E-commerce sites urged to use behaviour modelling

07/08/2008

Online retailers would do well to optimise their internet marketing campaigns by making use of customer behaviour modelling, according to one expert.

Speaking at the eTail 2008 conference in Washington, Sheldon Gilbert of software firm Proclivity Systems called on e-commerce firms to take note of the activities of consumers on their websites by using predictive modelling to assess shopping patterns.

He gave the example of a statistic suggesting that 79 per cent of those buying a particular product also buy other items as a result of retailer overlap prompting marketers to base targeted campaigns on this trend.

"Customers are telling us things constantly, but we don't see it," Mr Gilbert commented, according to DMNews.

He went on to add that it may be useful to track the tendency of some consumers to follow the "wisdom of the crowds", stating: "People who are friends, consciously and subconsciously, buy similar products."

A recent Nielsen Online report suggested that consumers are increasingly turning to money-saving websites in a bid to combat the effects of the credit crunch - something that may have an impact on retailers' search engine optimisation campaigns.