Lund, Sweden, July 5, 2010 – Apptus Technologies AB, a leading provider of eCommerce search and recommendations solutions, today announced that Bokus (www.bokus.com) has launched their new-look eCommerce website incorporating Apptus eSales, its new personalised search and recommendations suite.

Bokus is one of Sweden’s largest online book retailers, carrying nearly 6 million titles.  In 2009, their eCommerce site received up to 80,000 visitors per day and delivered 8,000 – 15,000 books per day, using an early product from Apptus for their site search and navigation.  After merging with Akademibokhandeln in 2008, Bokus embarked upon a significant redesign of their existing website, including a competitive re-evaluation of both organisations’ eCommerce suppliers.

Mats Fagerström, Bokus’ eCommerce Director, chose to focus on improving their customers’ whole online shopping experience. The company was impressed by Apptus’ vision of aligning and optimising all aspects of the site’s interaction with shoppers, observing customer behaviour to personalise site search, navigation and recommendations in an integrated way.  “Not only were we looking for impressive product features, but also for a company whose product vision aligns with our ambitions for an increasingly personalised website”, Mats Fagerström said.

Apptus has provided Bokus with a robust search capability designed to help shoppers overcome the challenge of spelling authors names or remembering exact titles.  Did-you-mean and auto-complete suggestions come in categories, complementing eSales’ flagship high performance ‘incremental search’, which returns results as the user types.  Buyers can zoom in on what they want by filtering and sorting in many ways, and for those who aren’t quite sure what they are looking for, eSales’ socially-driven recommendations will give them plenty of ideas.

“Bokus has always aimed to offer more than books,” says Cecilia Nilsson, Bokus Site manager, “we want to develop a long term relationship with our customers, one in which we can tailor a better service for each individual’s needs. We have a lot of plans for the website over the next few years, and Apptus eSales will help us deliver them.”   The companies are already talking about leveraging the new technology in support of Bokus’ outbound marketing efforts.

“Bokus is a great example of a company thinking about their technology as an investment in long term revenue growth,” says Michael Mokhberi, CEO at Apptus.  “By offering focused search, navigation and recommendations relevant to shoppers interests, Bokus will improve the whole online experience for their customers, leading to increased sales and more return visits.”  

For more information, please contact:

Michael Mokhberi, CEO at Apptus
Mobile: +46 701664102
E-mail: michael.mokhberi@apptus.com

Bokus is an online bookshop with over 6million titles. Bokus is part of Akademibokhandeln, Sweden’s largest bookstore chain with 62 stores across the country and approximately 700 employees. Akademibokhandeln is 100 percent owned by KF.

Apptus is Sweden’s leading e-commerce search & recommendations solution provider, offering an integrated site search & navigation, recommendations and reviews solution that learns from user behaviour and acts to make each individual shopper’s experience increasingly personal and relevant. Founded in 2000, Apptus has delivered large-scale, multi-site, multi-language solutions to some of the world’s largest retailers and online directory suppliers across 18 countries, including CDON, Bokus, ATEA, Fonecta, Hitta and Yell.com. Apptus is headquartered in Sweden with sales offices in the UK, Switzerland and Canada. For more information please visit www.apptus.com.

“It seems that Microsoft wants to focus on enterprise search and integrate FAST with their own platform. A move that will make it difficult for online directories and digital marketers who needs the benefits of a combination between deeper content and better search.” says Michael Mokhberi, CEO at Apptus.

Apptus will now offer companies using FAST a safe passage to their own platform Theca, which today is used by many of the major online directories in Europe. At no cost, Apptus will analyse the companies present search situation and the online directory’s specific needs.

“We offer all online directory companies a safe passage to our leading and stable platform without any additional license costs. We have been in the market for over 10 years and have obtained a leading position in Europe with our cutting edge technology in search and content enrichment. This means that we have a long term commitment and will continue to develop our products based on our customers needs, rather than our own.” says Michael Mokhberi.

For more information, please contact:

Apptus idea is to bring buyers and sellers closer to each other by providing instant access to relevant information. Since year 2000 the company has developed solutions based on the platform Theca, which optimizes the synergies between search, content and sales. Apptus is a privately held company, headquartered in Sweden with sales organizations in Europe and North America. Among the customers are leading companies within e-commerce and online directories in 18 countries, for example Yell.com, ATEA, CDON, De Gule Sider, Eniro, Fonecta, Hitta, Lokaldelen, Panduro Hobby, Quebecor, Truvo and Bokus . For more information, please visit www.apptus.com

Reference: Rung András, read more at Smashing Magazine

According to Kärrbrink, the directory publishers must strive to be the first choice in local search in their markets. And to get there, they have to focus on relevant content, because this is the key to differentiation and survival in the long run.

The younger generation have no experience of printed directories. So if they want an iPod, they will search for ”iPod”. The new generation don’t think: “Under what heading in the Yellow Pages might I find a retailer that sells iPhone?”

And relevance can only be created in a sound balance between content and search. Jesper Kärbrink admitted that when he searched for iPod on Eniros’ current site, he got two hits. “Are there really just two companies that sell iPods in all of Stockholm?” he asked rhetorically.

The directory publisher’s most valuable asset will be their database. This database can be published and distributed in many different ways. But the quality and the completeness of the data is their most important competitive advantage.

“It’s not only about transforming from print to online. This is about transforming the entire company from name and number to relevance, from selling ads to selling leads, from yarn to wow, from print to online, from high to low leverage, from dying to growing, from two to one sales force, from have to be to want to be, from old to new,” concluded Kärrbrink.

We totally agree with Jesper Kärrbrink. And fortunately we have both the technology and the solutions that can help the directory publishers to transform!

According to the speakers at the conference, the industry must adjust to this. For example by focusing on users across all media and position itself to add value to advertisers. Yellow Pages companies must go from being Sales and Marketing based businesses to more fully functional vertically integrated companies.

To do this, content is a key differentiator and businesses need to get the necessary technology and processes into place in order to create a competitive advantage. By adding value they can maximize the Yellow Online position of strength.  

They also need to adopt a multi brand approach to occupy competitive electronic space and compete in all online search and facilitation, including mobile search and transactional capabilities

One conclusion at the conference was that a reoriented stable business model might lead to a smaller industry than today. But as print will continue to underperform, it will stress the required transformation in funding.

Ikea’s tools and guides for choosing the right furniture has no counterparts in Sweden. Everything from the simple multiple-step guides to choosing the right furniture for the downloadable planning tools for the entire kitchen, bedroom and study indicates that a store could be so much more than a product catalog in html. Navigation is clear and logical without being boring. Ikea has since some time inventory status position in the department stores on each product and now strengthens its multi-channel thinking with printable shopping lists. Way to go, Billy!

Reference: Internetworld

The mobile portal is accessible both via the Internet and via millions of mobile phones all over the world. It contains more than 6 million products, like movies, music and digital entertainment. With Apptus’ search engine the users gets a more intelligent and intuitive search tool adapted for mobile use.

Based on real time consumer behaviour Apptus’ solution also will be able to recommend relevant products by comparing behavioural patterns generated from a multitude of different individual searches, clicks and purchases.

Due to legal restrictions, some content on the portal can’t be distributed in certain countries. With Apptus solution, the users only gets access to those products that is valid for their location. The system filters the database in real time and thereby the user automatically searches within the relevant products.

“Considering the fact that the portal is accessible in more than 20 countries and contains more than 6 million products, it takes a both intelligent and powerful solution to be able to handle it in a cost efficient way.” says Michael Mohkberi, CEO at Apptus.

For more information, please contact:

Michael Mokhberi, CEO at Apptus
Mobile: +46 701664102
E-mail: michael.mokhberi@apptus.com

Apptus idea is to bring buyers and sellers closer to each other by providing instant access to relevant information. Since year 2000 the company has developed solutions based on the platform Theca, which optimizes the synergies between search, content and sales. Apptus is a private company, headquartered in Sweden with sales organizations in Europe and North America. Among the customers are leading companies within e-commerce and online directories in 18 countries, for example ATEA, Bokus, CDON, De Gule Sider, Eniro, Fonecta, Hitta, Lokaldelen, Panduro Hobby, Quebecor, Truvo and Yell.com. For more information, please visit www.apptus.com.

Some £4.5bn was spent online in March, according to figures from the IMRG Capgemini e-Retail Sales Index, a rise of 15% from the same time last year. The rise came as warm weather inspired people to shop for new clothes, where retailers saw a 27% rise in sales. Footwear and accessories were the fastest growing areas of the market, with rises of 58% and 55% respectively.

Reference: Chloe Rigby, Internet retailing  /  Read more at Internet Retailing

Todays ecommerce customers has high expectations and demands which CDON.COM is now able to meet through speed and relevancy with Apptus.