Industry-leading
engine

Built on deep psychology principles and advanced machine learning, our fully customisable engine recreates the craft of a skilled sales assistant.

How it works

The 15gifts engine monitors your customers’ online behaviour and engages them at just the right moment.

We ask key questions to understand who they are, then tailor a conversational journey that adapts in real time and collects rich data to fuel our algorithm.

Product recommendations are intelligently limited to those that meet the buyer’s motivations. And our engine learns from every interaction - so recommendations become increasingly accurate, and they adapt with changing markets.

We study the psychology of decision making. Working with Sussex University and Vienna University of Economics and Business, we feed the latest consumer psychology theories into our product development.

Underpinning the 15gifts platform are seven key principles:

1.
Right time, right
message

Customers are more likely to engage if the offer of assistance aligns with their goals and motivations. Think less “hi, can I help?” and more “I see you’re looking at…”.

Supporting psychology
Goal priming

A customer is only likely to act when they have an aligning goal. For example, an “Eat Popcorn” ad at the cinema will only impact customers who are hungry.

In order to align with these goals and gain their trust, we need to understand their motivation.

Information Gap Theory

When people identify a gap between what they currently know and what they would like to know, they’re motivated to seek further information. To keep consumers engaged, it’s necessary to identify this information, then present it at the right time.

How we apply this in the real world…

Our engine monitors each customer from the moment they land on a site, building up a set of behavioural traits.

These traits are used to create a tailored engagement strategy – ensuring that every conversation starts with a message that aligns with each customer’s goals and motivation.

2.
Conversational interaction

No two customers are the same, so you need to create conversational experiences that adapt and reflect each customer’s behaviour and tone.

Once a customer starts to engage in a conversation, they are more likely to complete the process and make a sale.

Supporting psychology
Mirroring tone

Rapport can be built during a conversation by subtly mirroring aspects of the other person’s verbal behaviour and tone.

Endowment effect

The more a consumer is engaged in a sales process, the more likely they will be to finish it and buy the product.

Foot in the door technique

Once a customer has agreed to a small request, they are more likely to agree to a larger request.

How we apply this in the real world…

The 15gifts engine creates a naturally evolving conversation that adapts to each customer. Our question journey uses everyday conversational language, and works to build the customer’s trust and confidence.

After asking a few questions to find out who the customer is, we tailor the journey to suit. The result is an average journey completion rate of 92% – and a sale.

3.
Adaptive Learning

A customer is more likely to make a purchase if they’ve received a personal recommendation. An in-store assistant learns and improves over time, so your digital channel needs to do exactly the same thing.

Supporting psychology
Intrinsic motivation

When a consumer is offered products that meet their motivations, the likelihood of a sale increases. With this in mind, finding reliable ways to understand each customer and discover what’s driving them is essential.

Social learning theory

People learn through observing others’ behaviour, attitudes and outcomes: “Most human behaviour is learned observationally through modelling: from observing others, one forms an idea of how new behaviours are performed.”
Albert Bandura, Social Learning Theory

How we apply this in the real world...

We use a series of intelligent algorithms to understand a prospect’s underlying preferences and behaviours.

We then cluster each prospect with similar and known customers, allowing us to present products with the highest conversion rates across like-minded people.

4.
Communicating
the ‘Why’

The key to making a confident buying decision is understanding why a product is right for you. A customer is more likely to make a purchase if they feel they’ve been understood, so it’s important to communicate ‘why’ a product meets their core motivation.

When explaining ‘why’, the tone of the messaging is crucial - it should appear helpful and neutral, rather than obviously trying to persuade.

Supporting psychology
Paraphrasing

Confidence in a recommendation can be increased by reaffirming and reinstating the information given by the customer. This demonstrates that they’ve been listened to, captures what was said and shows understanding.

Intrinsic Motivation

When a consumer is offered products that meet their motivations, the likelihood of a sale increases. With this in mind, finding reliable ways to understand each customer and discover what’s driving them is essential.

The Yale Attitude Change Approach

This renowned Yale University study explores changing attitudes in response to persuasive messages. Conducted in the 1940s and ‘50s, one of the study’s key findings was that the most effective messages veer away from obvious persuasion. Numerous other studies have since backed this up.

How we apply this in the real world...

Through the conversational nature of our engine, we can build up an accurate set of traits about each customer, including their key decision drivers and motivations.

We use these traits to cut through generic product descriptions, providing compelling and personalised USPs that resonate.

5.
Social proof

A prospect’s inclination to purchase can be influenced significantly by the behaviour of others. The impact of this can depend on the level of uncertainty a consumer feels, the number of influential people and the affinity the consumer feels with those people.

Supporting psychology
Social proof principle

If a consumer is unsure about making a purchase, they are particularly susceptible to being influenced by others. This is heightened if they feel a sense of familiarity with those enacting the influential behaviour.

Conformity theory

A consumer may change their behaviour in order to conform to a particular group – even if they feel strongly that it is not their preferred behaviour.

How we apply this in the real world…

Because each recommendation is the highest-converting product across like-minded customers, our engine provides data-backed social proof – showing how popular the product is with similar customers and providing relevancy match scores to prove this.

6.
Confidence through context

Customers buy with greater confidence when they feel they’ve made an informed choice. Confident decisions are typically made by contrasting a primary item with alternatives.

The alternatives used to frame a primary recommendation can directly influence the perception a consumer has of the primary product.

Supporting psychology
The Goldilocks Technique

Customers are persuaded to choose a middle option when it is positioned between a more expensive option that they may not need, and a cheaper option that doesn’t fully meet their
requirements.

Contrast principle

When consumers make decisions, they tend to compare the primary item with reference items. It’s difficult for consumers to make confident decisions without having experienced a comparison.

How we apply this in the real world…

Our engine puts the final decision in the hands of each customer. Their ‘perfect match’ is framed by two alternatives that are proven to be effective at building confidence in the primary recommendation.

We provide personalised comparisons by displaying tailored USPs and relevancy match scores for all three options.

7.
Targeted upsell

Too many choices can reduce the likelihood of a decision being made and can increase dissatisfaction. Conversion can be enhanced by using personalisation to filter out irrelevant products and provide a reduced set of targeted options.

The same is true for upsells – consumers are more likely to buy an additional product if they are presented with a limited and personalised set of options.

Supporting psychology
The paradox of choice effect

An excessive number of options can be overwhelming, and can reduce the likelihood of a sale. Consumers are also more likely to regret a decision if they’re faced with a large number of options during the decision cycle.

To increase the likelihood of making a sale, it’s important to offer a focused and simplified set of choices.

How we apply this in the real world...

Insurance and accessory take-up rates are far higher in retail stores than online. This is because the in-store assistant is able to personalise the offering, bringing a targeted option into conversation at just the right moment.

Our engine replicates this craft, displaying an upsell offer just before going through to the basket, and using traits data from the conversation to reduce and personalise the choice.

During a recent trial, our engine drove an uplift in insurance sales of 59% when compared to the control.

95-98%
of customers who engage complete the journey, generating unique data rich profiles every time
12%
of all sales on our partners’ websites now come from customers who use the engine to make decisions
EE logo
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The importance of psychology in digital selling
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