AUSTIN, Texas, Feb. 23, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bazaarvoice, Inc., a leading provider of consumer-generated content (CGC), advertising, and personalization solutions, today announced it has acquired AddStructure, a provider of state-of-the-art search and discovery applications for e-commerce companies. The acquisition will strengthen Bazaarvoice’s core consumer-generated content offerings of online ratings and reviews and bolster shopper profiles across the Bazaarvoice Network.
Consumers rely on ratings and reviews when searching for products and deciding what to buy, but when considering products with high volumes of review content, finding the most helpful information can be difficult and time-consuming. AddStructure’s platform uses machine learning and natural language processing technology to analyze large amounts of consumer-generated content to extract and summarize product reviews based on key themes and sentiment. These solutions make product search and discovery faster, easier and more enjoyable for consumers and boost their confidence to make informed purchases.
The combination exemplifies Bazaarvoice and AddStructure’s shared vision and commitment to leverage the promise of cutting-edge machine learning and natural language processing technology, applied to one of the world’s largest sets of consumer-generated content and Bazaarvoice’s unique shopper data, to deliver next-generation product and feature enhancements across the Bazaarvoice platform.
“As consumer behavior continues to evolve, brands and retailers must keep pace with new shopping trends and technologies to deliver engaging and consumer-friendly shopping experiences,” said Gene Austin, CEO of Bazaarvoice. “AddStructure’s advanced capabilities in natural language processing and machine learning are an incredible addition to our product portfolio and we are excited to partner with the AddStructure team to bring innovative e-commerce solutions to market and deliver tremendous value to our clients.”
“We created AddStructure to make it easy and convenient for consumers to discover products across any shopping channel and on any device,” said Jarrod Wolf, CEO of AddStructure. “We’re excited to join Bazaarvoice because of their extensive experience in the ratings and reviews space and their impressive network of brand and retail websites. Integrating our technology with their network data will help shoppers across a larger number of retail verticals and categories find the most relevant products and make the best shopping choices.”
AddStructure is one of 10 companies that participated in the first-ever Techstars Retail Accelerator in partnership with Target, a program that invests in startups disrupting the retail space. Leading retailers like Target and Best Buy have used AddStructure’s cutting-edge technology to distill the most relevant online reviews and customer questions that help consumers make their purchase decisions.
“AddStructure was in our very first Techstars Retail Accelerator program and watching the team’s ideas come to life has been incredibly rewarding,” said Ryan Broshar, Managing Director of the accelerator program. “We are thrilled that Bazaarvoice also recognized AddStructure’s talent and potential; combining these companies will lead to more exciting innovations that will disrupt the retail industry and consumer shopping experiences.”
AddStructure’s employees will join Bazaarvoice’s product, engineering and client success teams and will operate out of New York City and Chicago, where the company was founded.
About AddStructure
AddStructure provides state-of-the-art search and discovery applications for e-commerce companies. Each day, millions of consumers interact with AddStructure's products and data. Applications of the technology range from review summarization (distilling thousands of reviews of a product into digestible pros and cons) to a complete conversational commerce system (chatting with an intelligent digital assistant to find and purchase products).
About Bazaarvoice
Bazaarvoice helps brands and retailers find and reach consumers, and win them with the content they trust. Each month in the Bazaarvoice Network, more than one-half billion consumers view and share authentic consumer-generated content (CGC), including ratings and reviews as well as curated visual content, across 5,000 brand and retail websites. This visibility into shopper behavior allows Bazaarvoice to capture unique first-party data and insights that fuel our targeted advertising and personalization solutions.
Founded in 2005, Bazaarvoice is headquartered in Austin, Texas with offices across North America and Europe. For more information, visit www.bazaarvoice.com
Media Contact
Alison Kwong
Bazaarvoice, Inc.
pr@bazaarvoice.com