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11
Where Search Meets Science
and Style Meets Savings:
Nordstrom Rack's Journey to
Data Science-Driven Digital Experience
Pankaj Andhale
Senior Data Scientist
Nordstrom Rack | Hautelook
Peter Curran
General Manger, Digital Commerce
Lucidworks

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2
Outline
• Challenges
• Road to Relevance
• Fusion
• Results
• Q & A

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3
Search Lenses
Relevance ExperiencePerformance

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4
Search Quality
Relevance
Experience
Performance
Search
Quality

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5
Challenge #1
Bad Customer Experience
• Un-tuned index
• Customer complaints
• No dedicated search team

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6
Challenge #2
Data Driven Culture
• No clear KPIs
• No definition of success
• No A/B testing of algorithms
• No dashboards
Search
Visitors
Non
Search
Visitors
1x
2x
to
3x
Conversion Rates
(Industry)
1.67x

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7
Challenge #3
Speed & Flexibility
• No synergy between Search and Merchandising
• Simple tweaks required code changes and deployments
• Slow to fix simple issues

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8
Challenge #4
Data Management & Processing at Scale
• Processing customer behavior & leveraging in near real time
• Infrastructure did not support

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99
Addressing
Challenges

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10
• 1 Product Manager
• 1 Engineering Manager
• 1 Architect / Principal Engineer
• 1 Solr Engineer
• 1 QA
• 1 Data Scientist
Forming a Team
Road to Relevance

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Fusion Platform
Road to Relevance
• Rapid prototyping
• Testing
• Deployment
• Easy AB testing
+
• Signal aggregation
• Versioning
• Managed rules
• Machine learning

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Measuring Quality
Road to Relevance
● 42 KPIs and supporting metrics defined,
audited, and tracked
● Unlocked power of Google Analytics
● New Search Dashboard automated time-
consuming analysis
● Democratized search domain analysis
● AB testing on iOS

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13
Cross-Functional Feedback
• 30+ Merch Team issues fixed in two weeks
• Reciprocal sharing of knowledge led to quick
understanding
• Most new issues can now be resolved in the
same day
• Giant leap in business agility
MerchandisersRoad to Relevance

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Signal Aggregation
Road to Relevance
• Query : red dress
• Query : red valentino shoes

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Noteworthy Example of
Relevance Tuning
Road To Relevance
• Deep dive into the query logs
• Understanding the customer intent
• Significant increase in the search count

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Conversion Rate
Search vs. Non-Search Sessions
Results
1.7
x

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17
Conversion Rate
Search vs. Non-Search Sessions
Results
1.7
x
2.9
x

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18
Search Quality
https://opensourceconnections.com/blog/2018/11/19/an-introduction-to-search-quality/
Relevance
Experience
Performance
Search
Quality

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THANK YOU

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2020
Questions