RichRelevance will use some of the capital to fund expansion into new markets outside of North America, says chief marketing officer Diane Kegley. The company also plans to develop more personalization and digital marketing tools, beef up its consumer data analysis efforts and also add staff

RichRelevance first expanded internationally in 2010 in the United Kingdom by signing office supply merchant Viking Direct, a segment of Office Depot and No. 60 in the 2012 Internet Retailer Top 400 Europe.

Read the full article on Internet Retailer

It seems that the UK’s shoppers have adapted to mobile shopping more than their US counterparts. In the UK, mobile accounts for 9.1% of all e-commerce sales, compared with 4.6% across the pond.

These stats come from RichRelevance’s 2012 Q1 Shopping Insights Mobile Study, and are based on more than 1.1bn shopping sessions on UK and US retail websites (including mass merchants, as well as small and specialty retailers) up to 25 March 2012.

Here are some highlights from the study, and well as an infographic summarising the key findings…

Mobile commerce continues to grow

• In March, mobile accounted for 9.1% of all UK e-commerce sales, up from 8.2% since Christmas.
• In March, the average purchase on mobile was £109.68 compared to £100.05 on desktop.
• As indicated by other stats we have seen, iPads are a big deal. The iPad accounted for 82% of all mobile spend.
• Unlike previous stats average order values (AOV) in March were highest on iPhones.
• March iPhone purchases averaged £135.63 compared to £119 on other mobile devices, £111.41 on the iPad and £107.70 on desktop.

Conversion rates

• Not surprisingly, conversion rates were highest on desktop, at 3.6% in March.
• The iPad was next, with 2.9%, followed by iPhone (1.2%) and other devices (1%).

iPad users shop for longer

• Shoppers on the iPad viewed the most pages, logging an average of 9.89 pageviews per session in March compared to 8.86 pages on desktop, 5.16 pages on other mobile devices and 4.34 pages on iPhones.
• The iPad’s share of shopping sessions (viewing, not necessarily buying) increases on the weekends, reaching 10% compared to 8.2% during the week.
• The peak days for shopping on iPad are Wednesday and Sunday, during which 11% of shopping sessions happened on the device.
• The iPad’s share of sessions is greater during evenings, with peaks at 4pm, 8pm and 10pm.
• This suggests greater use of the device during leisure time, possibly as a second screen.

UK and US habits compared

• Brits were nearly twice as likely to spend on mobile as Americans, where mobile accounted for only 4.6% of revenue.
• For US shoppers, the average order value in March was $158 for iPad compared with $105 for other mobile devices and $104 for iPhone (and other iOS devices).
• The share of shopping sessions on iPads also rose in the US on weekends, though it only reached 7% on weekends compared to 5% during the week.

Read full Econsultancy article

RichRelevance’s recent mobile study was cited on Smart Money’s “10 Things Your iPad Won’t Say”

Apple users tend to be bigger spenders than other tablet owners — they forked over an average $123 in purchases on their iPads and iPhones, compared to an average $101 spent by Android users, according to a separate survey by RichRelevance, a personalized product recommendation company.

The portability of the iPad, combined with the overall pleasant browsing experience allows for more instant gratification, says Darren Vengroff, chief scientist for RichRelevance. “There’s no remembering to go to the mall on the weekends to buy those jeans you liked,” he says. People tend to use their tablets in relaxed environments like their homes, which might cause them to spend more, according to a report by Adobe Digital Index, which found that tablet users spend 20% more per purchase than people shopping on computers. Tablet owners also tend to be more affluent than most online consumers, according to the report.

Read the full Smart Money article

Retailers act swiftly to engage consumers armed with smart phones and other mobile devices. ANA Magazine talks to Diane Kegley, RichRelevance CMO.

“Mobile is becoming the cornerstone of how retailers and brands engage with consumers,” says Diane Kegley, CMO at RichRelevance, a San Francisco-based company that analyzes online shopping patterns. “From the consumer standpoint this is being driven by what we call the ubiquity of screens. Consumers are neither online or offline, they are just always connected.”

Read the full article on ANA Magazine

Internet Retailer cites RichRelevance’s mobile study as the latest version of the iPad is set to be announced.

…iPad owners are retail carnivores. 92% of non-desktop online sales originated from an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch in December 2011, up from 88% in April 2011, says personalization vendor RichRelevance Inc. It studied 3.4 billion shopping sessions on its retailer clients’ sites between April and December 2011. What’s more, shoppers using Apple mobile devices have a larger average order value compared with other mobile platforms—$123 for Apple versus $101 for Android in December 2011. And that far outstrips the desktop average order value of $87.

And the tablet and smartphone shoppers just keep on coming. The share of U.S. online retail dollars attributable to mobile devices has doubled from 1.87% in April 2011 to 3.74% in December 2011, RichRelevance finds. Further, in April 2011 just under 9% of all shoppers were browsing retail sites on a mobile device. By December 2011, that share more than doubled, reaching 18 percent of all consumers.

This is all good news for e-retailers, but especially for those that are prepared for iPad owners. And many retailers are on the right track with mobile commerce.

Read the full article on Internet Retailer

Retail Technology covers John Lewis’s partnership with RichRelevance to implement personalisation in their online e-commerce strategy.

The retailer is using RichRelevance’s personalisation engine to dynamically analyse shopping behavior alongside data on relationships between products and product categories to offer every johnlewis.com customer a personalised experience.

Read the full article in the UK’s Retail Technology

Econsultancy Digital Marketers United blogs on John Lewis’ holiday sales success using RichRelevance personalization technology.

John Lewis says the new personalised recommendation tool on its website was a key factor in driving a 27.9% increase in sales over Christmas.

The tool, created by RichRelevance, provides customers with recommendations on fashion items by analysing shopping behaviour alongside the relationships between products and product categories.

John Lewis head of online delivery and customer experience Sean O’Connor said the tool helped increase sales in the five weeks to December 31 2011 beyond the usual spike expected during the Christmas period, and in comparison to the previous year.

When any shopper comes to our website, we want to provide them with the same personalised customer service we would if they visited us in one of our shops.”

He said that the recommendation and email personalisation platform delivered tangible results by offering customers relevant products.

Product recommendation works particularly well in the fashion category as it recognises shopper behaviour, patterns and recommends items of interest not only by product type, but by brand as well.

The tool is not integrated into social media so recommendations do not take into account what the customer’s friends have bought or viewed – something John Lewis should possibly consider enabling as it has almost 317,000 Facebook fans.

Read the full post

Tech Crunch talks to RichRelevance CEO David Selinger about the rise of personalization in online retail.

“Personalization was really important in enabling Amazon to differentiate itself and grow in past ten years,” David Selinger, CEO and co-founder of RichRelevance. Selinger also was Amazon’s Manager, Consumer Behavior Research and helped build some of the site’s personalization features a number of years ago. “Personalization will be the differentiating factor in e-commerce and digital commerce going forward, especially for multichannel retailers and new entrants online.”

Read the full Tech Crunch article

CNBC’s Consumer Nation news weighed in with RichRelevance on the growth in mcommerce.

…Once everyone opens those new tablets during the holidays they can join the new shopping revolution: mcommerce. In the last nine months, the share of U.S. online retail dollars attributable to mobile devices has doubled from 1.87 percent in April of 2011 to 3.74 percent in December 2011, according to RichRelevance, a company that assists retailers with ecommerce sites.

The firm also tracked an increase in the portion of page views coming from mobile devices, with more than 15 percent of all shopping seasons occurring on mobile devices. This past April, just under 9 percent of all shoppers were browsing digital aisles via a mobile device, RichRelevance said. By December, the share has more than doubled, reaching 18 percent of all consumers.

Read CNBC article

Like most executives, Sanjeev Nikore had managerial faults. But unlike most executives, he publicly divulged them to fellow staffers.

The result? A promotion.

Read the Wall Street Journal article