Business-Intelligence Service Pays Off For Nordstrom

DigiMine’s clickstream data analysis helps retailer tweak web site to meet customers’ needs.

You can’t buy Kate Spade shoes or handbags at Nordstrom.com, but the high-end E-retailer doesn’t want online shoppers to log off their PCs unsatisfied. Nordstrom now redirects consumers searching for those products on its Web site to personal shoppers they can contact by phone – and to its stores, which can sell them the cranberry Donegal tweed pumps they’re longing for.

Nordstrom added that information to is Web site last month after an analysis of clickstream data revealed that one of the top 10 search phrases entered by consumers was Kate Spade. The retailer says that’s just the more recent example of how DigiMine Inc.’s Web-site monitoring and data mining service has been paying off since its implementation last summer – helping the company tweak its site to better meet customer needs.

Next up: Nordstrom is thinking about using DigiMine’s tools to add personalization features to the site, says Chris Dressler, director of Web development for Nordstrom.com, in Seattle. DigiMine can help companies create personalization models that run in real time to optimize sales.

DigiMine claims to have been the first company to market to offer companies a hosted business-intelligence solution that integrates data warehousing and data mining technologies. Even some companies with large IT staffs are hard-pressed to optimize these technologies in-daily reports on information such as customer behavior and sales trends appears to companies such as Nordstrom.com, which has just 30 IT staff members.

AMR Research analyst Peter Urban concurs. “DigiMine’s service is pretty unique,” he says. “It’s great for people who don’t want to invest the time and money in developing robust data mining tools.”

By: Jennifer Maselli

Source: Information Week

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