{"id":22504,"date":"2023-10-06T18:51:14","date_gmt":"2023-10-06T18:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/library\/creating-immediate-value-with-real-time-segments-in-bloomreach-discovery"},"modified":"2024-09-17T10:15:47","modified_gmt":"2024-09-17T10:15:47","slug":"creating-immediate-value-with-real-time-segments-in-bloomreach-discovery","status":"publish","type":"library","link":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/blog\/creating-immediate-value-with-real-time-segments-in-bloomreach-discovery","title":{"rendered":"Creating Immediate Value With Real-Time Segments in Bloomreach Discovery"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>One of the big challenges merchandisers face is wanting to personalize their site \u2014 especially product grids and search \u2014 but not being able to do it in real time (while delivering tangible results). That\u2019s partly due to a fixation on 1:1 personalization, which can end up hindering your merchandising effectiveness:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen=\"\" frameborder=\"0\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/sMvVqOmAbLY?si=-GC6mTolqNrK4HnO\" title=\"YouTube video player\" width=\"560\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s where <a href=\"https:\/\/documentation.bloomreach.com\/discovery\/docs\/real-time-customer-segments-for-discovery\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>real-time segments<\/u><\/a> in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/products\/discovery\"><u>Bloomreach Discovery<\/u><\/a> come in. This feature gives merchandisers the ability to define, adjust, and use behavior-based segments to personalize all product grids \u2014 even for first-time visitors \u2014 to boost revenue per visitor (RPV).&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In our <a href=\"https:\/\/visit.bloomreach.com\/2023-recordings-discovery-best-practices#all-sessions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>September best practices webinar<\/u><\/a> for Bloomreach Discovery, we explored this feature in detail. Read on for the key takeaways from the webinar.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>An Overview of Real-Time Segments<\/h2>\n<p>Real-time segments is a feature that allows you to personalize your site\u2019s product search, category, and pathway results in real time based on customer demographic and behavioral data. It\u2019s based on a website pixel that can connect with your existing data infrastructure if needed. And, thanks to Bloomreach\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/products\/data-engine\"><u>customer data engine<\/u><\/a>, you\u2019ll get a single customer view, real-time segmentation, and customer analytics and reporting.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>For example, let\u2019s say a person searches for \u201cred dress\u201d on your site. Typically, all users would see the same red dress as the top result. But with real-time segments, you can separate each segment (e.g., deal hunter, premium, trendsetter) so that each segment sees a different top result.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Showing different results for &quot;red dress&quot; based on customer segments\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/real-time-segments_red-dress-1.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Important Considerations<\/h2>\n<p>But before jumping straight into real-time segments, there are a few important definitions you\u2019ll need to set first:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What are your customer profiles?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>Which events are the ones that matter most?&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You can use <a href=\"https:\/\/www.figma.com\/file\/ZkbHMuhDFqFb4LLfGa52dJ\/Segmentation-Workshop-(TEMPLATE)?type=whiteboard&amp;node-id=0-1&amp;t=xOo3ofy5YIuV6RD4-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>this template<\/u><\/a> to go through an exercise with your team and figure out how you want to segment your customers. You should start by discussing your personalization goals and customer problem statements \u2014 a good starting point is answering the question, \u201cWhat does my best customer look or act like?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Then, you can identify important events or attributes in your customers\u2019 journeys. What are the moments that matter, and how can you capitalize on that excitement? For example, if there\u2019s data showing that people who buy three times on your site will purchase much more often, then your goal is figuring out how to convert one-time buyers into three-time buyers. From there, you can define KPIs and provide outputs to inform your customer segments.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Dashboard showing customer segment data in Bloomreach Discovery\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/real-time-segments_customer-segment-data-2.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>At the same time, it\u2019s crucial to not create too many segments. Having too many segments means some will be too small to be ideally served. After all, personalization needs data to be effective, and small segments means you\u2019re not gathering enough data to ensure the algorithm works properly. Quality is more important than quantity here.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Understanding How Real-Time Segments Work in the Back End&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<p>Peeking beneath the hood of Bloomreach Discovery, whenever someone visits your site \u2014 even if it\u2019s their first time \u2014 an anonymous customer profile is created in the back end. If the visitor ends up creating an account on your site, then this initial data will be merged with that profile.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>These profiles are the heart of real-time segments, and provide invaluable insights into your customers. For example, let\u2019s say a first-time visitor searches for \u201cchairs.\u201d Their initial results will be a hodge-podge of results because there\u2019s no data yet \u2014 they\u2019ll see both cheaper and higher-end chairs of a variety of styles (typically the top-selling results in the category).<\/p>\n<p>But if the user clicks on a cheaper chair, then the customer profile will update to reflect that, and if they search for \u201cchairs\u201d again, they\u2019ll see more tailored results, with lower-priced chairs showing up first on the page.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Customer profile in Bloomreach\" src=\"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/real-time-segments_customer-profile-2.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>You can take this a step further by exposing segments to Bloomreach Discovery. This locks segments in place so that the algorithm can learn what these segments are doing over 30 days. Then, the algorithm can automatically rerank results based on these learnings.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This is useful for informing your merchandising strategies. For example, let\u2019s say you learned that your premium shoppers have a higher average order value (AOV), but a lower conversion rate. You can then trigger an automatic campaign whenever they purchase a premium product, where they receive a tailored thank-you offer for their next purchase with an expiration date.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Deliver Personalized Search With Bloomreach Discovery&nbsp;<\/h2>\n<p>With <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/products\/discovery\"><u>Bloomreach Discovery<\/u><\/a>, you can use real-time segments to immediately personalize your site experience \u2014 even for first-time visitors. This is made possible by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/products\/loomi\"><u>Loomi<\/u><\/a>, our industry-leading AI built for commerce, which is built on 14+ years of ecommerce data, resulting in the fastest ROI of any product discovery solution on the market.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>To see real-time segments in action, <a href=\"https:\/\/visit.bloomreach.com\/2023-recordings-discovery-best-practices#all-sessions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><u>watch the on-demand video<\/u><\/a> from our September best practices webinar. Or, to experience the power of AI-driven product discovery yourself, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/request-demo?module_interest=Discovery\"><u>schedule a personalized demo<\/u><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the big challenges merchandisers face is wanting to personalize their site \u2014 especially product grids and search \u2014 but not being able to do it in real time (while delivering tangible results). That\u2019s partly due to a fixation on 1:1 personalization, which can end up hindering your merchandising effectiveness:&nbsp; That\u2019s where real-time segments [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":15321,"template":"","ew-regions":[],"ew-solutions":[],"library_type":[513],"library_blog_tag":[366],"industry":[],"channel":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-22504","library","type-library","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","library_type-blog","library_blog_tag-ecommerce-search"],"acf":{"library_blog_banner_content":"","library_blog_banner_cta1_text":"","library_blog_banner_cta1_href":"","library_blog_banner_cta1_new_tab":false,"library_blog_banner_cta2_text":"","library_blog_banner_cta2_href":"","library_blog_banner_cta2_new_tab":false,"library_blog_banner_bg_color":"#EAF7FE","library_blog_banner_cta_text_color":"#FFF","library_blog_banner_cta_bg_color":"#019ACE","library_blog_banner_cta2_text_color":"#000","library_blog_banner_cta2_bg_color":"#FFF","library_blog_chatgpt_content":"","library_blog_chatgpt_cta_href":"","library_blog_chatgpt_cta_text":"Ask ChatGPT"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library\/22504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/library"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library\/22504\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50042,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library\/22504\/revisions\/50042"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"ew_regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ew-regions?post=22504"},{"taxonomy":"ew_solutions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ew-solutions?post=22504"},{"taxonomy":"library_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_type?post=22504"},{"taxonomy":"library_blog_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/library_blog_tag?post=22504"},{"taxonomy":"industry","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/industry?post=22504"},{"taxonomy":"channel","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/channel?post=22504"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=22504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}