Swedish behavioural merchandising company Avail Intelligence talked to us this week about replicating the ‘Amazon experience’.

A veteran of the collective intelligence space, the company collects the behaviour of many internet users to find the most relevant products for one on a ecommerce site.

Time and time again, research shows that consumers trust peer-to-peer recommendations over marketing messages alone. Avail’s on-demand technology plugs into an ecommerce site in matter of hours, collects behavioural data anonymously, and compares it with that of all previous visitors on record. In real time, it then calculates which products are most relevant, and like most engines of this type, learns more as it collects more data.

The environment created on the site resembles the shopping experience you might find on sites like Amazon.com. The recommendation of products based on prior purchases, ability to write reviews and share customer stories is a strong technique that increases loyalty, and sales alike.

To some, a technology that replaces the need for straightforward marketing could be perceived to be a threat. However, just as in the early 90s when an online presence may have been viewed in the same light, this also allows marketers more control on a strategic level. Those responsible for managing specific brand reputation can put rules in place for a specific product page for example, only allowing items within the same brand to be recommended when a visitor looks at a specific page. Avail calls this hybrid merchandising – a mixture of community-driven recommendation combined with marketing expertise – which produces an even stronger offering.

Avail is already working with the likes of Heal’s, GAME and IWOOT, increasing conversion rates by 5% to 10% on average, as well as average order sale – contributing to a 15% to 20% total increase in spend on site. This bodes well for the retailers, who mainly pay Avail a revenue share of increased spend, much like a pay-by-performance model for the ecommerce age.

The company’s rule of thumb is that as long as a site is of reasonable volume, turning over five million euros or more per year, critical mass will be enough to produce a good result. These figures are the only restriction on using the service, so for larger sites, it’s definitely worth a look.