Case Study: Office Depot

In 2007, Office Depot deployed CNET Channel's Intelligent Cross-Sell solution to automate and optimize merchandising on its e-commerce site, www.officedepot.com. Doing so caused a doubling of online cross-sell revenue for the multi-channel global retailer. Cross-selling is an important tool that involves recommending accessories to products, such as a memory card with the sale of a digital camera.

One of the keys to success was utilizing Intelligent Cross-Sell's "guided automation," which combines merchandisers' knowledge with the automation and scalability of a recommendation engine. For example, Intelligent Cross-Sell's point-and-click interface allowed Office Depot merchandisers to target cross-sell opportunities by factors such as key selling features, popularity, compatibility, and brand affinity. Then, Intelligent Cross-Sell executed the rules across millions of possible product combinations. Compared to Office Depot's previous cross-selling functionality, the result was a significant increase in the number and relevance of accessories offered as cross-sell opportunities across the site. This combination of more and better cross-sells drove the increase of cross-sell revenue.

"As one of the world's largest e-commerce retailers, Office Depot is continually looking for innovative solutions to help increase efficiency and output on the Web," said Noah Maffitt, Director of E-Commerce for Office Depot. "CNET Channel's Intelligent Cross-Sell solution enabled Office Depot to quickly optimize cross-sell opportunities throughout the Web and in-turn provide more relevant product suggestions to customers."

Cross-sells appear on OfficeDepot.com in select areas including product pages behind the "Related Items" tab, and on the "Add to Cart" page that customers receive after adding an item to their shopping cart. Before Intelligent Cross-Sell, Office Depot managed these cross-selling areas manually.

To measure the effect of Intelligent Cross-Sell, Office Depot analyzed its cross-sells pre-and post-implementation of Intelligent Cross-Sell. Because Intelligent Cross-Sell allows performance tracking down to individual cross-sells, Office Depot was able to distinguish and compare the revenue from the "before" and "after" cross-sells. This test showed the increase of cross-sell revenue was due to the "after" cross-sells in which CNET's solution was being utilized.

About CNET Channel

CNET Channel, a property of CNET Networks, is the world's leading independent source of product information, supporting both online catalogs and traditional sales processes with detailed content on over 3 million technology products worldwide. Over 2,100 high technology manufacturers and channel businesses in 35 national markets depend on CNET Channel to deliver world-class content solutions that maximize their sales effectiveness and minimize the cost and complexity of providing accurate and useful product information. Customers include Best Buy, CDW, Dell, HP, Insight, Office Depot, Sony, Tech Data, Yahoo!, Zones and many more.