I’m excited to share that today INFORMS announced Wayfair received the 2022 INFORMS Prize, which recognizes businesses for their “sustained and enduring achievement and success of utilizing Operations Research (O.R.) and analytics into our organizational decision making.”
INFORMS is an excellent organization comprised of data science, analytics, and operations research professionals. Like many on our technology team, their members recognize the incredible impact data can have on decision-making, and each year they come together to recognize companies that are demonstrating real-life results. Thanks to the fantastic work of our entire team, this year’s winners include Wayfair.
Our focus on data isn’t new. Wayfair was born a data-driven business, and since the beginning infusing information into decision-making processes throughout the company has been a priority. These insights allow us to make informed data-driven decisions. This includes delivering engaging and personalized online experiences for customers, presenting multichannel marketing campaigns that are timely and relevant for each recipient, the list goes on.
If you’ve ever wondered how an investment in technology, data science, and operations research can impact your business, consider this—in 2021, it drove more than $14 billion in revenue for Wayfair! Naturally, figures like this bring tremendous satisfaction to the team, but they don’t stop our desire to push the needle a little further.
The latest example of this drive and innovation is the solution that captured the attention of this year’s INFORMS judges. It’s a new data-driven attribution system that our team developed onsite.
Live now, the system chooses the right marketing to maximize return, and it works across all customer life stages, from newly acquired shoppers to repeat buyers. It also features an onsite sort algorithm that automatically determines the default experience for customers. That includes which content to show to each customer, in which categories, and how. We expect these capabilities will allow us to quantifiably drive more than $1 billion additional revenue from ad-spend.
When that happens, you will be the first to know. Until then, I would like to again recognize the entire team and thank you for all of your incredible work. This recognition from INFORMS is significant, and thanks to you, we can now put the Wayfair name next to past winners such as Amazon, Ford, Walt Disney, and many more. Now take a bow!