Technology publisher RevLifter has launched its Intelligent Offers Platform – an intuitive, self-serve solution that provides retailers with the data and tools they need to leverage personalised offers on their e-commerce sites.
Breaking away from broad, sitewide discounts, targeted and personalised offers are now bringing more value to both retailers and consumers. The Intelligent Offers Platforms strives to make this process easier for retailers with a powerful toolset and a host of data and insight capabilities. Its features include:
- Segmentation: Target different offers at specific audiences to discover which incentives drive more revenue, less abandonment, and other desired outcomes.
- Propensity and intent: Boost promotional efficiency by targeting offers at visitors who are more likely to buy, or buy more, based on thousands of lookalike journeys.
- A/B and multivariate testing: Run experiments on different offers, copy, and creative elements and automatically push the most effective variants.
But why should retailers care about this technology, and how will it help them generate more revenue this year? How complicated is it to use? How does it protect users’ data, and how will it develop over time? We spoke to RevLifter to learn more about this innovative platform.
Why does this technology matter in today’s market?
In short, RevLifter’s Intelligent Offers Platform provides retailers with more control over their onsite promotions and offers. It aims to remove a lot of the guesswork involved when creating these discounts, allowing merchants to better leverage their first-party data and drive more personalised offers.
“There has always been a clear lack of understanding over which promotions actually drive a brand’s specific goals,” observes Simon Bird, Co-Founder and CEO at RevLifter, “Most retailers don’t have a fine-tuned offers strategy… They run broad, one-size-fits-all promotions when they need a short-term boost.”
The problem here is that the rising cost of goods has put these broad discounts at odds with generating revenue. Last year, retail margins dropped to their lowest level in over a decade. This means that retailers really need to guarantee profitability if they are going to deploy offers and discounts to their customers.
The Intelligent Offers Platform promises to help retailers combat this issue. “The platform encourages users to ‘stop guessing and start growing’ with all the tools they need to build a sustainable, data-driven approach to serving offers,” says Bird.
Even though broad discounts are becoming more unfeasible, personalised discounts can still drive revenue and retain customer loyalty. In fact, the majority of consumers expect a seamless, personalised shopping experience.
Utilising first-party data, the platform enables retailers to better understand their customers, and trigger targeted offers based on certain interests and behaviour.
“We’ve created features like propensity and intent targeting, which use artificial intelligence to analyze millions of behavioral signals and calculate which types of customers require an offer. When a new customer lands on a site, the technology consults with the algorithm to decide whether or not they need an incentive, or if they’ll convert without one,” Bird explains.
How user-friendly is it?
After carrying out market research with e-commerce managers, affiliate managers, and heads of performance, Bird and his team discovered that these groups did not have the time to dedicate to personalisation, or build their own in-house solution. With an out-of-the-box technology like the Intelligent Offers Platform, retailers do not need to worry about setting this time aside. It can be plugged in and activated straight away.
“We really wanted to make the day-to-day management of the technology as simple as possible,” says Bird, “We’ve designed the platform to be easy to use and scale. It’s packed with built-in options that can have you creating campaigns and running experiments within days.”
Full training from the RevLifter team is available to anyone using the platform. There’s a Help Hub for quick queries and a tour of the technology, as well as a Help Desk for more specific questions. There are also resources to provide inspiration on the types of campaigns to set up.
“The platform has been through a rigorous testing phase and we’re confident that retailers will enjoy experimenting with different rules and experiences without feeling like they need lots of additional training,” Bird assures.
How does it handle data privacy and security?
A central function of the Intelligent Offer Platform is the leveraging of retailers’ first-party data, which might understandably make some users feel nervous. How does RevLifter ensure that all user data is handled responsibly and adheres to regulations?
“The data collected by the RevLifter tag and used by the platform is first-party information from the retailer’s site. We do not share any of this data with third parties or store any personally identifiable information,” says Bird.
When other data sources are brought into the journey, they constitute of third-party information that is collected and utilised through integrations with other providers – “Like Accuweather for weather-based targeting,” Bird states as an example.
He adds, “All of these (providers) have their own privacy policies that factor in their relationships with platforms like RevLifter.”
What can users expect in terms of future developments?
Right now, RevLifter is excited to see the first wave of case studies emerge from retailers experimenting with the platform. But further down the line, Bird and Co. have plans for further enhancing the user experience and bolstering campaign options.
“We’ll be adding new offer types in the very near future while integrating a generative form of AI to supply ideas for offer copy and other elements,” Bird explains, “On the topic of AI (one of my favorites), there’s a super exciting concept around self-optimising campaigns that we’re currently working on. I think retailers will really embrace these types of features, as they could save time while driving better results.”
Not only this, RevLifter also plans to provide more tools to help brands strategise and devise their offer calendar.
Implementation is the key to understanding efficacy, and we’re excited to see how RevLifter’s Intelligent Offers Platform performs in the wild. Watch this space!
