IBM Acquires Tealeaf To Add Customer Buying Analytics To Smarter Commerce Products

Another week, another IBM acquisition. Big Blue has announced the purchase of Tealeaf Technology, which provides customer experience analytics software that helps organizations access information about consumer web experiences. Financial details were not disclosed.

Basically, Tealeaf’s software captures and records what each customer is doing and seeing in real-time on every page and across all site visits, down to the page-by-page, browser-level experience. By capturing every single customer’s visit, as well as the reaction of the site in response to the customer’s requests, Tealeaf captures both the quantitative and qualitative details of every single interaction. This data is then used towards optimizing the customer experience.

For example, Tealeaf can identify what campaigns or interactions triggered a customer session to end prematurely and result in a non-conversion. Another example of Tealeaf’s technology in action is an online travel agency finding that when visitors misspell a vacation package name and receive zero search results, nearly 100 percent of the visitors leave the site without completing a booking.

IBM says the acquisition is part of enhancing its smarter commerce initiative. Tealeaf’s technology will add analytics for clients who want real-time and automated insights into online customer buying experiences across online and mobile devices. As a result, IBM says that organizations can gain actionable insight that allows them to improve customer support, transform site usability, tailor marketing campaigns and increase online conversion rates.

Tealeaf has over 450 customers worldwide including 30 of the Fortune 100 companies, including Dell, Wells Fargo, Air Canada, GEICO, Orbitz, Crate & Barrel, Neiman Marcus, Expedia, Zappos, ING Direct, Best Buy, DirecTV, McKesson and StubHub. The company has raised $12 million from Bay Partners, Matrix Partners and Foundation Capital.

Big Blue is betting on commerce software as a whole. IBM, which has invested more than $3 billion in building out its smarter commerce group of products, says Tealeaf will be integrated into IBM’s Enterprise Marketing and Management Group, which includes previously acquired assets from Coremetrics, Unica and DemandTec. IBM says its Smarter Commerce initiative, which aims to help companies respond to shifting customer buying patterns, is a $20 billion market opportunity, particularly in the software space.