Todd – Your response to Patricia was a bit curt. We too evaluated several recommendations providers. After beginning with a list of 8 (ATG, Baynote, Omniture, etc), we decided we wanted a provider that could incorporate a wide variety of recommendations strategies and also wanted a best of breed solution focused on personalization. With this criteria, we narrowed that list to RichRelevance, Certona, and iGoDigital. All three were very good companies, but we too chose another provider in the end. You have a good product, but you do have very capable competition, and it’s hard to believe that any company would bat 1000 with proposals.

Jason – Thanks again for your post. Very informative and well written.

Previously I worked with Figleaves to implement recommendations with mixed results. Following on from Patricia Linford comments I am interested in what
metrics are used in analysis for such assertions and how is this best measured when implemented ?

As part of the e-commerce team of a large retailer, we decided we wanted to implement automated recommendations on our site. We looked at a number of players, among which Rich Relevance. We didn’t select them because we did some bucket testing to compare their solution with two other vendors and felt they were better at marketing than at ecommerce.

If Mr. Vangroff’s assertion is correct, (their solution increases sales by 30%) then why did they quote us a monthly price of $1,500? For an increase in sales by 30%, we’d be happy to pay 10 or 100 times that price.

My intention is not to criticize Rich Relevance, (their impressive client base indicates that there must be some substance behind their claims), I just want to make sure that other ecommerce managers think carefully when selecting a recommendations vendor, and do not rely on promotional postings of this nature.