Ecommerce ops · Production

Shoe Carnival kicks customer experience into high gear with Algolia and Amplience

The problem

Shoe Carnival's large SKU catalog across multiple categories and banners required highly labor-intensive manual merchandising work, and making site changes demanded developer involvement, limiting the retailer's ability to respond quickly to fast-moving market conditions and shifting customer expectations during inflationary times.

Workflow diagram · grounded in source
1
Customer searches for footwear
trigger
“When people search and find the right products, they convert”
2
AI Dynamic Re-Ranking boosts products
ai_action
“Algolia Dynamic Re-ranking plays a vital role in boosting products and conversions”
3
Color-level catalog split
ai_action
“In 2023, the company used Algolia to split its entire catalog out at the color level. Previously, all colors were rolled up to the style level, making it difficult to display colors on product listing pages.”
4
Algolia Recommend surfaces accessories
ai_action
“Using Algolia recommendations, we're now able to make sure that if somebody has the Crocs shoe in the cart, we can easily pin accessories or charms that go with the collection”
5
Merchandising rules applied without developers
output
“Members of the merchandising team can make changes quickly without any coding or developer involvement. New search rules, such as pinning specific products to result pages or adjusting how products are listed, can be done simply and easi…”
Reported outcome

After implementing Algolia and Amplience, Shoe Carnival saw up to 3.5x conversions from search, reduced bounce rates, and productivity doubled with changes taking half the time.
AOV and basket size grew significantly through Algolia Recommend.

Reported metrics
Conversions from searchUp to x3.5
Team productivitydoubled
Time to make changeshalf the time
Average Order Value and basket sizesignificant growth
Show all 7 reported metrics
conversions from searchUp to x3.5
team productivitydoubled
time to make changeshalf the time
Average Order Value and basket sizesignificant growth
bounce ratereduced bounces
conversion rate after search implementationimmediate increase in conversion rates
site conversions after color-level splitimmediate increase to overall site conversions
Reported stack
AlgoliaAmplienceDynamic Re-RankingAlgolia RecommendSalesforce Commerce Cloud
Source
https://www.algolia.com/customers/shoe-carnival
Read source ↗

Frequently asked questions

What did this team achieve with this AI workflow?

After implementing Algolia and Amplience, Shoe Carnival saw up to 3.5x conversions from search, reduced bounce rates, and productivity doubled with changes taking half the time.

What tools did this team use?

Algolia, Amplience, Dynamic Re-Ranking, Algolia Recommend, Salesforce Commerce Cloud.

What results were reported?

Conversions from search: Up to x3.5; Team productivity: doubled; Time to make changes: half the time; Average Order Value and basket size: significant growth (source-reported, not independently verified).

How is this ecommerce ops AI workflow structured?

Customer searches for footwear → AI Dynamic Re-Ranking boosts products → Color-level catalog split → Algolia Recommend surfaces accessories → Merchandising rules applied without developers.

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