Big Wins with Small Data: PredictionIO in Ecommerce by David Jones (@d_jones) - Technical Director - Resolve Digital
Big Wins with Small Data:PredictionIO in Ecommerceby David Jones (@d_jones) - Technical Director - Resolve Digital
Comic by @d_jones. Inspired by xkcd.
Machine learning & Ecommerce
better. together.
Predictive APIsmake it feel like you have your own
team of ML experts
Personalised recommendations
Abandoned cart emails
Lead scoring
Email marketing
Benefits of ML in EcommerceMore visitors with longer session duration
Improved retentionHigher conversion rates
Larger order sizeBottom line, more revenue.
machine learning in ecommercedeeply enhances customer experiences
Customers expect ML featuresEven if they don’t know what ML is
Real world example:United Cellars
Goal: Increase revenueSolution: Product recommendationsImplementation: Predictive APIs
16k product views60k orders
3k product ratings
79000 rowsSmall data
Any data that linkscustomers to products
Optimise data collectionInitially had no data for logged out users
PredictionIO
Open source machine learning server
Ecommerce templatesEvaluation metrics
Production ready
Why PredictionIO?
Active Open Source project
Productivity focusedBuilt-in support for Apache Spark MLlib
Opinionated DASE architecture:
Data Source and Preparator, Algorithm, Serving, Evaluator
Storefront <-> Processing Queue <-> PredictionIO
PAPI Production TipsMonitor performance
Cache where realtime is not neededDerived data is low risk
Bricks & mortar retailinspires an ecommerce experience with ML
With winetaste preferences are diversepeople usually prefer red or white
A/B TESTwith Google Analytics
Filter PredictionsAvoid anything that lessens relevanceDon’t show out of stock products
A/B Test Results45% longer average session22% increase in conversion rate37% increase in average order size
71%More Revenue
Where to next?Predictive features in more channelsIntroduce new predictive features
Conclusion
1Small data can be enough
Quality is key
2Predictive APIs
are awesome
3Machine Learning
is highly effective withEcommerce
resolve.digital/papis2015David Jones, @d_jones