practical applications of semantic web in retail -- semtech 2014
DESCRIPTION
This presentation explores a year of experimentation, POCs, and research of Linked Data and Semantic Web technologies within Best Buy. It highlights three use cases where a small team approached internal data problems with semantics -- reviewing high level technical methodologies, application details, and technical and business metrics (ROI, conversion, etc.)TRANSCRIPT
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF SEMANTICS IN RETAILA YEAR OF EXPERIMENTATIONJay Myers, Best Buy @jaymyers
Broken data
IMPORTANT INFORMATIONGETS FILTERED
COMMON DATA FLOW INTO CMS/ PIM
Data Source(s) PIM/ CMSwith
schema
Accepted data
Discardeddata
RDBMS
SEMANTIC METHOD
Data Source(s) RDBMS
D2RQ
RDF & SPARQL
COMPLETE DATA + SEMANTICS = DISCOVERY
+ +
Product relationships
MOST ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS DON’T PROJECT RELATIONSHIP DATA
CUSTOMERS WANT TO KNOW WHICH PRODUCTS WORK TOGETHER
Product OntologyVendor Named Graph
Vendor Named Graph
Best Buy Product Data (RDF)
Data Source(s)
JSON-LD services
The product long tail
OPPORTUNITY EXISTS TO EXPAND REVENUE BY EXPLOITING EVERY ITEM IN THE PRODUCT CATALOG
PERSONALIZATION DOESN’T UNCOVER LONG TAIL PRODUCTS
…rather than discovering new facts or perspectives when you search for news, information, or products, you will be presented with “adjacent” concepts. It’s not so much discovery of new ideas as it is exploitation of existing ideas.
Don Peppers, “The Downside of Personalization”https://www.linkedin.com/today/post/article/20140620114239-17102372-the-downside-of-personalization
“
BRING BACK SERENDIPITY!
Best Buy Product Data/ Triplestore
SPARQL
168840126990083194853175420885261657394087476084826100415000832
SKU Results Promo builder
Dev and bizideation
CONVERSION
11x 5x9x
* vs. standard site conversion
“Stocking Stuffers” Valentine’s Day St Patrick’s Day
CHALLENGES
• Enterprise data is still a mess
• Ontologies/ vocabularies are misunderstood
• IT focuses on systems, not data
• Integration into Enterprise systems
POSITIVES
• Leadership is on board
• Ontology is now a “thing” internally
• Positive results from experimentation drive business interest
@JAYMYERS