电子商务技术新贵Reflektion的个性化营销之道

    我们能聊一会儿私人话题吗？几乎每位市场营销人员都渴望着这种机会。大量软件公司正在争先恐后地满足这种需求。那么，成立仅两年的Reflektion公司究竟依靠什么脱颖而出？

    不仅仅是因为它拥有一些声名显赫的支持者，包括英特尔投资(Intel Capital)和耐克公司(Nike)等，也不是因为它的天使投资人是大名鼎鼎的Salesforce公司创始人马克•贝尼奥夫和甲骨文公司(Oracle)前首席运营官雷•莱恩。Reflektion崛起的主要原因在于，它创造了“人性化”的电子商务体验，不仅能够吸引某一品牌的回头客或注册用户，还能够吸引那些“随意逛逛”的，此前从未访问过某个站点的新顾客。

    “此前的技术均无法为数以百万计的访客打造这种体验，”Reflektion公司CEO肖恩•莫兰说。他曾经参与过亚马逊(Amazon)和eBay的技术开发项目，拥有深厚的电子商务技术背景。“大量的个性化营销技术只能覆盖3%到4%的买家。”

    Reflektion的算法是由前谷歌广告(Google Adsense)工程师，该公司创始人阿马尔领衔的一支团队开发的。当某个用户浏览一家站点时，这种算法会自动收集信息，详细记录他/她曾经驻留或点击过哪个页面。它使用这些信息，以及浏览时使用哪类设备（智能手机，台式机，还是平板电脑）等数据，来重塑访问者看到的内容，排定向用户展示产品的优先顺序——与亚马逊面向注册用户的“推荐”机制非常类似。莫兰说，这项技术甚至能够影响每个访问者看到的搜索结果。

    这项服务售价在10万美元到几百万美元之间，正在被大约20家公司使用，其中包括迪斯尼(Disney)、甘德山(Gander Mountain)和耐克。电子商务技术的关键之处在于，它正在被用来做什么。Reflektion公司一直致力于集成源自Demandware、IBM WebSphere、Magento和Oracle ATG的电子商务技术。

    “我们与其他公司的竞争没有交集，”莫兰说。实际上，Certona【鞋类品牌史蒂夫•马登(Steve Madden)使用的一项技术】和RichRelevance[好市多(Costco)、塔吉特(Target)和玛莎百货(Marks & Spencer)使用的技术]也专注于“全方位个性化”。这两家公司的领导者分别参与过Adobe和亚马逊营销服务技术的研发工作。

    到目前为止，Reflektion公司已经筹集到总计1,130万美元的风险投资。几个星期前，另一位经验丰富的电子商务高管，Endeca公司创始人史蒂夫•帕帕也加入了Reflektion公司董事会。（Endeca公司于2011年被甲骨文公司收购，成交价为11亿美元。）除了贝尼奥夫和莱恩外，沃尔玛美国公司(Wal-Mart US)前CEO爱德华多•卡斯特罗•赖特也是Reflektion公司的董事之一。

    “Reflektion的平台将传统的消费者体验管理与最先进的广告货币化技术完美地融合在一起，”帕帕说。“它不仅是新一代的电子商务个性化营销技术，并且在所有面向消费者的网络应用市场有着广阔的前景。”（财富中文网）

    译者：叶寒

    Can we get personal for a moment? Pretty much every marketing professional would kill for that opportunity, and there are plenty of software companies rushing to oblige. So what makes two-year-old Reflektion stand out?

    It isn’t just the company’s backers, which include Intel Capital INTC 1.72% and Nike NKE 0.16% , or its prominent angels, Salesforce founder Marc Benioff and former Oracle COO Ray Lane. It is Reflektion’s ability to create “personal” e-commerce experiences not just for a brand’s repeat customers or registered visitors but also for the equivalent of walk-in shoppers, people who have never been to the site before.

    “The technology hasn’t been there to do this for millions of visitors,” said Reflektion CEO Sean Moran, who has a deep background in e-commerce technology that includes working on programs with Amazon AMZN 0.26% and eBay EBAY 0.15% . “There has been lots of stuff done to reach the three percent to four percent who buy.”

    Reflektion’s algorithms—developed by a team led by founder Amar Chokhawala, a former Google Adsense engineer—gather information as an individual browses a site, taking note where he or she has paused or clicked. It uses that knowledge plus data about what sort of device doing the browsing (smartphone versus desktop versus tablet) to reshape what the visitor sees—prioritizing the products that he or she encounters much like Amazon does with “recommendations” for registered accountholders. The technology even affects the search results seen by individual visitors, Moran said.

    The service, which will cost a company anywhere from $100,000 to several million dollars, is being used by about 20 companies including Disney, Gander Mountain, and Nike. It does really matter what e-commerce technology is being used, Reflektion has worked on integrations involving e-commerce technology from Demandware, IBM WebSphere, Magento, and Oracle ATG.

    “The most common thing we’re competing against is nothing,” Moran said. Actually, Certona (a technology used by the Steve Madden brand) and RichRelevance (used by Costco, Target, and Marks & Spencer) also are focused on “omnichannel personalization.” The leaders for those two companies were behind technologies that are part of marketing services at Adobe ADBE 2.64% and Amazon, respectively.

    So far, Reflektion has raised a total of $11.3 million in venture capital. Several weeks ago, Reflektion’s board added another experienced e-commerce executive Steve Papa, founder of Endeca (swallowed by Oracle in 2011 for a reported $1.1 billion). The former CEO of Wal-Mart US, Eduardo Castro Wright, is also a director along with Benioff and Lane.

    “[Reflektion's] platform demonstrates the fusion of traditional customer experience management with the leading edge of advertising monetization,” noted Papa. “Not only is it the next generation of e-commerce personalization, it has broader applications to all customer-facing web applications.”