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Originally published at Internet.com Aggregate Knowledge today unveiled the Pique Discovery Network, a platform that places products based on shoppers' collective behavior, among other offerings.
The hosted service is basically a recommendation engine, or so-called "discovery-search engine," that collects Web traffic data, analyzes patterns of shopper behavior and then serves up products to site visitors based on what other people with similar interests have done.
Pique offerings allow online merchants to serve direct product and content placements to consumers on Web sites, through e-mail and in affiliate promotions. All placements are based on the collective interest and actions of other visitors, so they are targeted to what consumers are actually interested in seeing and buying, said Dave Peterson, chief marketing officer of Aggregate Knowledge.
"Our end game is to become the AdSense for content," said Peterson. "Sellers can download our Discovery Window and place it on their Web site and get paid whenever someone clicks on it. We are delivering products to people in the context of what content they're looking at, versus traditional marketing approaches."
Wisdom of the Crowd: Product placement is based on collective behavior.
(Click for larger image.) For example, a person reading an article about cooking can see all the related products that have been purchased by people who read that same article. Or, a consumer opening an e-mail from her favorite fashion site can instantly see related product offers based on what people are buying and viewing at that moment in time.
Other scenarios, said Peterson, include having a person people visiting their favorite retail or media site seeing what others are buying and viewing when they click on a product or article, or, having a person at a news site seeing an affiliate advertisement filled with actual products related to what that person is viewing on that page.
Because placements and suggestions are based on the collective actions of site visitors, consumers lead each other to what is relevant and interesting across Pique network sites, said Peterson.
Aggregate Knowledge is initially rolling out four offerings within the Pique Discovery Network: 1. Pique Multi-Site Discovery: Places highly relevant product and content placements across multiple sites in the network.
2. Pique Onsite Discovery: Delivers in-context product and content suggestions on single-sites based on what people are doing on that site.
3. Pique E-mail Discovery: Automatically delivers dynamic content and product placements into e-mails, each time e-mails are opened.
4. Pique Affiliate Discovery: Delivers content and product placements directly into affiliate advertising, each time ads are served. E-tailers can generate revenue by getting their products discovered across multiple network sites, on their own sites and through e-mail and affiliate channels. In addition, Web shop owners can drive more traffic to their sites by distributing their content through Pique network sites, on their own sites and through e-mail.
To participate in the Pique Network, online sellers install a few lines of JavaScript code to their site, basically it's a widget, to start collecting traffic data into the Pique Discovery Engine. "There's no maintenance," said Peterson, "if you can put an ad banner on your site, you can put a DDiscovery Window on your site."
Anonymous data is collected in aggregate on what people are actually viewing, reading and buying. This identifies the patterns and connections between the products, articles, blogs videos, photos and items across the network. The Pique Discovery Engine then predicts and instantly places relevant items, at the right time, in the right channel across the Pique network, said Peterson.
In terms of pricing, Peterson said the company is initially "working with larger companies," but that "our overall goals align with any size company," and that small businesses should be able to jump in on the action soon. "Our business model is simple," he said, "it's a fixed fee per month or a pay-on-performance model, depending on the situation and client."
According to the company, more than 60 million people each month visit its 30 partner sites, including Overstock.com, SmartBargains.com, Vinfolio and TicketsNow. Some examples of the technology in use at online stores can be found at DelightfulDeliveries.com and Vinfolio.com.
Michelle Megna is managing editor of ECommerce-Guide.com.
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Author: Michelle Megna
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