security practices, policies and procedures meets SOC 2 standard related to security, availability and confidentiality. “The achievement of this SOC 2 certification reinforces GroupBy’s commitment to the protection of our clients and emphasizes the need for any service provider in our space to be fully SOC 2 compliant,” said Roland Gossage, CEO, GroupBy Inc. “As we continue to see our client base grow in size, complexity and sensitivity of their data output, it is imperative for them to feel confident that we are making every investment to reach the highest standard in data security and compliance in the industry.” The compliance process, conducted by MNP LLP, involved a rigorous audit of GroupBy’s systems, processes, and policies to ensure they meet the required Trust Services Principles. Subsequently, MNP has issued a SOC 2 audit report that all data gathered and hosted by GroupBy from the company’s client base and the consumers shopping on those retailers’ sites meets the highest degree in security, availability and confidentiality of the Trust Services Principles. “GroupBy has always been committed to exceeding industry standards when it comes to system performance and security measures,” said Will Warren, Chief Technology Officer, GroupBy Inc. “As more and more providers advertise a move to the cloud, there is a valid concern within the industry regarding the integrity of their data handling processes and technology systems and we are proud that our SOC 2 compliance has proven that our current and future clients can have complete trust in GroupBy.” GroupBy is making additional investments to its systems, infrastructure and processes to further ensure that its clients can have continued confidence moving forward. About GroupBy Inc. GroupBy Inc. transforms the way retailers interact with their consumers online through data-driven commerce, media, and knowledge management software solutions. The company supports the online retail efforts of many of the world’s leading online retailers by driving more targeted site traffic and increases in revenue through its platform Searchandiser. GroupBy’s solutions provide industry-leading features for search, navigation, merchandising, search engine optimization (SEO) and search as you type (SAYT). On June 5, 2017, GroupBy announced that it had acquired US-based product data enrichment software provider, Edgecase. Founded in 2013, GroupBy is headquartered in Toronto, Canada and has offices around the world. For more information, please visit www.groupbyinc.com.

    Contacts

    Ketner Group (for GroupBy) Catherine Seeds, 512-794-8876 Catherine@ketnergroup.com
  • October 3, 2017

    The Price Tag for a Digital Commerce Data Breach is Larger Than You May Think

    In 2014, the words “data breach” held a very heavy weight.  Often referred to as the year of the Mega Breaches, a staggering 1 billion records were compromised by cyberattacks across a myriad of industries.
    • JPMorgan Chase unintentionally exposed the names, addresses, social security numbers and other personal data from 83 million account holders – and that from a company that spends over $250 million annually on cybersecurity;
    • Sony Pictures saw attackers destroy data and leak information regarding employee payroll, severance package figures, performance reviews, executive salaries and even email exchanges regarding some of Hollywood’s elite; and
    • Community Health Systems had private patient information of more than 4.5 million records stolen and leaked in an attack that spread across 28 US states and caused a surge in additional healthcare systems to be targeted.
    And retail surely was not immune.  Home Depot unwittingly saw a total of 56 million credit and debit card records stolen and personal information on an additional 53 million people exposed in a firewall intrusion that lasted an entire week.  Target and eBay also had similar attacks and all incidents were traced back to a third-party vendor. What’s perhaps the most startling of these cases is the amount of time, money and process that each of these retail giants had put into place to guard themselves against such a threat.  These are not victims of a faulty server in a back room of a convenience store.   These are major industry players which in turn make them the most enviable to penetrate by an increasingly skilled underworld of cyber hackers. So here we are.  3 years later.  Surely as an industry we have become more resilient to attacks like this.  But alas, 2017 has already seen IHG, VeriFone, Saks Fifth Avenue, Chipotle, the world’s largest airline reservation system (Sabre), Brooks Brothers, Kmart, even Arby’s.  If consumers have to be weary when sinking their teeth into a delicious roast beef sandwich, something needs to change. When you look at the costs of a data breach, the financials are easy to define.  An average of $170 per record or $4.77 million per incident.  Painful.  But consumer loyalty may be the biggest pain of all.  According to a Global Customer Sentiment Survey by SafeNet Inc. 80% of respondents would unlikely do business with a company that has suffered a breach that included financial information.  It’s not a whole lot better if you remove the financial information with 57% saying they would take their business elsewhere.  And those stats don’t even include those that were left on the fence – which would add an additional 14% and 30% respectively. So there lies the fear.  Sitting atop the table.  But what can you do to best safeguard yourself against an incident occurring within your organization?  Truth is, there is a higher likelihood that there is nothing you can do within your own internal systems.   Research shows that as many as 63% of all data breaches are actually caused by security vulnerabilities introduced by third-party vendors.  And the same research shows that 58% of organizations have no confidence that their third-party vendors are securing and monitoring privileged access to their networks. The good news?  It’s fixable.  As an industry we can change that together.  Click here to download GroupBy’s The SOC II Mandate white paper to learn more or send us a note at team@groupbyinc.com.
  • September 27, 2017

    GroupBy Secures US Patent for Methods of Augmenting Search Engines for eCommerce Information Retrieval

    Sept. 25, 2017 GroupBy Inc. (www.groupbyinc.com), a leading provider of relevancy-focused eCommerce solutions and one of Canada’s fastest growing technology companies, today announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 9,672,552 protecting the technology behind the Company’s site search and navigation solutions. The patent protects a system for facilitating queries against search engines such as Lucene, Solr, Elastic Search or any other readily available search engines to provide meaningful content for the purpose of supporting any eCommerce website. “The grant of this patent recognizes the leadership of GroupBy and our technology in the marketplace along with the need for improved search and navigation solutions for retailers to compete in an ever-growing competitive marketplace,” said Roland Gossage, CEO at GroupBy Inc and one of the inventors listed on the U.S. Patent. “Having designed, developed and delivered the most impactful search and navigation enhancement technology for digital retailers, this marks a tremendous milestone in the Company’s history and we are proud to bring this level of recognition to our product team, our deployment team and to our shareholders.” The U.S. Patent, entitled “Methods of Augmenting Search Engines for eCommerce Information Retrieval” was granted on June 6, 2017, and defines in detail the protected methods that provide for an intelligent abstraction to know when and how to generate a set of queries as they relate to digital commerce and includes areas such as the configuration of metadata used by a search engine to define relevant results specifically for eCommerce. This innovation was designed to augment and improve the deficiencies found in generic search engines as they relate to search, navigation, merchandising and overall user experience, which in turn works to improve conversion rates, average order values and other tangible benefits for retailers online. “The challenge of serving relevant search results by simply querying a search engine such as Lucene, Solr or Elastic Search does not effectively solve the user’s search intent and therefore GroupBy had to create this innovation and subsequent patented method to solve this problem for eCommerce,” said Will Warren, CTO at GroupBy Inc and one of the co-inventors for the Patent. “This method of analysing, evaluating and augmenting the query and subsequent returned response allows us to achieve this fundamentally better user experience for eCommerce.” “This award by the U.S. patent law regime solidifies the importance of what GroupBy has achieved in terms of innovation excellence within the eCommerce space,” continued Gossage. “This patent is the first granted among a series of patent applications that we have pending and we will proudly protect and enforce all of our intellectual property rights in relation to these valuable assets.” GroupBy serves many of the world’s most successful online retailers including CVS, Urban Outfitters, Crate & Barrel, Pier 1 Imports, Jos A. Bank, Cabela’s, Lancôme, BuildDirect, Columbia Sports, Zoro Tools, The Shopping Channel and dozens more. GroupBy has a comprehensive patent strategy in place with additional applications under review in the U.S. and internationally.
  • September 27, 2017

    GroupBy Renews with 3B Scientific

    Sept. 26, 2017
    GroupBy Renews Multi-­Year Agreement with the 3B Scientific Group of Global Companies to Advance Digital Shopping Experience
    3B Scientific - Market Leader in the Anatomical Models sector, and a Leading Global Company in Medical Education, Healthcare and Science Teaching Products Looks to GroupBy to Further Improve Online Search, Navigation and Other B2B & B2B eCommerce Capabilities

    GroupBy Inc. (www.groupbyinc.com), a leading provider of relevancy-­focused eCommerce solutions and one of Canada’s fastest growing technology companies, today announced that 3B Scientific has renewed its agreement with GroupBy Inc. to expand its digital commerce strategy.

    “At GroupBy, innovation is at the core of everything we do and our clients are seeing that every day,” said Roland Gossage, CEO of GroupBy Inc. “We are proud that 3B Scientific sees the advancements that we are bringing to the industry and we are excited to continue to prove that we are the clear choice when it comes to augmenting and improving any retailer’s digital commerce strategy.” 3B Scientific originally launched GroupBy’s first-­generation Searchandiser Platform in 2014.  Within this new agreement, 3B Scientific will have access to GroupBy’s next-­generation platform including advanced search and merchandising functionalities. “As a long-­time partner, GroupBy has become an incredibly valuable part of how we interact with our global customers,” said Miles Sprott, Director Global Sales at 3B Scientific. “We have seen the advancements that they have made both as a technology platform and as a company at-­large and we are looking forward to leveraging those advancements to better serve our global multiple language customer base.” Along with GroupBy’s widely used B2C eCommerce platform, the Company’s patent-­pending B2B eCommerce solution allows retailers to manage custom catalogues, client-­based pricing, micro-­site management and other unique B2B requirements not found in standard eCommerce systems.
  • September 7, 2017

    eCommerce, Man & The Machine: Why It’s All Pivotal for the Future of Online Shopping

    Big data is everyone’s favourite bad word these days, particularly for e-commerce retailers. They are trying to manage data for large product catalogs, while also trying to monitor performance and simultaneously trying to execute creative merchandising campaigns that ensure shoppers are connecting with their favourite products.

  • September 7, 2017

    CASE STUDY: Augmented Merchandising Drives Increased Shopper Engagement and Purchase Confidence for Urban Decay

    18 years ago, Sandy Lerner and Wende Zomnir set off on a mission to bring to market the alternative products and colors that makeup wearers craved. In creating Urban Decay, Lerner and Zomnir encouraged shoppers to express their uniqueness and independent spirit through beauty products. Now owned by L’Oreal, Urban Decay has a worldwide fan base and is known for their cutting-edge, high-quality products and colors…

  • September 7, 2017

    CASE STUDY: Creating Better Experiences and Increasing Sales By Translating the Store Experience Online for Crate and Barrel

    Crate and Barrel has developed an incredibly successful merchandising approach to inspire shoppers in their retail stores. It only makes sense that a top priority for them is to translate that success to their online channels. One key component of this goal is the ability to represent the personality and intrinsic “touch and feel” of products traditionally purchased in person. Secondly, it is important that it be easy for shoppers to find and connect with products that best suit their personality and aesthetic…

  • January 5, 2017

    A Look Back at Holiday 2016: Avoiding the Curse of Deep Discounts to Improve Profitability by 15%

    In case you missed it, the 2016 holiday shopping season was unprecedented.  In addition to over $7B in sales during Cyber Weekend, we saw a surge in mobile shoppers, a deeper investment in shopper experience, and creative new merchandising strategies to engage shoppers in holiday promotions.  Yet despite such strong results, there has been criticism around retailers who rely on deep discounting to move inventory during the holiday season.  Sacrificing gross margin and profitability is never a priority, so why would some retailers take the risk during the biggest shopping event of the year? Below we take a look at how retailers might leverage better product data to improve their margin and create an inspiring shopping experience for their customers.  Rich, structured product data is essential in enabling shoppers to find exactly what they’re looking for and driving strong results during the time retailers’ want it most.
    1. Extended Product Attribution Could Mean Better Profitability
    I’ll start with the punchline here: retailers that invest in leveraging extended or enriched product attributes stand to gain about 7% of additional gross margin during the holiday shopping season. Even better, on heavy promotion days like Black Friday or Cyber Monday, they may see gross margin jump anywhere from 15%-20%. The truth is, this shopping season saw a lot of retailers leveraging heavy promotions and discounts, likely in an effort to move inventory.  What’s interesting though, is that we saw significant performance lifts for Edgecase clients who enabled their shoppers with extended product attribution (features, benefits, formula, and use) vs. those who relied only on standard attributes (price, color, and size).  Put simply, leveraging better data could help drive a much more profitable discounting strategy. For example, let’s say a shopper lands on your site and is looking for “holiday dinner plates”. Sure, you might have dinner plates that are specifically designed for holiday, but you may also recommend plates with gold trim, red stripes, or even green leaves for holiday as well.  Retailers that leverage enriched, structured  product data and tag appropriate products with the right values (e.g.: holiday) are better equipped to support thematic searches like this one and may not have to discount as heavily below MSRP.  Not to mention, they’ll enjoy higher profit per sale.
    1. Profit Primetime is the Second Week of December
    Have you ever been working through your Christmas list, found the perfect thing and then decided to hold out until either it was 1) discounted or 2) you got a coupon in your inbox? It’s my go-to strategy for holiday shopping, and surprisingly, a lot of other shoppers implemented a similar one in 2016 as well. However, based on our findings, a lot of those shoppers gave in and purchased by the second week of December, gifting retailers with a steady stream of sales. Despite hefty criticism around retailers heavily leveraging promotions this holiday season, almost half (46%) of all purchased items were discounted less than 20%. With discounts like that, how did retailers managed to maximize their profits?  Well, savvy merchants who held out on major promotions until closer to Christmas were rewarded with extra gross margin that would have otherwise been lost if they pulled the “coupon trigger” too soon.  In fact, the portion of total sales that included no discounted products rose from a low of 28% to a holiday high of 42% during the first and second weeks of December.
    1. When It Comes to Coupons, Quality Beats Quantity
    As retailers’ gear up for the holiday season, there is likely a significant amount of time that goes into coupons, discounts, and promotions.  Too many promotions and deep discounts could erode margins, while not enough of them may drive shoppers to another site and/or create excess, unwanted inventory.  It’s a tough balance, particularly with so many creative holiday merchandising strategies all competing for the sale. The good news is, all hope for implementing a successful promotion plan is not lost. Based on our own clients results, we’ve seen that the key to maximizing margin during holiday is to avoid sending purely discount-oriented content to your shoppers, and instead focus on crafting high-value, product-content rich promotions, that leverage enriched attribution (ahem, the same attributes that could improve profits upwards of 15%!).  Shoppers have written their lists and are on the hunt for items that fit specific needs and preferences: a non-iron, wrinkle-free shirt for dad, a tablet for mom to edit photos and send email, or a set of satin polka-dot pajamas for grandma.  Limiting shoppers to discount-centric options with basic navigation on a website, hinder their ability to quickly and easily browse relevant options. By leveraging shopper-centric terms and attributes in targeted outreach, folks are more inclined to click through because they feel confident, knowing they’ll find what they’re looking for.
    *All Data Within Blog is Based on Internal GroupBy Research.
  • July 12, 2016

    The Business Case for Better Data: Powering E-commerce Engines

    Here’s a truth you’ve probably heard before: eCommerce growth has hit a wall. Costs are up, processes to manage data attribution are manual and labor-intensive, and the metrics that matter are generally stagnant. Retailers spend a lot on innovative tools to create a great user experience. Onsite search, filtered navigation, product recommendation and personalization engines continue to be evaluated and updated as new vendors come to market with interesting advances in these critical technologies. Edgecase (now GroupBy), once upon a time, even set out to create a better navigation experience for our clients, until we learned that the problem is more fundamental and far-reaching. Sadly, it’s not as simple as finding the right vendor to deliver the right experience. Instead, it’s about structured, enriched product data to fuel these engines for optimized performance. For a long time we’ve neglected the importance of product data in the e-commerce space. Standard product attributes like size, color, and price are important, but really only scratch the surface when it comes to delivering a differentiated shopper experience. Language, customer sentiment, and merchandising strategies are constantly changing and keeping pace with that rate of change is virtually impossible, but a necessary evil. Shoppers have a vast vocabulary, and expect that retailers are able to keep up when it comes to product descriptions and “romance copy”. The truth is, using types of details as searchable attributes cause too much noise for shoppers and reduce the relevancy of search results. Not to mention, merchandising and sorting rules are often driven off of structured product attribution. If retailers don’t invest in cleansing and organizing the foundational product data, they will continue to be limited by poor quality data and in turn, a poor customer experience. It’s why here at GroupBy we believe so deeply in complete, high-quality product data. We’ve seen for ourselves that when retailers fuel their e-commerce systems with properly enriched data, they see increases in engagement, conversion, and revenue. When product data is unstructured, it’s pretty useless. Once it’s organized and enriched, it’s a super fuel for a retailer's’ e-commerce engines from search to mobile. Remember: great data fuels great results. If you want more insight on this business case for better data, and a few others, be sure to check out our eBook, Hey…Your Dirty Data is Showing: The Business Case for Better Data!]]>
  • June 28, 2016

    The Man & The Machine: Fashion in an Age of Technology

    Here at GroupBy we are technology geeks. The team is made up of both enthusiasts and experts, and we love learning what futurists predict about what comes next. Technology is constantly changing and evolving, finding its way into our lives in new and innovative ways.  Whether we are reconnecting with friends from our childhood through social media, or asking Google how to fix a faucet, humans and machines are learning how to work together harmoniously.   The intersection of man and machine teaming together is one of the reasons we are so excited to be working at GroupBy. It’s a paradigm shift in e-commerce that is setting the pace for future technologies, and the trend is already making its mark.  These Harvard Business Review articles discuss going “beyond automation” and, as Accenture pointed out in 2015, the vision for employment will become reliant on the side-by-side collaboration of intelligent machines and human talent. Recently, there was a story on NPR covering Andrew Bolton, curator for the Metropolitan Museum's Costume Institute.  Bolton is pushing the boundaries of the fashion world in a new exhibition (sponsored by Apple) called “Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology.” This Vogue article interviews Bolton and it’s fascinating how excited he was to explore the impact machines had already had on high fashion. In discussing his inspiration, he recalled seeing a few beautiful pieces that were executed using both hand and machine: “I began thinking that, in actual fact, the gap between high-end ready-to-wear and couture is getting smaller.” He went on to explain (in what would be my favorite quote) that “technology could enable us to radicalize the definition of what fashion means.” While everyone is not a  high fashion enthusiast, you may recognize designers like Yves Saint Laurent and Chanel in his collection. More importantly though, is recognizing that the teaming of humans and machines combines the strength of each, unlocking new and exciting ways to run business, whether you are Accenture, a couture fashion designer, or a big brand furniture retailer. So, how does this tie back to what we’re doing? At GroupBy we bring together cutting-edge technology, data science, and human curators to create product data optimized for e-commerce at unprecedented speed and quality. The results help retailers from haute couture to fast fashion alike keep their product data up to trend with the ever changing preferences of shoppers online.  It’s analogous but exciting to hear thought leaders like Andrew Bolton discuss the impact of the very thing we’re working hard to perfect. We are just starting to scratch the surface on what’s possible.  From couture to couches, the future for the man and the machine in e-commerce is bright.
  • November 16, 2015

    The Walmart Wakeup Call: “High Quality Product Data is a Must”

    The National Retail Federation and The Wall Street Journal just released stories on WalmartLabs’s formal launch of their Product Content Collection System (PCCS), a tool the company will use for better collection and organization of product data from suppliers. With the launch of PCCS comes Walmart’s heightened emphasis on how important it is for their suppliers to be providing data that is not only complete and consistent, but that includes the breadth of detail required for selling products online…not just what’s required for categorization in the in-store point of sale. Walmart sees this higher quality product information as key to their ability to make better merchandising decisions, refine their price matching algorithm and offer an overall better experience for today’s information-hungry shopper.

    So, why is this such a hot topic with a market-leading brand like Walmart?

    As Ram Rampalli, global head of content acquisition for Walmart, says, “High-quality product data is the foundation of everything in the [omnichannel experience]. There’s a strong need to improve “consistent vocabulary” between the mobile, web and in-store experiences — not just the way the copy is written, but ensuring products are properly classified and presented with the right specifications to allow shoppers to make good comparisons.”

    As GroupBy has learned from the myriad of retailers we work with, creating the high quality product data that shoppers have come to expect is no easy task. Many brands and manufacturers have the same tools and same size merchant teams they’ve had for years, but the amount of products that are being managed has expanded and the amount of product detail needed to fuel all channels has massively increased. Additionally, the hope of optimizing any of this data over time is just a pipe dream. Walmart is catching all of the inaccuracies and inconsistencies once they receive the data and attempt to sell the products on their own site, but the problem hits closer to home. This is the same data powering direct selling for these brands, negatively impacting the shopping experience and often forcing customers to take their business elsewhere.

    This should be a wake-up call to both brands and suppliers.

    Both sides of the retail mix are going to have to commit to resolving this long-standing issue. For retailers who may not wield the power of Walmart, it’s likely you will not be able to force your suppliers to invest in better product data creation. You need to find solutions that can get you results regardless of your suppliers. For suppliers and manufacturers, you’ve got to realize that, as Rampalli stated, your product data is your foundation. Up-leveling it to be complete, accurate, consistent and representative of your shopper’s vocabulary is going to provide a key competitive advantage across all channels.
  • August 26, 2015

    The Evolution from Compare Metrics to Edgecase

    For the past two years, the Compare Metrics team has been working relentlessly on a single goal — to get the retail industry to rethink the way consumers make purchasing decisions. This is a mission that started more than five years ago in my dorm room and has served as our blue flame since the company’s inception in 2012. I’ve always felt that the online search experience, as we know it today, needs to evolve. Over the past two years we’ve been diligently working with some of the world’s most innovative and thought-leading brands to help define precisely what that evolutionary path looks like. And what have we learned? Our research and results to-date have shown us that people want to “discover” things on their own, yet they also want to be inspired. They want to be in control of their digital experiences, whether they know exactly what they want or what they’re simply wanting to explore. They don’t want to be targeted “at” by retailers and brands; they’d rather target the ideal product themselves. For many of our merchants, this requires a paradigm shift in the way they think about their art and craft. Instead of limiting the number of options, digital merchandising must evolve to enable more degrees of expression and relevancy. In conjunction with our retail innovation partners, we realized that our platform and approach also had to evolve. Our original product was formed from a thesis of criteria discovery and comparison, which aligned well with the original name, Compare Metrics. However, we’ve learned that our product and value is much bigger than our name. We’re improving everything from merchandising breadth and effectiveness to in-store purchasing. The latest release of our Adaptive Experience Platform does more than let shoppers compare products, it let’s them discover using “my words”, navigate according to their own tendencies, and confidently choose products based on what they care most about. So, we went back to the drawing board to develop a name that better suited “who” we are and the vision we hope to deliver to our customers. Today, I am honored to announce the launch of our new platform, the Adaptive Experience Platform, along with a brand new name — Edgecase. Why Edgecase? An edge case represents the most unique and hardest scenario a business or technology must support. Accommodating the edge case is hard and often simply a stretch goal; however, the reality is that every person — including every one of our clients’ customers — is an edge case. Each of us has our own context, language and way of thinking about a need and making a decision. We are not a segment or an algorithm, and automating our online shopping experiences will only get businesses so far. At Edgecase, we believe in building solutions that empower our clients to embrace the edge case…every one of their customers. This is an exciting turning point in our company’s history and marks what we see as a transformative point in the evolution of digital commerce as a whole. We look forward to continuing working with the world’s most innovative brands as we charge ahead together.
  • April 28, 2015

    The Rise of Subscription Ecommerce & What it Means for Retailers

    Retail has seen an interesting new format crop up in the last five years that Amazon Prime, Birchbox, StitchFix and others have begun to perfect, but it’s a difficult business model to master. Using a carefully finessed recipe that couples automation and machine learning with human-driven curation techniques, subscription e-commerce companies are the poster children of the new generation of retail. For those constantly on-the-move consumers (which is most people these days), systems like these are gifts from the retail gods. Working women with no time to head to the mall can receive new clothes every three weeks, and college students on a budget can still explore their beauty routines and build their brand loyalty with new sample products each month. Even perishable goods subscription services like Mantry and Plated are picking up speed with young professionals that are too busy to grocery shop but still prioritize healthy, artisanal eating. Personalization remains a top retail buzzword, and it’s for good reason. Shoppers today want customized shopping experiences that fit their needs as well as their schedules. Subscription e-commerce models do just that: individually curated products shipped directly to your door. In order to make this a reality, companies moving into the subscription retail space had to find a way to learn about customer preferences and streamline the shopping journey. Otherwise known as: The Birchbox Effect. Birchbox curates beauty boxes based on a shopper’s skin profile and beauty routine priorities. The company provides a solution to the problem so many of us have: “I want some really cool products that I can try before buying, but I don’t want to look too hard to find them.” When consumers subscribe, they input extensive information on their skin type, complexion, daily routines, and precedence for different facets of beauty products, and powerful automation builds a perfectly curated beauty box full of items relevant to their individual needs. Similarly, StitchFix taps into human-driven personalized curation to build “style boxes” each month based on detailed profile information and specific commentary from shoppers directly to their stylists. After the stylists build the box with tailored items, streamlined technology and logistics takes it from there! It’s much easier said than done, but StitchFix has a system and it seems to be working well – they’re rumored to reach $200 million in revenue this year. When you think about Trunk Club’s acquisition by Nordstrom at $350 million, the stance on StitchFix’ profitable future looks more than just OK. All of this comes down to one thing: customized convenience. It’s a strong position to hold in the retail market, and highlights an opportunity for standard retailers to connect with their shoppers in a new way. While subscription models are convenient, what they’re really doing is bringing the ultimate personalized experience to the shopper for specific retail niches. With the right strategies and technology in place, online and brick-and-mortar retailers can still bring that dynamism to the shopping experiences they offer. Ramping up a technique to listen to your consumers and answer with a real, relevant solution means customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. At a recent SXSW Interactive panel session, the founders of two popular retail brands agreed that customized communication and engagement with customers is critical. Yael Aflalo, CEO and founder of Reformation Apparel said that a nice, honest communication and tone resonates with her customers, and that they use words that they would use with their girlfriends. Tina Craig, the CEO and founder of Snob Essentials, noted that the key to her company’s success is pivoting based on customer feedback. So while you don’t need to implement a subscription model to see success, the personalization powering those business models and the intimate connections made with customers should be the real key takeaways for retailers.
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