Shoe Carnival integrates AI-powered search on merchandising platform
One of America’s largest footwear retailers has tapped a new technology partner to improve its merchandising operations.
Shoe Carnival has integrated Algolia's AI-powered search with Amplience's Commerce Experience platform to redefine its digital shopping experience. By combining Algolia’s AI-powered Search & Discovery platform with Amplience’s Commerce Experience Platform comprising a content management system and digital asset management, Shoe Carnival has improved both agility and efficiency, according to Algolia.
The collaboration allows the retailer’s merchandising team to experiment and apply changes swiftly using Algolia’s Merchandising Studio, without relying on developer intervention, streamlining processes and enabling rapid response to market dynamics.
“Recognizing the limitations from the solution it first tried, Shoe Carnival embraced a new composable, headless commerce strategy, seeking robust solutions for content and search,” said Bernadette Nixon, CEO of Algolia. “The company identified Algolia and Amplience as the ideal partners to meet its evolving needs and underpin its new strategy.”
Since its implementation, Shoe Carnival says it has experienced “exceptional growth in revenue, conversion rates, and team productivity.” The team now stores more than 1 million assets in Amplience’s Content Hub, allowing them to index, search, and find assets almost instantly using Algolia’s AI Search. This eliminates the manual work involved in re-ranking and delivers tailored search results to customers through natural language processing and automation, simplifying workflows.
"We’ve always wanted to deliver unique digital shopping experiences to our customers, but, before Algolia, we struggled to get big ideas off the ground,” said Ned Moore, director of e-commerce and product technology at Shoe Carnival. “Thanks to Algolia's ease of use, the changes we dream up can be on the website in just the blink of an eye. This has doubled the productivity of our team and provided the automation needed to enact changes for high-peak shopping."
[READ MORE: Shoe Carnival acquires Midwestern shoe retailer]
Headquartered in Evansville, Ind., Shoe Carnival operates 429 stores in 36 states and Puerto Rico under its Shoe Carnival and Shoe Station banners.
