irony of architecting for scale: ydesign group's migration from sli to solr to endeca...

Monica Delehanty, VP Operations, YDesign GroupPeter Curran, President, Cirrus10

05/01/2023 YDesign Group | Cirrus10 | Oracle 3

AboutBefore & DuringProjectReveal

Today’s Agenda

AboutYDesign Group & Cirrus10

Rugs

Cribs

Pendants

Ottomans

Gliders

Floor Lamps

Pendants

Desk Lights

Planters

Lounge Chairs

Office Chairs

Cabinets

Suspension

Lights

Dining Tables

Coffee Carafes

Toilets

Game Tables

Flatware

Kids Lights

Pendants

Beds

Clocks

Crafts

Outdoor Chairs

Showers

Statement Lights

Desks

Bathtubs

Planters

Pendants

Lounge Chairs

Tea Kettles

Toilets

Coffee Tables

Mirrors + Vanities

Ceiling Fans

Medicine Cabinets

Stools

Side Chairs

Rugs

Rockers

Bookshelves

Assortment:• Over 400 Brands• Over 200 Product Categories• Groupings by Designer• Groupings by Collections

Customers:• Consumers• Trade Customers (B2B)

• 15 years in business• 100+ employees• Category experts + Sales

support locally• HQ: Walnut Creek, CA• Homegrown platforms

YDesignGroup is an online-led retailer offering modern and contemporary lighting, furnishings, and decorative plumbing to design driven consumers and trade professionals.

Founded in 2001. We offer design driven consumers and trade professionals a premier selection of more than 10,000 products from top international brands, such as Artemide, FLOS, Nelson Bubble Lamps, and Louis Poulsen.

Launched in 2009. We carry products from renowned brands, including Herman Miller, Knoll, and Kartell, as well as from up-and-coming companies. Our assortment ranges from midcentury-modern classics to cutting-edge, contemporary furnishings.

Launched in 2014. YBath is a positioned as a leading retail destination for modern bathroom design. We offer a curated collection of thousands of contemporary faucets, sinks, bathtubs, vanities, medicine cabinets, shower systems, and more.

Seattle HeadquartersDistributed 50 person teamAll onshore labor implementationsEndeca or Oracle partner since 2010Oracle Gold Partner

End-to-end implementationsProgram roadmapsUpgrades & migrationsRelevancy TuningTraining – Dev, IT, BusinessL2/L3 Services – 12/5,12/7,24/7

BASICS

WHAT WE DO

Time & materialsFixed fee with risk premiumCost + bonusEasy contractsROI guarantees

OUR METHODS

100 Endeca Implementations100% referenceableB2C, B2B, Desktop, Mobile, KioskBroad/Deep Web CMS ExperienceOracle Commerce Advisory Council

EXPERIENCE


Other ResourcesOpen World 2015 Presentation with Bodybuilding.com

https://www.cirrus10.com/2015/09/21/bodybuilding-coms-e-commerce-transformation-an-endeca-case-study/


Other ResourcesOpen World 2014 Presentation with Verizon Wireless

https://www.cirrus10.com/2014/09/21/oracle-omni-channel-journey/


Other ResourcesEndeca Blueprint Diagram

https://www.cirrus10.com/2014/09/23/visualizing-endeca/


Other ResourcesAssembler Prezi

http://endeca.cirrus10.com/assembler/

Before & DuringYDesign Group Pre-2015

On SLI Systems for search until 2013• Everything was fine when it worked• YDG data presented challenges

• Not normalized. Issues with unique identifiers. Hard to trace problems.• SLI support team in NZ was sometimes a challenge

Migrated to SOLR in late 2013• Engineered by one developer• Step backwards – e.g. typeahead was driven by an Excel file

• Not sustainable as a business facing tool• Data hierarchy changes were not always picked up

Static browse experienceFound Endeca looking for a search platform

2001-2014The YDesign Group Journey


Recall & Relevancy• Constant struggle adjusting Solr relevancy. • Frustrations with under-recalling products

Guided Navigation• Engineering new navigation functionality was complex

Performance• Endeca acts as an in-memory cache for content resources

Cross-Store• Expose Yliving and Ybath to Ylighting base

Reliability• Do away with the issues from SLI & Solr

The business caseWhy Endeca Guided Search


Improve Merchant Control• Provide a palette of templates• Simplify the toolset• Simplify testing

Spotlighting & Composite Pages• Merchandizing products, categories, and content• Cross-promote products/content

Manage Components as Pages• Type Ahead

Simplify Toolset• Easier onboarding, more nimble

The business caseWhy Endeca Experience Manager

Brand Page

Search Results Page

CatPage

to

Composite Page

Search Results

Brand / Category

Qualitative ContentsProduct Content

Experience Manager Implementation by PhaseProject Phasing

Items

Categories Stores

Metadata Brands

Designers

Collections

SEO

Quantitative Data

Sales Engagement

Type Ahead SRP / ZRP Browse Brands Designers

Endeca Index / Datamodel

Phase 1: Earlier 2015 Phase 2: Later 2015

3 months, ~2 resources under $100k 4 weeks $26k

Collections


Ready for the reveal?

AfterExperience Changes


Feature: Brand Landing PagesBefore Endeca – separate experiences for search and navigate


Brand Landing PagesAfter– Flexible page composition for product + content. Analytics driven


Designer & Designer Specialty Landing PagesAfter Endeca Support for new shop paths

On Solr: No/weak spelling correctionBefore: Flor Lamps


After Endeca: misspelled words lead to relevant destinationsAfter: Flor Lamps = Floor Lamps


Before: No Inter-Store SearchOn Solr – Zero results were a dead end


After: Zero Results PagesAfter Endeca – Store awareness & best practices for ZRP.


Before: Unfriendly Guided Navigation


Feature: Navigation SidebarNew dimension / refinement data & new guided navigation functionality


Disambiguation above the line, merchandized products belowAfter: Type Ahead


Natural traffic increased by 17+%Average order values up by 6%Predictable and reliable content updates: Search and Browse experience alignedEfficiencies have enabled an FTE reduction in Site Operations

Project ResultsSince Endeca Project

Let’s Get Started.

irony of architecting for scale: ydesign group's migration from sli to solr to endeca...

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