Ecommerce Spotlight: Personalisation with Nosto

[Editor’s note: article updated for 2024]

Welcome back to another instalment in Swanky’s Ecommerce Spotlight series! Together with our trusty network of partners, we’re exploring the swankiest features and apps that the Shopify ecosystem has to offer, helping merchants across the land to unlock their ecommerce potential.

Today, it’s Nosto’s turn under the spotlight.

So, we caught up with the Nosto team to discuss how having a robust Commerce Experience Platform like theirs can transform the customer experience for ecommerce brands. Here’s what we learned.

Nosto in a nutshell

In short, Nosto’s Commerce Experience Platform helps merchants connect all their product, customer, and content intelligence so they can personalise shopping experiences to improve product discovery and increase online revenue. 

At the core of their platform is experience.AI™—combining artificial intelligence, business intelligence, and segmentation and targeting—which processes intent-rich data in a single engine for merchants to activate throughout the full commerce experience via a range of product- and content-based modules:

Product-based modules:

• Personalised Search
• Category Merchandising
• Product Recommendations
• Dynamic Bundles
• Personalised Emails 

Content-based modules:

• Content Personalisation
• Pop-Ups
• UGC Publisher Centre
• Ambassador Builder

Why is Nosto a good fit for Shopify retailers?

Nosto has a great reputation in the Shopify world. Not only do they work with some of the fastest-growing brands on the platform (think Kylie Cosmetics, Chubbies, Supergoop! and more), but they’ve a spectrum of integrations with leading technologies within the Shopify ecosystem, helping Shopify brands make the most of their tech stacks. 

On top of this, as a close Shopify partner, Nosto is quick to react to any updates the platform makes. For instance, their full CXP was made compatible with Hydrogen 2 out the gate, and they were also the first personalisation vendor to integrate with Shopify Markets. 

Why is it important to personalise your Shopify store?

Personalising shoppers’ on-site experience means providing them with a more relevant shopping journey that’s more likely to surface the sorts of products and content they’re actually interested in—increasing conversions, loyalty and more.

In the last few years, personalisation’s quickly turned from a nice-to-have technology to a necessity for merchants, who are now competing in a culture of hyper-personalisation. Today’s consumers have been conditioned to expect the same level of relevancy when they shop online as what they’re met with when they scroll on social media, stream Netflix, open Spotify, and more. 

What are the benefits of using a Commerce Experience Platform?

Using a CXP like Nosto’s gives merchants access to a set of tools rooted in automation and AI that are designed drive revenue through end-to-end commerce experience management.

Nosto’s experience.AI™ powered platform captures lucrative, intent-rich data from across the full shopper journey and unifies it in a single engine, ready to be actioned through a breadth of content and product experience modules: from personalised search and category merchandising to content personalisation and user-generated content.

Having these capabilities under a single roof empowers merchants to act on data easily and efficiently, creating commerce experiences at scale. For example, if a merchant were to employ specific merchandising rules to their product recommendations, they could extrapolate these rules and have them applied to the likes of their search page results, category page listings and more (and in just a few clicks!). 

Finally, a CXP like Nosto’s enables brands to create experiences that impact the full ecommerce funnel top-to-bottom, increasing the likes of conversion, AOV, bounce rate, retention, loyalty, and more.

What are some examples of Nosto’s CXP being used on a Shopify Plus store?

A.L.C.

After premium clothing brand, A.L.C, saw success with a range of Nosto modules, they decided to implement Nosto’s search solution. Specifically, they wanted a search tool that would let them adjust product sorting during specific seasons; Nosto’s Personalised Search enabled them to configure a specific ranking rule during sales periods that would promote high-conversion, discounted products with a good inventory level.

Soon enough, A.L.C saw a 30% increase in CTR while CVR almost doubled during the periods this rule was applied. They also found their results’ relevancy to improve drastically, as it was now able to interpret complex queries with multiple product attributes, such as ‘blue cotton dress’, and retrieve desired results. Check the full case study here.

Show Me Your Mumu

After expanding into the bridal market, clothing brand, Show Me Your Mumu was getting an influx of requests around products’ colorways and matching grooms’ accessories. In response, they introduced a color-swatch selector to their Nosto-powered Product Recommendations, and embedded matching men’s accessories within recommendations too, enabling shoppers to shop entire wedding party ensembles without leaving a PDP! S

how Me Your Mumu also made use of the Nosto x Klaviyo integration, embedding product recommendations into their marketing emails (based on recipients’ browsing history and product affinity) which led to a huge uptick in click-through rates. You can read the full case study here.

Dermalogica

During the pandemic, Dermalogica needed to translate the personal experience of luxury skincare shopping to their site. Together with Nosto, they implemented a series of campaigns:

• A sticky widget: this targeted returning visitors who had completed ‘Facemapping’—an online consultation that identifies skin concerns and recommends specific products. The Nosto widget surfaced these recommended products to prevent users forgetting them
• Dynamic bundles: these recommended complementary products to go with shoppers’ currently viewed products, prompting people to ‘complete their regimen.’ 
• Returning visitors pop-up: this targeted returning visitors yet to make a purchase, highlighting products they showed the most interest in upon previous visits

 Learn more in the case study!

Your Shopify Plus Experts

As a Nosto partner, Swanky has real expertise in the platform and a strong relationship with the Nosto team.

Want to know how to get started with Nosto’s CXP on your Shopify Plus store? Get in touch with our friendly team of Shopify Plus Experts today to find out!