Internet infrastructure software company Inktomi Corp. this week unveiled its
Commerce Engine 3.0, upgraded to include automated merchandising, targeted
opt-in e-mail marketing tools and new feature search capabilities.
In addition, Inktomi Commerce Engine results can now be tightly integrated
with the Inktomi Search Engine and other Web search services, “enabling
portals and destination sites to unlock new revenue streams without
compromising search relevance or performance,” the company said.
The Inktomi Commerce Engine is in use by more than 50 companies in a range of
markets including portals, destination sites, retailing, banks, credit card
services, insurance providers, telecommunications providers, Internet
appliance providers and wireless portals.
3.0 enhancements include:
- Automated Merchandising: Customer sites can incorporate merchandising offers
that are automatically generated and targeted from Inktomi’s product
database, comprising hundreds of merchants and over 5 million products
Inktomi’s profiling and targeting system dynamically promotes the most
popular and successful offers into heavier rotation - Search-Commerce Integration: This enables portals and destination sites to
integrate relevant product offers with Web search results. For example, a
consumer who searches the Web for information on digital cameras would also
be presented with matching product listings that link directly to merchant
“buy pages.” - Product Spotlight: This opt-in e-mail marketing platform integrates with
Inktomi’s product database, merchandising and user profiling systems to drive
overall customer relationships and repeat traffic. Users can sign up for
offers and alerts via rich HTML e-mail and specify delivery frequency and
areas of interest
- Local Merchants: The upgraded platform includes support for local merchant
listings, allowing consumers to select nearby merchants offering services
such as installation or same-day delivery - Reporting and Analysis Tools: The upgraded Inktomi platform provides a robust
billing, reporting and data mining infrastructure capable of supporting
complex global partner networks and a variety of pay-for-performance
affiliate models
Inktomi’s private-label offering encompasses a rich set of outsourced
commerce services, including merchant recruitment, XML product database
aggregation, full text and product feature searching, targeted merchandising,
user profiling and personalization, affiliate tracking, data mining, billing
and reporting. Commerce Engine 3.0 is expected to
be rolled out during the third quarter of 2000.