In this third and new quest for Humanising Technology, we are lucky to count on Andreas Wagner, Founder and CTO of SearchHub.io, with whom we explore and reflect on the present and future of relevance.

The concept of relevance within Commerce has evolved extraordinarily in recent years, a concept that is pivotal to the success of any commerce venture and yet one that still remains difficult to define.

How could we judge and measure relevance? And most importantly, how could we make journeys more enjoyable and transparent through understandable relevance?

Relevance is a complex multi-dimensional challenge, one that can’t be explained in the absence of perceptions, subjectivity and the mental process that accompanies the interpretation of that which we see, as subjects. 

Being relevant is no longer about showing customers what we believe shall be the best representation, but about inspiring them by evoking positive feelings in the discovering of products.

In this light, Relevance shall not be judged in a global scale since each customer’s perceptions are unique. Thus, commerce should try to provide its consumers with options and open avenues instead that both handle results and their form, structure and state.

By recognising subjectivity and perceptions as key actors in the interpretation of relevance, we are also recognising that automating relevance needs more than perceptible traces of user-event data.

As Andreas points out, “when venturing ourselves into the next future of search, navigation and commerce,  there is still a rather feasible possibility of not knowing what the ideal set of products looks like for each customer, but instead of focusing on the perfect product, we shall focus on the perfect path towards that product”

Plug in and enjoy!