Welcome everyone, thank you for joining today's webinar presented by Crown Peak and Martech, Data-Driven Strategies for Retail Success. I'm Kim Davis, Editor-at-Large at Martech, and just before we get started, here are a few viewing tips. If you have any audio issues, you can click the audio icon on your screen. If you have any viewing issues, you can use the Q&A section to communicate with us, and you can send questions and comments directly to the speakers about the presentation at any time, and I encourage you to do so. So joining us today, we have Imran Chowdhury, VP E-Commerce at Crown Peak, and Ella Crockett and Katie Gorwitz-Chapman, who are both Customer Success Managers at Crown Peak. Welcome, thank you for joining us, and I'll turn things over to Imran. Thank you very much, Kim, and good morning, afternoon, evening, wherever you are in the world. So Kim's done the intros for us, so I won't spend too much time on that, but what we're going to be focusing in on today is looking at some class-leading examples of advanced merchandising. So I'm going to touch a little bit about who Crown Peak are, some research that we've done, some insights from that, but we're going to get to Ella and Katie that's going to actually show us some examples of work that they've done with customers, but hopefully can give you some ideas, some inspiration, some thinking as you plan your own merchandising efforts in this 2025 year. And before we start, Ella, Katie, I think this is your first public webinar, is that right? Yes, that's right. Okay, don't be nervous, it's all good. Everyone be kind. All right. It's so easy on us, Imran. All right, so who are Crown Peak? So if you're not aware, we're a digital experience provider, and at a group level, there are primarily two solutions that we have. We have our first bit of content management, and Fred Hopper, which is our product discovery, and that's going to be the focus today, is product discovery. And how we define product discovery is how customers search, so how they search for something that they're looking for and find it fast, and then how do we help that customer along their customer journey, in terms of being inspired in their discovery, finding engagement, and ultimately conversion. You've got a whole roster there in terms of the typical customers that we work with today. Some of those are going to be examples that Ella and Katie are going to share. But where we fit very well is those merchants that are in fashion, beauty, luxury, and brands. And as you can see, very much so those that are working in the international level. So we've got a lot of answers around how you merchandise to optimize your performance. Some of those things we're going to talk about today, and that's where we fit very, very well. So you are going to get, so a bit of a call to action, folks. You are going to get it by attending this webinar, some independent research that we've recently commissioned. This is very valuable, and by attending today, you will have free access to it. Fundamentally, what it is, is some research we did with London Business Research Group. We surveyed over 200 merchants globally to understand what are their focus, what are their priorities, what do they see as the opportunity and challenge in e-commerce in the context of product discovery. Some really valuable insights, and as you can see from some of the stats there, product discovery is seen as the golden source or the sugar coating to drive some of that e-commerce success. And it's definitely an area we're seeing high investment and prioritization for the year ahead. We'll dip into some of these stats just to help form some of the credibility and some of the importance of some of the topics we're going to be talking about today. Now, let's start with the first one, and that's around search. Okay, so today's session is going to be heavily reliant and exposing some of the tricks, the trades around merchandising, so product placement in particular. But we would be silly to not ignore search because search is still fundamentally a key step in someone's journey, and it's of high importance. So 58% strongly agree that they are looking to invest in that improvement of search relevance and optimization for the year ahead. So we're going to touch on it for a little bit, and then we're going to dig deeper into the merchandising piece. Now, on the search piece, what we're going to focus on is just the mechanics, of search, and just making sure that you're all aware in terms of the trends that we're seeing around leveraging AI to optimize search. And if you're not doing this at the moment, it is an area of missed opportunity that you can capture very quickly. So we're just going to touch on it very briefly. So what you see here on this graph is basically the graph of search queries. So on that left-hand side, you see the high volume of search that we see every day in huge numbers, the one-word phrases. That's generally someone that's at the beginning of their discovery cycle. Then you might start to see some refinements, so men's shoes or women's shoes. So again, they kind of know a little bit more. They're giving you a bit more intelligence. The frequency of those search queries is a little bit lower. But equally, they're still in discovery. They still don't really know what they want. Where the high intent is, is what we call the long tail of search. So this is those really complicated, multiple-word phrases. So for example, red Adidas men's running shoes. I actually know exactly what I want, and I want to see it. These are the ones that are a challenge. Because they're low in volume and the uniqueness of them is so wide, it's very difficult to really optimize search. So the two areas that we want to kind of focus on and just make sure that you're ticking this box. And if you're not, come and have a conversation with us. So instead of manually doing this in a traditional way, where you're constantly looking at these search terms, which are low intent, but because they're high volume, you still need to make sure that they're optimized, is looking at automation of those synonyms. But the real missed opportunity, where the real value is, is in that long tail. Generally speaking, of all your search queries, we will see 20% of them fit into this block. So 20% of all search queries, we would say, fit into this bucket of the long tail. But they're the ones, yes, they're difficult because they're very unique. They're low volume. But this is where AI can help improve the relevance of those search results. And the reason why you want to do it is that's where the value is, because it's got the highest intent. It's someone that knows exactly what they're looking for. Help me find it fast. Otherwise, I'll go to your competitor. And that's something that we can eradicate with AI. So when you're doing these things on search, the lesson is, make sure you're focusing on it this year, because that is a missed opportunity that you can look to address very, very quickly. And someone that's done that very well is Harvey Nichols. So as I said, we specialize in fashion, brands, luxury, and beauty. Harvey Nichols International Business, many know, very reputable brand. And one of the challenges that they found was they were spending too much time manually optimizing search. So that was one part of their journey with us. And what we were able to do was do some of this automation. And it's enabled them to really reduce the refinement of someone's search query so that they find exactly what they're looking for fast. And it's had a major impact, not only in terms of saving time for their merchandisers, but also it's increased the cost and the value of each and every one of their search queries. So commercially, they've seen a huge improvement. There is a case reference. We will be sending it out as a follow-up. Search was a very big part of their journey. What you would see if you ever go to the Harvey Nichols website is visual merchandising is a really big aspect of what they do with us as well. And that's where we start to dip in to merchandising. So this is another big point. So 66% of retailers agree that shoppers often don't know what they're looking for until they see it. So this is where, you know, search isn't really going to help you. Yeah, they're in that discovery. They want that inspiration. They want that engagement. And this is where merchandising really steps in, especially from a visual perspective. I'm going to talk maybe a few slides as to how we look at merchandising and intelligence behind the strategies of our product placement and assortment. And then Katie, Ella, you're not off the hook. We're going to pass over to you to show us some examples. Is that all right? Okay. So if we think about product placement and we look at a traditional kind of product listing pages, this is the distribution of clicks. And anyone that's in retail should know this. Okay. That top row is where you see the highest engagement. That's the row which gets all of the attention. And what you see with these percentages is kind of a click-through rate of that attention. So it really highlights and reinforces the importance where you put your products is where they're going to be successful or not. Now, the traditional e-commerce is linked in this area. So traditionally, e-commerce kind of makes you list your product listing pages kind of maybe on click-through rates or conversion or bestseller. Only one data metric. Okay. Where we see success in our approach is looking at multiple data points and then creating what we call a ranking cocktail. So we take all these different data points. We bring them together as part of a rule. And then with that rule and the weighting behind those data points, we look at dynamic changing the actual listing and the order of that product assortment on that listing. So very simply, some of the strategies that we see very often is, for example, new in. So for new in, we're taking the new products that are in the catalog, those that are seeing the highest views during a certain period of time and purchases. But also we want to make sure whatever we're populating at the top, we have good size fragmentation and availability. Because there's no point, again, putting just your bestsellers at the top. If you've got no availability in a small or XXL or a large, you want to make sure that you've got good availability across all your size and range. So this is traditionally some of the examples that we see a lot of our class leaders taking. They're looking at what are their KPIs, their trading objectives, matching that to a strategy, and then working with the likes of Ella and Katie to go and look at building those data points, building those weightings. So that you've got this really nice assortment. And that assortment just isn't one size fits all. Often it's a case of the first three rows, one strategy, the second three rows, another strategy. It really depends on what you're trying to achieve. So actually, I'm going to pick on you, Ella. So you do this day in and day out. So give me a few more examples on where your customers kind of see the value of this. So an example that I use and that I've seen quite frequently in a lot of my customers is obviously looking at different customers. So obviously, you've got different ways that different customers shop. Sometimes you'll have your bargain hunters. Other times you'll have kind of loyal shoppers that kind of no matter what the price, they want the latest products and kind of the best products, really. So how I'd kind of use different data points here is obviously the bargain hunters, you're looking more at sale. So obviously, we've got that written there as the strategy. So obviously, they're kind of motivated by discounts and promotions. So basically, within Fred Hopper, you can use sales and promotions strategically to kind of attract these customers. And obviously, kind of highlighting those heavily discounted items can obviously create a sense of urgency, which makes customers shop quicker. Then obviously, you've got your loyal shoppers who probably look at products, say, with the highest views, obviously, the most popular products or the newest. Obviously, with kind of collaborations and new product launches, your loyal shoppers are going to be more likely to shop. They're going to want the best and the newest. So we would kind of look to personalize recommendations and offers based on kind of past purchases. So looking at kind of analytics history and using that in our cocktails to basically enhance the shopper experience. So these sort of shoppers are kind of less interested in the heavy discounts or would be more interested in the latest products. So as I said, you can use newest, whereas a bargain hunter, you would use probably highest views within sale. And essentially, these are used to kind of create an engaging experience, obviously, which is key to kind of online shopping. Looking at these merchandising strategies that should kind of focus on creating an engaging and interactive experience for customers. So yeah, they're the two that I'd probably look at, Imran. Very, very well prepared, Ella. Very well prepared. I guess the trick there is your assortment, you kind of want to change depending on that customer. So if you can identify them as, let's say, the bargain hunter versus full price, assortment changes. And as it were, when they hit the site. So that's kind of the trick there, which is very good. Katie, you. Yeah. So what I've been seeing quite a lot of recently is stock availability. So that's where we'll kind of essentially what we're seeing across different customers when we look at their business goals and objectives for the year is it might have been a case of post-COVID. At the time, it was very much about get as much stock in and it was difficult to get produce. We need that trend of overstocking. Now, it's no word of a lie. The market's been tricky in the last year in particular. So what we've kind of seen is customers are having very high stock levels. And, you know, you don't want to be holding on to too much. One, it costs a lot in warehouse space, but also, you know, that's lost revenue. So what we're seeing now a lot of is customers will kind of have this kind of like reduction in stock goal. And we've seen it across like various different uses within ranking cocktails. But kind of touching on what Ella said, you know, when we think about the reduction in stock, it's like, what different attributes are going to help drive that and what data points do they have? So we'll be looking at essentially stock levels. That's being kind of the big one. So the higher the stock level, the higher the weighting you're going to give it. It'll also be like number of days you've had the products as well. So obviously, if you're holding on to stock that's quite old, you're going to have had that data point of quite a lot of time. So giving that a high ranking as well. And typically, it's probably products that might have been in sale because it will be old season. So again, kind of looking at those different metrics across there. And why are we doing this is to those KPIs, those objectives. It might be, as you say, improving that stock turn. It might be, I know a very popular one that has risen to the top of the list has been improving margin, for example. So the ability to flex these rankings and these kind of assortment strategies to those KPIs is kind of the trick, isn't it? That's kind of what is making some of these retailers class leaders and helping them keep being hyperactive. Performance, as it were. Okay, I would be told off if I didn't raise some of the stats there. So it does make sense. So you've got a 22% improvement from PLP to PDP. That's what we see on average. But, and I know this is one that you feel very strongly about, Ella, is the amount of time that's saved. So traditionally, you're having traditional e-commerce without such tools such as Threadhopper. You're having to manually do this. And because sometimes it's too time intensive and you've got too many categories and too many products or too many regions, you just don't do it. Whereas with us, it's a case of working with yourselves. You build these strategies. Maybe you A-B test them. They go live. They're inherited across all regions. And that's where that automation is. Yeah, that's where you get that big time saving, correct? Yeah. I think I just really want to add a point here as well, Imran. As you know, I've been in London the past few days on site with customers. And we were speaking about the beauty of ranking cocktails and being able to kind of automate this process. And we got shown some stats from a customer yesterday in terms of the amount of time saved by actually utilizing ranking cocktails rather than manually pinning everything. So they've automated the process across a lot of their PLPs. And the time saved went from 45 minutes for manually merchandising a page down to three minutes by using ranking cocktails. So then go ahead and really focus kind of on the key category product launches and also like edit pages and really kind of look at the global, you know, being able to global merchandise globally much more efficiently. So, yeah, it's in terms of time saved, it's being huge for our customers. Very, very nice linkage there, because this is an example as how you could actually spread the range of those strategies on a product listing page, even row by row and even at a category level. But to your point, you know, you might have these strategies kind of defined, but each region has different trends. Each region has different stock pricing and also kind of preferences. So here is a really, really probably too simple example. You know, you've got these strategies defined, but in Australia, you know, the climate is different. So it's warmer. So you've got T-shirts and shorts, whereas in the UK right now, it's pretty brisk, isn't it? So, you know, but the strategies are kind of defined, but we're taking that local data and dynamically changing it according to whatever that strategy is that you're trying to do and those local preferences. And we would be told off if we didn't talk a little bit about AI, because I know not all of this is manual in terms of manually defining rules and taking this data. We're also using the algorithms behind the scenes. Against the controls of that strategy to, again, help with that automation, help with that one-to-one personalization. OK, right. Let's get into some examples. And I think this one's yours first, Katie, isn't it? So it is, yeah. So this is where we're not, we're going beyond just those merchandising strategies, but really tapping into visual merchandising, which I know is a very strong point for these brands. Yeah, no, 100%. And I think what's great about this example here is when you look at it, you know, aesthetically, it's very pleasing. You know, we can see we've got matching items next to each other. Now, this customer previously on kind of their top, you know, their top products and maybe the first 20, 30 products, they used to manually do all of this. Now, what we were able to do is kind of look at different data points that they had, and we were able to manipulate the data in terms of saying, OK, well, actually, if we look on the left-hand side at that seat there on the first row, we can clearly see that jacket and pair of trousers go together. So we were then able to kind of within the data feed, basically say, if you've got this product SKU and it's got 0.1, 0.2, put them together. And we've been able to implement this not only across like core category pages, but regionally for this customer, so globally. And it being, you know, the feedback that they've had is fantastic. And with this, it's one, again, it's time-saving. Two, it's aesthetically pleasing. But yeah, so three, it just, you know, it's really taking that kind of like store shopping experience online. And with this, you know, the core aim is very much kind of upsell opportunity. So increasing your average basket value. So that's kind of just a nice example that we've got there. Yeah, it's kind of bringing kind of a little bit of shop to look onto the product listing page. And I get it. It's really frustrating. Not that I buy a lot of swimwear, but let's say you find a nice jacket. You want the matching pants and you then have to go and find them. It should really just all be there. So absolutely makes sense in terms of, as you say, trying to replicate that in-store experience online, but also helping with that shop to look and the cross-sell aspect of it as well. Okay, cool. Okay. Yeah. Oh, sorry. What were you going to say? You're all good. You're all good. Because I guess that's where we start moving into collections to a certain extent, grouping products and then expanding that into collections. Yeah. Yeah. So with this example here, so this has been very much kind of driven by Visually Similar, which again is another product of ours. Now, what this has done is you can kind of see we've got brown across all products here. So when the customer is looking at something, you know, it's kind of grouping these products together that they think the customer will like. And I know Ella and I are going to very much kind of come on and talk about edits in a minute. But yeah, what we're very much kind of seeing in terms of trends, like trends across our different customer base is, you know, we really wanted to kind of have this curation of outfits. We want to make it easier for customers to, you know, essentially convert because they're going to see these products put together that basically it's like, oh, well, actually I'll get the jacket and I'll get the jeans as well. And the shoes are quite cute too. So, so yeah, that's definitely something we're kind of seeing across the majority of our fashion customers. And I guess that's where you kind of want to try and help with that discovery process. So I know kind of we're starting to move, I guess, from collections into edits because I think there is a slight nuance difference there. Here you've kind of got your winter essentials and some themes that are coming out. And this is, this is actually becoming a really popular thing to try and drive that discovery and engagement. Yeah. Yeah, 100%. And I think very much kind of touching on what I said earlier. So again, it's, this is really where the focus is for the merchandising teams. Like I've been on site with three different customers the past two days, and they've all mentioned the word edits and collections. And I've never really heard, like, not that I've not seen them before, but what it's doing is it's really making it more, it's creating more of an experience online. It's really kind of relating to trends that customers like and really honing in on what their customers like as well. So, you know, for example, a luxury brand, their edits are going to be quite different to probably a high street, you know, high street is going to be much more quick, you know, they're really current trends, whereas your luxury is more, you're kind of classic, you know, so yeah. I think the challenge is we'd all like to do this, but, you know, doing it manually, it's just not going to happen. And that's why it's important, as you say, with some of the examples you've shown, finding a way to automate it with some controls, but automating it so that you can benefit from it, but the actual effort is kind of low and the return is still very good. Yeah. Okay, cool. All right. So let's keep moving because I think this is where we start to go a little bit into a little bit more detail of edits and some of the trends that we're seeing with some of our retailers. So 51% report too many products. And this is a problem for not only the merchandisers trying to figure out what they should be positioning where, but also too much, too much product causes kind of that barrier for the purchaser, the shopper, because too much choice sometimes overwhelms and then you decide, actually, I'm not going to make a decision because there's too many, too much choices, you know, so you get that kind of buyer paradox type thing. So talk to us a little bit about, because you started touching on it, but start to talk a little bit more about these collections and edits. Yeah. So this is a customer of mine that I work with, River Island. So not too sure in the States if many have heard of them, but they're a high street retailer over here. And yeah, it was funny enough, Ella and I were actually looking at this and we were kind of commenting on, you know, these are the different trends we're seeing. And then Ella and I were both like, oh my goodness, jeans and a nice top. Like that is 100% relatable to us. And it's like very much a common phrase that we might say in the UK, for example, if you like deciding what you want to wear with your friends. So again, it's like that immediate, you know, it's relatable for us. And that's really, you're really tapping into your customer's mindset there. So yeah, it's, I don't know, Ella, like what else have you been seeing? So I guess with kind of edits on kind of a personal note, I am getting married this year and I find it so hard not to mention it to everyone I talk to. But essentially what I found when looking on kind of fashion retailers websites is the wedding, edit or wedding guest edit and things like that. I find obviously, you know, it's a market that is always going to be there and kind of looking into those, you know, anything sort of white, but when it's kind of curated into a kind of edit on site, you're way more likely to kind of purchase there rather than having to go through the whole site, searching for things that are white and making that a much lengthy process. But yeah, definitely Katie and I were talking about kind of jeans and a nice top and kind of the more I'm kind of shopping online personally, I'm way more inclined to kind of go to an edit and kind of shop there, which I know has been curated specifically kind of for us as a target audience. So yeah, definitely something to keep an eye out for. I mean, that word relatable, you know, if you relate to your customer, then you start to build that loyalty. But also it feels like this is where when you're online, you're starting to take that, you're starting to develop that brand story. As well, which is a differentiation. I just want to pick on one point because I noted it more so on here. So I'm sorry if I'm putting you on the spot, but, you know, first time doing public webinar, always nice to put you on the spot, test you a little bit. So on this one, we see some buttons, some badges. So you've got trending, you've got the heart thing going on there as well. Are you starting to see that as a big, big, big trend as well? Yeah. So I think definitely, and funnily enough, actually, it's like Imran set us some homework to go find this. And, you know, when we were kind of collating everything, I was looking across all my different customer base from luxury to high street. And it's, I guess you call them like pins or badges. And I know there's an example of a customer of mine where, you know, it's very kind of fast moving goods in terms of fashion. And, you know, they'll put like selling fast or it'll be trending, for example. And, you know, I always kind of say like people are a bit like sheep. So, you know, that's, if I'm looking at that and I'm maybe looking for an outfit and I'm like, oh, well, if that's selling faster, it's trending, it must be popular. It must look good. And yeah, in terms of like them getting me to kind of click and look through things. And it's very much, you know, I and my friends are the same. You know, it's like, oh, hang on. We can see this trendy outfit. And we kind of see it as well across, you know, I know the likes of like TikTok and Instagram and you can see they become trends and stuff like that. I've even got a beauty customer who will put like it's a TikTok trend. So, yeah. So it's definitely, it's a very kind of popular move. And just to make that product stand out and get that level of engagement from the customer. I think you're having a bad saying selling fast as well. You have that fear of missing out. Yeah. Yeah. So it's not a case of, oh, I like that. I'll think about it. It's OK. I probably need to buy that because it won't be available tomorrow, especially in fast fashion. So it really helps with that kind of conversion. Just if we can, I will keep you a little bit longer if that's all right, Katie. So I know that you've done a lot of work and we're starting to move maybe into guided selling a little bit. But in terms of navigation and facets, again, helping customers deal with the complexity of too many products, but still kind of balancing that kind of discovery piece. So maybe talk to us a little bit about what you've been doing here. Yeah. So specifically this category here is jeans. Now, being a woman shopping online for jeans, it's a nightmare. And, you know, for this customer in particular, River Island, jeans is actually one of their best selling categories. And it's, you know, they want to try and make the process as easy as possible. So we can see kind of in the top, you know, we've got very kind of detailed, different facets there that really kind of hone into the style, the fit, the way they look. And one thing I really loved about what they did there, where we can kind of see the photos at the bottom, as you can see, they've got like looser and tighter. And it's just, yeah, again, it's very much something, you know, like a classic example of this also is Levi's. Are they essentially visually merchandised the store? So, yeah, it's, I think, a really cool, fun way. But again, kind of bringing that like in-store experience to online. But at the end of the day, you want to make it as easy as possible for your customers. So, yeah, really nice and interactive. I mean, that's what we are seeing. Those class leaders are really tapping into that visual merchandising. They've kind of done the search thing. They've done the strategies around optimizing their merchandising. But now how do they go that next level with differentiating and really telling that brand story as they would do in-store, improving that loyalty and all of that engagement? So I do think visual merchandising really, and we see from the report, is a really, really big focus for many brands for this year. Okay, cool. So kind of moving into guided style sections, really. So I think this is your time, Ella. So the wonders of Dr. Martin's global iconic brand, what have you been doing with those guys? Yeah, so, yeah, Dr. Martin's are one of my kind of, key customers that we work with here at Crown Peak. They're actually presenting at our Customer Connect Day in London next week. So, yeah, really kind of collaborative on how we kind of work with them. So I guess kind of, I've kind of gone onto their site and had a look at the cool things that they're doing with kind of the e-commerce space. And essentially, as you can kind of see here, the next couple of slides are about Dr. Martin and the cool things that they're doing. So here you can kind of see that they're kind of offering different sort of browsing options to kind of enhance the customer experience. And I kind of feel like as a customer myself, this kind of encourages customers to explore and kind of discover various different styles. Obviously, they're an iconic brand and are kind of known for their 1460 boots. But actually, they're kind of branching out. Obviously, you can see they're kind of in sandals and kind of looking at different ways you can kind of style the classic boots. And I guess kind of with this, it's kind of increasing customer engagement and fundamental sales through kind of these curated selections that they've got here. On the next slide, I'll kind of go into kind of two examples where we've got kind of me browsing on my phone and kind of the different edits that they've got there. So obviously, at the first one, which is kind of working through now, you've got the guided style sections, which basically shows how you can effectively merchandise, even if you're only known for mainly just one category. So obviously, Dr. Martin's known for the classic boots. Obviously, they do accessories as well. But it's basically showing that obviously, they're a top retailer and fashion brand through these kind of edits on site as well. I guess kind of with the staff styling as well, where we've got an article there, kind of makes it more personable to obviously kind of ties into what we were saying before about kind of the labels that are on each image to kind of basically show, you know, this is a this is a an employee's pick, but also a trending pick as well. And brings that kind of site community brand loyalty piece to it makes it touchable makes it relatable for sure. Definitely. And yeah, I guess it kind of shows kind of no matter what the product count is in your catalog, you can still merchandise effectively. And yeah, and obviously, I think the videos have stopped now. But there was lots of difference kind of how to style videos. So with the short dress and the tall boots, or if you're in your platform boots and how you style these. And I think obviously, as I kind of touched on discovering kind of staff styling, it's definitely making kind of the shopper journey more personalized. And then on the video on the right, you've obviously got kind of the winter boots, which links obviously to the season that we're currently in, with kind of engaging content as well. But yeah, obviously, these kind of guided style sections kind of cater to different preferences and interests. And making the shopping experience more enjoyable and meaningful for customers. So obviously, kind of click on the guided section that, you know, works for you or interests you. And so yeah, that's on that one. And then on to the next slide, please. Sure. And then this one, which is a huge thing for a lot of our customers is collaboration. So this is something that Dr. Martens do really well, and they have done for years. But as Katie kind of touched on collaborations on say, TikTok and Instagram and kind of social media are huge. And so I think that's a huge thing now as well, kind of plays into kind of how marketing and merchandising kind of go hand in hand to obviously increase sales. So I guess kind of obviously, we've got kind of the limited edition products that are kind of created in partnership with other brands or artists, and kind of, you know, bringing in the collaboration, say from a famous artist, you might not necessarily usually shop at Dr. Martens, fans of that artist may then look to kind of shop there. And obviously, it's kind of designed to kind of drive interest. And create a buzz around kind of new products. There. And then I guess, obviously, kind of key points to this is obviously with collaborations, especially, there's obviously limited availability, right? They want to make these products seem exclusive, and create that kind of sense of urgency and exclusivity. And again, as I kind of touched on before these collaborations can attract new customers and expand that kind of brand reach. And yeah, fundamentally, obviously, exclusive collections, drive sales and increase brand loyalty, which is obviously key. I mean, collaborations have been huge, and very important for a lot of our customers and brands. And what I see is merchandisers have been able to save time through automation from what I call, let's say, the business as usual categories for some of the things we've talked about, which allows that save time allows them to think more creatively in new collaborations, in these edits in these new launches, because they want to do that manually, because they want to create that, you know, that create that curation that that's where the value is. And they now got time to be able to do that. Yeah. Yeah, exactly that. Cool. All right. So we're going to move on, because I am very conscious of time. So another area is around, actually, okay, you kind of talked a little bit about it. But the report kind of pulled out the importance of thinking just beyond online, and how that online experience kind of ripples out into your other marketing, marketing channels. So for example, in app or even in email, and again, how do you create that demand and bring bring people back to the site, but also create that kind of consistency. Another point is around kind of identifying the different customer personas. And actually, we talked a little bit about it bargain hunters versus let's say VIP, and how that assortment kind of needs to change. So these are technologies that we've developed, but the report highlights the importance of being able to be able to do this and where folks are actually kind of going this year. So I think we've got one example, which is actually quite, quite recent, isn't it? With regards to early access and VIP? Yeah, so this is, again, another example from River Island, but something, you know, even on a personal level, the amount of brands that I follow, you know, it's, especially when we think about peak Black Friday, Christmas, it's all about getting the shoppers, you know, getting in their inbox, and getting them interested in getting them online. So a trend that we were seeing quite often, you know, is, as you said, from kind of, you know, the shopping store, we want to engage them and retain them as customers. So customer acquisition is key. Now, how are they then making them feel special? You know, the classic example is like early access VIP, when we think about peak periods, you know, giving those loyal customers, the best access to the best products that you're going to put on sale, or that you're going to have heavily discounted for peak trading periods. And it's something that we were seeing very much kind of across both luxury and high street as well. I think, you know, as I said, the market's been difficult. And it's something that I saw off quite a lot of luxury brands, for instance, as they were also doing like VIP, what used to be very much kind of VIP sales, they're now making more public sales. So yeah, it's all about that kind of like omni channel marketing, and very much thinking about how can you touch your customer base from all different angles, and essentially keep them there, because there's so much option nowadays for people as well. So it's very much about, you know, getting a hold, getting a hold and keeping them there. It does sound like if you buy jeans from River Island, that's where you only buy them from. Again, you kind of capture that, you know, I know you're a big fan, so and I know jeans is a big category, but you know, it is important for sure to keep that kind of momentum of engagement. Okay, cool. So let's get into final thoughts, because I am conscious of folks time. So I tried to kind of summarize it into three areas. So I'm going to kind of back it up by the report. So for us, you know, that that success in e-commerce really comes down to the trading tools. And the trading tools for us are how you help your customers search for what they're looking for and help them find it fast. How you're merchandising effectively, it's not only good to help the customer, the shopper, with regards to inspiring and discovery, but fundamentally behind the scenes, how we make sure you hit your trading KPIs and your performance. And as we said, you know, those strategies are changing quite considerably. We talked about margin, we talked about stock, having that flexibility, and your tool. And we shared some of those insights of the strategies that many of our customers take to be able to do that. I think the other point is AI. So, you know, AI is there from our perspective as a co-pilot, we would not recommend automating everything. As we've said, there needs to be a level of control, there needs to be a level of curation. That curation is fundamentally what helps you develop your brand story and your differentiation. And hopefully you've seen some of those examples today. So what we're saying is yes, leverage AI, but leverage AI in the right context where you're still finding this balance of curation and automation. The automation helps you be more creative. That's the way of looking at it. And go beyond search. You know, we are a vendor in this market. And I'll be honest, I think over the last year to two years, the whole focus seems to be around search. And search is very important. It's a core fundamental part of our solution. But where we see the secret source and where we see kind of that real trade in excellence is where you're starting to differentiate through your merchandise and having some really intelligent strategies that affect that bottom line, but also help with that differentiation through your brand story. So just the final call to action, as it were, before we go to Q&A, you know, this report by attending today, the webinar, you do have access to it. It is independent research, and hopefully it should give you some guidance around where a class leader is in our industry focusing their time and energy. Where do they see the opportunity? Where do they see the challenge and some mechanisms to overcoming those challenges? And it's a good time to download it and get that full process going, especially as we all start to plan the year ahead. So on that note, Kim, have we finished Q&A time if we've got time still? Yes, indeed. We have a few minutes left. And if anyone out there does have questions for our presenters, this is the time to type them into the Q&A section. So we've got a few here. First one, I'm sure, is for Imran. How do you see assortment change across different regions and markets? Oh, that one's for me, is it? Okay. Thanks for putting me on the spot, Kim. I think we touched a little bit on that at the start when we talked about defining these merchandising strategies, but taking that local data to change the assortment. So, for example, and I nearly said their name, I need to be careful. But for example, we have a footwear brand, okay, that we know that in Switzerland, as an example, in Switzerland, they're not price sensitive. If anything, they have a high propensity to buy something at full price versus, let's say, a bargain hunter. And Ella and Katie, you can kick me. But in the UK, we love a bargain. So actually, mid to low pricing or sale is more important. So understanding those buyer preferences in the different regions is kind of where we see that assortment change. And that kind of change is based on that local data or that strategy. But the ability to do that is the important piece, because that's the way that you maximize the most margin, the most conversion and revenue in one region versus another is by understanding those preferences and adapting to them. So a couple of questions on artificial intelligence. People are always interested in AI. And the first one, I know you've touched on this already, Imran, about whether AI can automate all merchandising on the site. I've been hearing a lot of talk recently about the aim of automating all of customer service. Is there something that could happen down the road? I think, as I said, there's this balancing act. There's this balancing act of kind of curation and automation. So I will kind of ask Ella and Katie for their views. But for example, with some of our customers, let's say the sales category. The sales category is probably highly automated. They don't want to spend much time. They just want to get things moving. And as quickly as possible versus, let's say, the collaborations or the edits, which is where they want to spend the time. So I think it's looking kind of at the category level, those areas that you can automate under, let's say, a defined strategy, like we said, with the ranking cocktails and just let it run and kind of was going to use the word forget, but kind of let it run and forget. But don't forget it. But you get my analogy versus those which you spend a lot more time. Co-pilot invariably. Ella, Katie, have you got any thoughts on that? I was waiting for Ella to talk. No, it's OK. I mean, I completely agree with what you said, Imran. I think obviously AI can automate to an extent. But I do think obviously, as we kind of touched on in the presentation, those kind of curated journeys do kind of need that manual intervention and kind of personable approach. Yeah, I 100% agree with that as well. I think, you know, it can be hugely beneficial in terms of time saving for the teams. And, you know, also, you know, it might, you could argue, maybe come up with some different examples that maybe you might not have thought of necessarily. But no, I think it's, you definitely want that level of curation there because, you know, you want to, at the end of the day, it's the brand image as well. And you need to make sure that it's protected. And especially when you're maybe, maybe not so much own brands, but if you're a retailer that stocks lots of different brands, for example, you know, you're going to have like different, I guess, regulations, agreements with them as well. So it's definitely key to make sure that you keep on top of that. Okay, here's a very specific question. A member of the audience says that she works for a company that offers a huge variety of products. How do I merchandise the listing so it's visually appealing? We don't have a defined audience. We are very general. Does that make sense? Yeah, I was having a little read of this, actually, as the question came in and was thinking, oh, but no, I think, depending on what the product offering is, you know, a very classic one we might see that makes it visually appealing is maybe by colour, for instance. And it might also be like category type. So an example might be, okay, we've got lots of different dresses. Maybe let's put red dresses all in one row. You know, very popular for Valentine's Day, for example. But it also might be when we're maybe looking at a category, you know, you might have shoes as a general category. So it could be maybe you have trainers on the top line. You might have heels on the second, boots on the third. So you can get really creative like that. Makes in like the way that it looks just by having kind of similar products next to each other and grouped makes a big difference. And also, again, you can automate that because you could be like row one. I want trainers, pulls them through. Maybe they're all black, for instance. So, yeah, we can definitely kind of talk through that in more detail if you want, Sarah. Yeah, and there's also kind of linking into what we discussed earlier around kind of shop the look. So obviously you can have it by colour, by category, but you could also have it by outfit. So you could have a pair of trousers, a shirt, a jacket, and some shoes to go with it. So there's lots of different ways that you can kind of visually merchandise on site. I'm going to throw a different view as well. So you've both given fashion, which is lovely, and I know that's what you love. But what about, let's say, I don't know, let's say general electrics or kind of appliances or things that are non-fashion. Would I be wrong in thinking an approach there? I mean, to be fair, you have different colour washing machines these days. But you'd probably look at something like a brand level. So each row would potentially be a collection from a brand level. But you could take that approach if it was, let's say, non-fashion. Yeah, you could take that approach, but you could also have it by brand, but you could also have it by energy rating. So you could kind of visually merchandise there. I know there's only so visual that a, I don't know, a washing machine can be. But yeah, you could definitely merchandise in that way. Okay, here's, strikes me as a very, very broad question, but perhaps we can pose it in the context of what we've been talking about today. And that is, what are some common pitfalls or misconceptions about using AI? I think one we've kind of touched on is there's a lot of folks that think everything can be automated. And in our market, as we've said, you know, telling a brand story, differentiating, you need some curation there. And to assert, yes, you can automate some of that, as Katie said, with things like colour and things like that. But, you know, I do think that we need to retain that balance between curation and automation with AI. So that's kind of the first one. But for the brands we work with, it's very important. It's what gives them that edge. The second one is, and we are vendors, so I need to be careful. In the market, everyone seems to be claiming that AI is the best. And their model can do everything and solve all problems. You know, the analogy of a silver bullet. We don't believe in that. We know ourselves from, let's say, A, B testing and working with customers. There are different algorithms and models that you use for different use cases. So for us, we're not a closed box, whereby it's a case of, if you work with us, these are the seven models that you can only use. And they're the best things for all use cases. It's a case that we'll continue to develop our models. We will A, B test them with customers per use case to find which is best. But equally, if a customer, and it is the case with a few of our big customers, if our customer has a data science team that has created their own model, then we allow that to come into our platform. So we're quite unique in that we encourage customers that, you know, don't just settle with our models. Yeah. We have an ability for you to bring your own models, either those you've created yourself or even third parties, and provide this play area where they can A, B test multiple models within our platform, report on it, manage it, and even blend them. So, you know, we had one customer, who, you know, they had a bit of an internal battle on their side. One side of the business wanted to retain one of our models. The other side of the business, which was the data science team, was kind of voting, we want to use our model. You know, so you had this bring your own algorithm situation, and then, you know, leveraging our algorithm. And it was a case of, let's not kind of fall out, you know, bring your algorithm into our platform, because we allow you to do that, which they weren't aware was possible. And let's A, B test them, one against the other, and figure out which is best. You know, we're not precious. We just want the best result. And you can test that within our platform. They tested it, and what was quite interesting was our model in that use case performed very, very, well, better with new customers. Their model performed better in that specific use case, okay, because, again, it's use case dependent, performed better for returning customers. So we had this conundrum. Well, what do we do now? Okay. We found a way within the platform, within our platform, that you could actually blend them. So as we've talked of with ranking cocktails of those multiple data points that you can weight, we can actually bring those algorithms together as a cocktail in itself and weight them accordingly too. So you get the best of both worlds. And that's something that, you know, we feel quite strongly about as a principle is that these AI models should be more open, and we should embrace collaboration, be it not only with our own, but also third parties. And it's something that we feel strongly about. Whatever is the best, you know, that's the case for the customer. Testing, experimentation, collaboration. That's some great keywords there. Katie Orrella, anything to add to that? Not from my side, no. Sounds like we're good. Okay. Here's one. This may be the last question. Do you recommend using less vendor imagery? We, says the audience member, use a lot of it. I think this came from, I don't know if I'm allowed to say, but Sarah, I think you said Sarah before, Kim. So Sarah, I think you need to have a conversation with us because hopefully, you know, we're talking your language and maybe we can give you some guidance. But I guess it depends what you mean by the vendor imagery. I think the old school analogy, I don't know if it's still true, Katie Orrella, is you kind of want at least kind of three to four images per product as part of that product description page. I don't really think that's kind of changed, but it's kind of now morphed into those editorial pages as part of those edits and collections. Yeah? Yeah, definitely. And I think just when we also think, depending on what the product type as well is, when we kind of look at our, like AI models that shop the look visually similar, it's really important to have good imagery there, especially when we're kind of looking at model shoots as well. So just something to keep in mind there. Yeah, definitely agree. I think it completely depends on kind of the product, but also the category. So obviously if it's, you know, a dress, you might have kind of studio imagery, but also editorial as well. So it completely depends on kind of your target audience and things like that. But kind of still stands on what Imran said, kind of three to four images per PDF. Okay. So we're running out of time. If we didn't get to your question, we'll be sure to pass it along to Crown Peak. On behalf of Martech, I want to thank Ella, Katie and Imran for a great presentation. And I'd like to thank all of you out there in the audience for attending the webinar. We hope you join us again soon. Thank you. Thank you. Bye now. Bye-bye. Thanks everyone. Bye.