Data Driven Commerce Event: 'Bouwmaat does cool things with data'

Personalized search engine results

Bouwmaat, as a third tough example, recently started testing personalized search engine results. Vieberink: 'Take, for example, a handyman who always buys tools from Makita. If he then wants to buy a drill, it's good to show his brand in the results.' The same applies to tile adhesives. 'Bouwmaat sells five brands of tile adhesive and a tiler always glues with his favorite brand. Then of course it is handy if you show precisely that brand.'

'Make the customer feel that you know what he is doing'

No need for two pots of glue

The added value of data lies, of course, in the fact that by making good use of that data, you reach and help the customer better. Or as Vieberink puts it, "Making the customer feel that you know what he is doing. And where Bouwmaat wants to go is to advise the customer on the basis of that available data. 'For example, the amount of glue needed for the number of tiles he orders. That you give as advice: no, you don't need two pots, one will do. So that one pot can be removed from the shopping cart.' Because it's not about selling more in the short term, but about selling the right items, Vieberink knows. Working at the interface between customer, transaction data and article content is what he calls it.

Future customer steps

Based on data, Bouwmaat is also already doing a bit of predicting future customer steps. 'We can now estimate what job a customer is doing.' Bouwmaat has a block on the site, 'Completing a job', where relevant articles can be seen.

Complex customer structure

In conclusion, of course, there are pitfalls when it comes to data use. Right? Vieberink: 'Yes, haha! A lot! Based on data, you also make assumptions. How confident are you in the results you show, based on that data? We are careful about that at Bouwmaat.' The customer structure at Bouwmaat is complex, he says. 'If you build a system, having the customer data in order is a challenge. You are constantly working to keep that data good and clean.' But the biggest challenge for Bouwmaat is its product data. Is all the product data and content correct? 'Bouwmaat itself knows that it must have its data in order, but unfortunately that does not yet apply to all the suppliers we work with. Bouwmaat is a wholesaler, but also a retailer and especially wholesale suppliers often do not have all the necessary commercial article data ready. So there is work to be done.'

Data Driven Commerce Event On Feb. 13, the Data Driven Commerce Event will take place. The central question of the event is: how do you use customer insights from your data to serve your customer even better and increase your conversion rate? Nick Vieberink is one of the speakers who will talk about how to better understand the customer through the proper use of data. Bas Karsemeijer, head of data at Hema, is one of the other speakers at the event.

This article was written by Kari-Anne Fygi and sourced from and published on Twinkel Digital Commerce.