Columbia Sportswear Reaps Automation Rewards

About

Columbia Sportswear is a leader in the global outdoor apparel, footwear, accessories and equipment markets. In business for more than 70 years, Columbia products feature innovative technologies and designs that protect outdoor enthusiasts from the elements, increase comfort and make outdoor activities more enjoyable throughout the world.

Challenge: Great Recommendations

With over 2,000 products available for purchase, Columbia wanted to automate product recommendations, initially on their US storefront. The existing manual system was expensive and inefficient. Most importantly, they wanted to provide more relevant recommendations for a better shopping experience. With a total of 25 ecommerce websites worldwide, the manual system would be expensive to replicate on all websites.

In searching for an automated product recommendation solution, Columbia was looking to provide a better shopping experience for their customers, convert more browsers to buyers, and increase revenue while at the same time reducing the cost of recommendations. 

The Right Tool for the Job

4-Tell to the rescue. During the evaluation process, the 4-Tell Merchandiser^TM Dashboard helped Columbia visualize the answer. Using Columbia’s detailed customer and sales data, 4-Tell demonstrated how intelligent recommendations would look to shoppers. The benefit of automatically displaying more relevant products was immediately clear to everyone.

After rapid implementation of 4-Tell Boost^TM, Columbia has realized a 67% increase in recommended product sales - for a fraction of the price and effort compared to the manual system. Columbia also praised the ease of technical implementation and maintenance of the 4-Tell offering.

Impressive Immediate Results

Dramatic effects were seen immediately: a 34% improvement in conversion and a 67% increase in products purchased from recommendations.

Because 4-Tell Boost^TM Recommendation Engine has proven so effective, Columbia will be rolling it out to their Canadian and European sites, with an eventual goal of implementing it on all sites globally.

“4-Tell significantly increased our conversion rate resulting in a 67% increase in recommended product sales. This product has a great ROI, was easy to implement and has been a terrific addition to our sites. We plan to expand its use throughout our global platform of online stores.”

-Thaddeus Kaczmarek, Ecommerce Divisional Merchandise Manager, Columbia Sportswear

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