Briefs

Chemnitz, May 18, 2006 - Customers of the Future Store of METRO Group have recently become able to utilise the Personal Shopping Assistant (PSA) with an additional range of functions. The mobile personal shopping assistant was equipped with the self-learning Recommendation Engine from prudsys in order to further improve the service for the customer. The software from prudsys, an associate company of technology service provider Pironet NDH, is already being used in a number of leading online shops.

Since 2003, as part of the Future Store Initiative, METRO Group together with about 60 partners has been showcasing the technologies which will change the retail industry in the coming years.

With its new Recommendation Engine, PSA is now in a position to generate dynamic product recommendations and to provide information as to which items best complement the products currently being scanned. One of the principles by which this technology operates states that "customers who buy product A have also bought product B". In addition, the engine also compares the shopping cart in question with other carts and makes suggestions regarding complementary items based on the related products found. Moreover, the reaction of the customer can be recorded in real-time, and if necessary the offering can be modified dynamically. This allows for new cross-selling scenarios, and an increased average sales volume per shopping cart due to a greater number of spontaneous purchases.

For more information, visit www.prudsys.com