• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 24, 2020

Google made its Recommendations AI publicly available in beta this week.

The recommendation engine determines the likely next click or purchase for a specific consumer using similar or shared patterns across customer attributes and behavioral data to create models. Then the engine recommends the items.

Qubit, which works with hundreds of the world’s retailers, such as Kate Spade and Estee Lauder, became one of Google's first partners in this product Google Cloud took to market, specifically for ecommerce. Bringing the same technology to ecommerce that underpins YouTube and Google Search, the deep-learning algorithms no longer just power views and search results.

Now, they power conversions and revenue, explains Simon Jaffery-Reed, Qubit vice president, product.

No one can dispute behavior changes among consumers, which is making it more difficult to determine preferences and recommendations.

“The most fundamental shift we have seen has been for those businesses that have both stores and an ecommerce presence,” Jaffery-Reed said. “For those businesses with stores that have closed, it’s meant their ecommerce operations have worked on overdrive.”

Jaffery-Reed said Qubit has seen some of its customers hit three-year online revenue targets because consumers spend most of their time online discovering and researching products and services.

The big shifts in work, with many working from home, means there is no longer a commute time. That has resulted in changes in the time of day shoppers search and shop.

Search and discover have become the most critical pieces of ecommerce, Jaffery-Reed said.  

The tie to Google goes deeper than some might think. Qubit’s founders — Daniel Shellard, Emre Baran, Graham Cooke, Ian McCaig — met while working at Google. Cook remains as CEO, while the others have gone on to other companies. Then, in 2015, Qubut made the decision to develop an entire product suite on Google Cloud. Recommendations AI has become another capability to help better serve its customers.

The next step for Qubit is to ensure its customers emerge from the pandemic stronger and prepare them for the holiday season supported by Google’s Recommendation AI.