Concept:
Monetate is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology platform designed to help retailers boost online sales by optimizing the user web site experience with more compelling, personal and engaging offers and messaging. Retailers have long known the potential of agile, focused, one-to-one marketing on the Internet, but IT challenges have made it difficult to bring this concept to life. Consumers have grown frustrated with a one-size-fits-all online shopping experience, and they are tired of searching for hours to find the right products and prices, suffering through clunky checkout procedures, chasing missing coupon codes and interacting with out of date e-Commerce sites.
Team:
Headquartered in Philadelphia, Monetate was founded by entrepreneurs David Brussin and David Bookspan in 2008. Brussin, founder and CEO, previously started three successful technology companies, while Bookspan, founder and Chairman, created both a successful technology company and an early-stage venture fund.
Monetate’s Board of Directors includes: Sam Decker, former CMO of Bazaarvoice; Josh Kopelman, Managing Director of First Round Capital; and Lucinda Holt, CEO of ClickEquations. Monetate’s Strategic Advisory board includes Bryan Eisenberg, the author of “Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?” and “Always Be Testing”; Bob Myers, CEO of Sheplers and a Shop.org board member; Kevin Ertell, VP Retail Strategy, Foresee Results, formerly SVP E-Business at Borders,.
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Market Relevance:
Retailers are increasingly seeking innovative ways to connect more directly and more effectively with today’s savvy online shoppers who are constantly comparing prices, jumping between web sites and retail channels, while searching for the right items at the right price. In this challenging environment, online retailers and marketers of all kinds must offer each visitor the best possible site experience, or they will go elsewhere.
E-Commerce web sites work more efficiently when the experience is customized based on the information that retailers have about their web site visitors and customers. Monetate’s SaaS solution learns a lot about each new and returning customer on a company’s web site and displays targeted content and features based on that information.
Delivery:
Monetate requires no IT resources from the retailer, just one line of JavaScript inserted on the site’s pages. From this simple integration, Monetate’s entire testing, targeting and personalization technology can be implemented and managed by an online marketer through a browser-based dashboard interface. Retailers can create tests of content and promotions then turn winning tests into ongoing marketing campaigns that create a more personalized site environment. Retailers can target segments as large as new or returning visitors, or as small as the individual shopper.
The technology can test a specific customer’s reaction to an element on a web site in real time, and automatically analyze those results against current site visitor behavior, web analytics, CRM data, catalog data, past site activity, and purchase data to deliver targeted content to each visitor. The Shadow CRM feature collects detailed data about visitors and their web site activity. The Catalog Intelligence feature learns everything there is to know about product assortments, while the SalesMap feature highlights traffic segments ripe for targeting.
Proof Points:
Monetate currently is conducting hundreds of tests to increase conversion at many online retailers, including PETCO, QVC, The Sports Authority, and Aeropostale, among others. QVC used Monetate to optimize its web site to include up-to-the-minute deals, relevant messages, event-based pricing, free shipping, “while supplies last” messaging, and other changes based on detailed tests of consumer preferences and behavior. This site optimization worked so well to keep shoppers engaged and boost sales that QVC had its best Cyber Monday in history.
