Technology helps catalogers deliver precise online marketing

The Personalization Network allows Williams-Sonoma to combine past online and off-line purchasing behavior, real-time shopping patterns and product acceptance rates to generate an automated, instantaneous merchandise recommendation to the online shopper.

Tracking and using real-time information to affect online product sales has been challenging for catalogers. While they are familiar with analyzing how merchandise performs and making the necessary alterations in between drops, the pace at which the Internet throws out data has been dizzying. In addition, catalogers are competing with companies that offer lower price points, not necessarily a strength of catalogers that are used to working on tight profit margins.