Grid Dynamics Delivers More Precise Results with New Omnichannel Search Solution

MENLO PARK, Calif., Jan. 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Grid Dynamics, a leading provider of scalable eCommerce technology solutions, announced today the release of Sercato, an omnichannel search solution that provides shoppers with a faster, more convenient way to find the products they desire. Built on top of Apache Solr, the industry leading open source search solution, Grid Dynamics Sercato delivers more precise search results, provides merchandizers with greater insight into customer preferences than traditional search systems, and gives customers a more efficient and satisfying shopping experience.

Sercato delivers more precise results by recognizing and reporting the concepts included in search phrases rather than just lists of words and phrases. For example, a search for "women's leather jacket" will deliver only women's leather jackets rather than somewhat relevant products such as men's jackets, non-leather jackets or leather skirts.

"Retailers are looking for ways to provide the best possible experience to their customers thereby improving conversion rates on digital channels," said Leonard Livschitz, CEO, Grid Dynamics. "Sercato helps retailers deliver search results that are highly relevant, so their customers don't have to sort through a long list of unintended results."

Automated Tools for Precise Search Results

Tuning of omnichannel search systems has previously been a specialized and labor-intensive process. Sercato includes a suite of automated tools that streamline and speed up the process of enriching and cleansing product data. The solution then generates the required linguistic relations that match the words customers use with text in the product data. Collectively these procedures allow retailers to optimize and maintain the quality of their search results in a comprehensive and systematic way that does not require highly-skilled search experts.

Retailers benefit from increased search conversion, increased customer loyalty, and comprehensive automated procedures for monitoring and improving the quality of search results. At the same time, customers benefit from precise results and precise facets that ensure search results match their stated preferences. Rather than needing to scan through partially relevant and sometimes irrelevant results, Sercato delivers a precise match to the customer's expressed preferences. In addition, since all the results are relevant, then any customer-selected refinement by brand, size, or color will lead to results that are consistent with the customer's search phrase. 

Sercato uses Concept Search to deliver precise search results. This technique ensures that all products displayed match against all the concepts mentioned in the customer's search request. Sercato leverages an additional strategy known as Staged Search that first tries to find products with very strict matching requirements and then continues to search with more relaxed requirements until matching products are found. This approach delivers both excellent precision and excellent recall of relevant items.

Today's omnichannel retailer must support customers who expect to select store locations of interest and then see search results tailored to the price and availability in those stores. Sercato will meet the omnichannel needs of nationwide and global retailers including those with large and complex product catalogs.

"Search is an integral part of the omnichannel experience, but it can take cost-prohibitive resources and expertise to deliver the highly-relevant results that customers deserve," said Max Martynov, vice president of technology, Grid Dynamics. "Sercato allows retailers to rely on automatic tools to tweak results intelligently and seamlessly, drastically improving the customer experience without adding complexity to the backend."

Grid Dynamics Sercato is available today.

About Grid Dynamics

Grid Dynamics is a leading provider of open, scalable, next-generation commerce technology solutions for Tier 1 retail. Grid Dynamics has in-depth expertise in commerce technologies and wide involvement in the open source community. Great companies, partnered with Grid Dynamics, gain a sustainable business advantage by implementing and managing solutions in the areas of omnichannel platforms, product search and personalization, and continuous delivery. To learn more about Grid Dynamics, find us at www.griddynamics.com or by following us on Twitter @GridDynamics.

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CONTACT: Crystal Black, Grid Dynamics, +1 650-422-2810, [email protected]

SOURCE Grid Dynamics