- Date published
Transforming Ecommerce
Have you ever bought one thing, but had difficulty figuring out which things go with it? Most of the things we use each day are actually a combination of products, accessories, and components that come together to create a solution. For many of us, finding these perfect combinations for our bicycling, fishing, or other equipment is daunting.
Compatio is focused on making complex products in any industry easier to buy online. Take fly fishing, for example. A fly fishing outfit is complex and there are thousands of products a customer could buy that may or may not work well together. If they were in a physical store, a customer may be able to find a salesperson with extensive knowledge and the ability to point them in the right direction.
Stores pride themselves on the experience they provide on the shop floor, but that same 1:1 customer service experience is incredibly difficult to bring to life online. Thousands more customers can visit an online store, it’s open every minute of the day, and competitors are always just a click away. Online stores selling complex products will have to think very differently to handle the coming ecommerce wave.
Compatio’s XRS, or Expert Recommendation System, solves this dilemma for merchants and customers alike. For customers there’s no more guessing about which item is right for their needs, and they’re less likely to need to make a return. Product returns cost retailers from 7-15% of their revenue each year. If that can be reduced by even a fraction, it directly improves their bottom line.
Helping Retailers Improve the Ecommerce Experience
The coronavirus pandemic has presented retailers with a myriad of challenges. Many brick and mortar shops pivoted to online sales, but discovered the expertise held by shop owners and sales floor associates doesn’t translate neatly to an online experience. Chatbots and customer service phone lines fail to scale and don’t serve customers efficiently.
In order to get the right product into customers’ hands, retailers need a smart recommendation system that helps shoppers find exactly what they’re looking for. Compatio’s smart recommendation system does just that.
Today XRS is live and in use in the fly fishing industry, but the potential applications for Compatio’s technology are far reaching. The outdoor recreation industry alone presents a massive opportunity for an improved online experience and increased sales.
“Compatio is responding to what looks to us to be an impending perfect storm. First, ecommerce has exploded this year – retailers have done extremely well, especially those that focus on gear that helps people get out and away from the crowds. But that’s a double-edged sword because there is always a shakeout. That’s coming, even though it doesn’t look like it right now. At the same time, product expertise has not made the leap to digital. That friendly, knowledgeable person behind the counter does not exist on the typical ecommerce site”, said Tim Baynes, Compatio founder and CEO.
“Customers will demand more from their online experience, and those retailers who can nail that experience will ultimately prevail. And finally, ecommerce platforms currently aren’t designed to sell multi-product solutions: they sell individual products. So it’s really hard to find just the right gear, put it together into a personalized solution, and buy it. Compatio was built from the ground up to solve that problem.”
About Compatio
Compatio is a software platform that makes it easy for customers to find products that go together. Whether it’s finding the perfect crank set for your bicycle or a high-end lens for your specialty camera, Compatio turns compatibility from a research project into a click.
Compatio is an efactory accelerator portfolio company and private office client at the efactory. Headquartered in Springfield, Missouri, founder Tim Baynes leads a team distributed across Missouri, California, Ireland, and India.
