If you do a lot of e-commerce shopping or use online services such as DVD rental or song or movie downloads, you know that many sites assess the things you shop for and buy and make recommendations to you based on your previous behavior. This kind of Web site personalization increases the chances that you will buy more by pointing out items for sale you might not have otherwise known about.
ATG (Art Technology Group, Inc.), today announced that it has completed its acquisition of just such a technology in the form of its purchase of CleverSet in a transaction valued at approximately $9 million in cash.
On January 22, 2008, ATG announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held CleverSet, a provider of automated personalization engines used to optimize e-commerce experiences by presenting visitors with relevant recommendations and information. CleverSet’s technology is designed to help significantly lift e-commerce revenue by increasing conversion rates and order sizes by personalizing the Web shopping experience for each visitor. CleverSet's recommendations service assesses what each individual Web site visitor is interested in, shopping for and most likely to purchase. Rather than using canned, static rules to suggest additional items to buy, CleverSet’s technology platform makes merchandise recommendations based on relational behavioral modeling logic.
The CleverSet offering will expand ATG’s eStara e-commerce optimization services. These services ? which include Click to Call, Click to Chat, Call Tracking and now automated personalization ? are delivered via a software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model and can be added to any Web site, whether built on the ATG platform or any other Web technology.
ATG will retain both CleverSet offices, which are located in Corvallis, Oregon and Seattle. Todd Humphrey, former CEO of CleverSet, will assume the role of VP, OnDemand Personalization, reporting to ATG’s CEO, Bob Burke. CleverSet co-founder Bruce D’Ambrosio, Ph.D., will become VP and chief architect, OnDemand Personalization, and report to Ken Volpe, ATG’s SVP of products and technology. CleverSet’s other co-founder, Jane Jorgensen, Ph.D., has been named principal scientist at ATG and will also report to Volpe. All other CleverSet employees have also been offered positions with ATG.
“Personalization has always been a key part of ATG’s market leading commerce offerings. Now merchants can have the best of both worlds: ATG’s current rules- and scenario-based personalization when they know what offers and information are best to present to their different customer segments, and CleverSet’s automated personalization when they don’t,” said Burke. “With both of these technologies, we believe we now have the most comprehensive personalization solution that exists today.”
For more information, visit
www.cleverset.com.
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