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Shop.org Innovation Contest Winner

Posted by geoffbConferences, eCommerce

We found out recently that we were one of five companies selected for Shop.org’s Innovation Contest as part of the Shop.org Strategy & Innovation Forum. Alongside companies like BazaarVoice (an SLI partner) and others, we have the opportunity to give a short presentation about our innovative idea – leveraging site search data to dramatically improve the results of email marketing campaigns.

Our “idea” was based on a few client projects where we teamed with our partner ExactTarget to create highly targeted, personalized email marketing messages tailored to individual shoppers at our clients’ sites. By incorporating site search data about visitors’ search activity and data about their shopping preferences and behavior, companies can create email messages that contain popular search results for preferred items (e.g. “women’s shoes”), brands and styles of each customer, and see amazing results. In some cases, our customers saw a 250% higher open rate, a 400% increase in click-troughs, and 300% increase in sales. They also saw a 400% decrease in un-subscribes, a pretty significant measure for email campaigns.

There is so much marketers can do with site search data beyond showcasing products in search results – and many marketers aren’t even aware. Using the data for highly targeted email messages is just one way to extend the ROI of site search and make it worthwhile for your business. If you have any thoughts to share about this, we’d love to hear from you. And if you’ll be at Shop.org in Orlando next week (Feb 2-4), drop by our booth (#307) or come hear us talk about our Innovation Idea. It might be something you can replicate too.
Shop.org Innovation Contest Winner

Interview with Mark Dirks from Beacon Technologies

Posted by Shaun RyaneCommerce, Success Stories1 comment

Beacon Technologies Logo

This week we released an interview with Mark Dirks, president of Beacon Technologies. Beacon Tech are a partner of SLIs and we have a number of customer’s in common. Mark has a wealth of experience – he’s been working with web based applications since the early 90s. One of Becon Tech’s strength’s is their Google Analytics consulting – they are a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant and Mark talks about the importance of analytics and some of the challenges their customers have.

Interview with Jeff Zwelling from YLighting

Posted by Shaun RyaneCommerce, Podcast

Ylighting Logo

We posted this interview with Jeff Zwelling from YLighting just before Christmas but I was a little busy and did not get a chance to blog about it. Jeff is very entrepreneurial – he co-founded Ylighting and is currently working on an opportunity he sees to improve analytics for ecommerce. I’m sure you’ll find it enlightening :-).

Jeff discusses an print advertising campaign he is proud of called Life Illuminated. I’ve uploaded a copy of the Life Illuminated ads so you can take a look at them.

Jeff mentioned a Yahoo group that he has found to be a valuable resource. I’m pretty sure it’s called Web Advertising Roundtable. It is a retailers only group – so you aren’t hassled by any annoying vendors (like me).

2009

Posted by Shaun RyanSearch Conferences

Welcome to my first blog post for 2009. I’ve had a few weeks off relaxing in a fantastic New Zealand summer and only checking my email when I feel that buzz in my pocket. I’m refreshed and ready to go. 2009 is certainly going to be an interesting year. I’m starting off with a trip to Miami next week attending the Internet Retailer Web Design conference where I hope to meet a bunch of current and future customers and partners and learn a thing or two about web design. If you’re going to be there then come along and meet us at our booth or drop me an email: shaun.ryan at sli-systems.com.

I often hear from our customers and partners that SLI is one of the most responsive vendors they have ever worked with. One of my goals for this year is to ensure that we continue to provide a remarkable level of service as we grow. As always, we are looking to add new  features to our service that will help our customers’ businesses.

Last year we updated our merchandising console, introduced Auto Complete, improved the speed of our search, and upgraded our infrastructure to provide improved redundancy. All of these were provided at no additional cost to our customers. We also continued to improve our best practices as we gained experience running the search on over 350 sites. We have several more improvements in the works – that you will see rolled out in 2009. I look forward to telling you more as we release these and I wish you all a prosperous 2009.

See us at Internet Retailer Web Design and Vote for SLI in Shop.org’s Innovation Contest

Posted by geoffbeCommerce, Search Conferences

Happy New Year to everyone! 2009 is barely underway and there are already many exciting things happening…

Internet Retailer Web Design Conference
While the U.S. makes history with the inauguration of president Obama, we’ll be busy – along with many other ecommerce technology companies – showing our wares at the Internet Retailer Web Design conference Jan. 19-22 in Miami.

Stop by our booth (#43), or join us at the SLI-sponsored cocktail receptions on Monday and Tuesday nights. (The theme of Tuesday night’s reception will be Chinese New Year and a celebration of the “Year of the Search B-Ox.” Come have a drink on us!)

Shop.org Strategy & Innovation Forum
We’re also looking forward to Shop.org’s Strategy & Innovation Forum Feb. 2-4 in Orlando.

We’re participating in the Innovation contest, the winners of which will be announced on Feb. 3 at the show. If you have a few minutes, go to the web site and take a look at the entries – and if you think SLI’s idea shows true innovation, feel free to cast a vote our way. (Note: this contest is open to retailers’ votes only.) You may vote for up to 5 entries. The deadline is 11:59 EST on Friday, Jan. 16.

If you’re planning to attend either event, let us know – we’d love to see you!