This holiday season (and beyond), it’s even easier for shoppers at Benuta to find what’s on their wishlists. Just in time for the holidays, Benuta — Europe’s largest online store for rugs, and a provider of complementary home decor — has teamed up with US-based Constructor, an ecommerce search and product discovery platform.
With its large, diverse product catalogue — including more than 20,000 items for all spaces and aesthetics — Benuta uses Constructor so shoppers can pinpoint what’s best for them.
“Our customers are all unique, and their interior spaces reflect their styles and lives,” explained Andreas Fischer, Head of Ecommerce Technologies, Benuta. “With Constructor’s personalisation features, we can help shoppers quickly and enjoyably discover their dream rugs.”
Germany-headquartered Benuta currently uses Constructor to personalise search results and browse experiences for shoppers in Germany, the UK and all across Europe — so what’s displayed factors in their preferences, histories and intent.
Relevance vs. attractiveness
This is a departure from the past, as Benuta’s previous product discovery platform didn’t meet its needs. If someone searched for “living room rugs,” for instance, living room rugs would be displayed — but not ones that were meaningful to the shopper.
“Relevance — that is, simply identifying living room rugs and serving them up — is an outdated metric,” said Bernd Maehrlein, Constructor’s VP for EMEA. “Instead, we focus on attractiveness: Will this rug be attractive to the shopper searching for it? Is it in the colours and materials they like? Is it from a brand they’re fond of? Is it at a price point they’re comfortable with? We’re thrilled to work with Benuta to deliver these helpful and revenue-generating experiences.”
Benuta is also using Constructor’s “Merchant Controls and Intelligence” functionality, combining predictive analytics and testing to optimise product placements and campaign performance.
On the cutting edge: AI shopping agents
To serve shoppers’ evolving needs, retailers like Benuta are exploring new forms of product discovery. When shoppers know exactly what they want, it’s often not hard to find it through existing means, such as searching and browsing on a retail site.
However, data shows nearly 9 in 10 UK shoppers (85%) “often” or “sometimes” go to ecommerce sites when they’re not totally sure what to buy. This happens during gift-giving and for more involved purchases — say a shopper is buying a rug, but isn’t sure about the dimensions or materials. In these cases, it helps to ask involved questions — ones that typical keyword-based search engines can’t answer.
Generative AI (GenAI)-based shopping agents like Amazon’s Rufus and US-based Walmart’s shopping assistant are stepping in to fill this gap. And people are interested: 64% of UK shoppers say that when they’re not sure what to buy, they’d “definitely” or “probably” be willing to engage with an AI assistant for help and recommendations.
Benuta is at the fore of this trend. In the next phase of its Constructor implementation, Benuta will deploy Constructor’s AI Shopping Assistant (ASA), a conversational product discovery tool that blends GenAI with personalisation.
With ASA, shoppers will be able to type conversational queries in Benuta’s search bar — like “Can you suggest a trendy rug with blue and gold hues for our living room?”; “Help me find a durable, absorbent and bright carpet for my child’s bathroom”; and “What should I consider when buying an outdoor rug?” — and get results that make sense contextually, are in stock, and are personalised to the person asking.
Benuta will also soon use Constructor’s technology to tailor online product recommendations and dynamically personalise landing pages (or “collections”) for each shopper.
The importance of product discovery
As retailers seek to elevate customer satisfaction, enhancing product discovery has become a key strategy across the buyer journey. As a result, software providers like Constructor are seeing opportunities and traction: The company recently announced strong growth across EMEA and powers hundreds of millions of product discovery experiences every week.
In addition to Benuta, many brands — including Monica Vinader, Very, home24 and others — are applying AI to help their shoppers better find what they need and enhance customer experiences.
Benuta’s Andreas Fischer continued: “We’re excited to leverage advanced search options that guide our customers intuitively to the products that best suit their preferences — making their shopping experience both seamless and inspiring.”
