Background
As an early adopter of Nimstrata’s Retail Cloud Connect Shopify app, LOZURI collaborated with Nimstrata to define the most important features and capabilities of an end-to-end solution that connects Shopify stores directly to Google Cloud Vertex AI Search for Retail. As they were rolling out the first version of the product, LOZURI wanted to determine whether Google’s search algorithms could outperform LOZURI’s existing product discovery solution, Boost AI Search & Discovery. They used Intelligems to test and validate the impact of Google's AI on their product catalog.
Challenges
Import Speeds
With a large and growing catalog with over 300,000 SKUs, speed was of the essence. Nimstrata and LOZURI worked together to maximize Shopify's GraphQL API throughput and Google Cloud's Retail API limits. Inventory and pricing was prioritized to be updated in real-time, and frequent full catalog synchronization processes ensured that new products were available quickly. Since launch, Nimstrata has continued to include additional product attributes that are synchronized in real-time to Google's Retail API.
Search Results Accuracy
While Boost AI was able to return "okay" search results, it wasn't able to identify search queries and return results compared to the accuracy of Google Cloud's Vertex AI Search for Retail. LOZURI was able to recognize a significant drop in "No Results Found" search results and boost click-through rates to relevant product pages.
Solutions
Search Page Merchandising
These App Blocks deliver relevant search results with dynamic faceting and filtering for customers who use queries and keywords to find items.
Collection Page Merchandising
These App Blocks deliver a tailored category browsing experience for users who primarily use site navigation to find items.
Recommendations AI
LOZURI measured an additional uplift when testing a "Recommended for You" model from Google Cloud's Recommendations AI solution.
Results
Adding Nimstrata's search to the site increased revenue by 40%!
Through comprehensive testing facilitated by Intelligems, LOZURI was able to confirm that using Google Cloud Vertex AI Search for retail on their website was much better than their current solution:
Following a 50,000+ visitor A/B test over two weeks with a 97.5% confidence level, the test showed that Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Search for retail solution increased:
Site-wide conversion rate increase by +37.81%
Site-wide revenue per visitor increase by +39.96%
Feedback from Leadership
I noticed search is now coming back with incredible results. For example, "Botegga Venata woven camera bag" is showing results that match perfectly despite the products not having the term "woven" in them!
In terms of cost-effectiveness, Nimstrata has truly democratized access to high-level AI and ML capabilities. We didn't have to invest heavily in a custom implementation, machine learning expertise, or tools, yet we are reaping the benefits of an advanced AI solution that has positively impacted our conversion rates and reduced search abandonment.
