Cloud IQ, a commerce optimisation platform, has raised a £4 million round, including an investment from PayPal, to widen its digital marketing customer base. Cloud IQ interprets data and behaviour to provide individual e-commerce experiences, with the end goal of converting consumers to loyal customers. Its clients include global brands such as Samsung, EE and TUI, which also use the platform’s automated artificial intelligence (AI) platform to complete more customer journeys, driving up revenues and increasing marketing ROI.

Today, the company announced the £4 million investment from existing investors Nauta Capital, Juno and Finance Wales, and new addition, PayPal. Alongside a capital injection, PayPal’s involvement also means that e-commerce businesses can use the payment option to track their transactions with Cloud IQ to optimise the consumer journey.

“Through our recent partnership with Cloud IQ it is clear we share a common vision to improve the consumer journey,” said Jeremy Jonker, VP, head of global corporate development at PayPal. “Today, artificial intelligence powered technology is finally able to deliver individualised consumer experiences at scale. PayPal is excited to support Cloud IQ as they bring to market solutions that improve the overall shopping experience on both web and mobile.”

The increased funding will be used to build new engineering teams, senior hires and the opening of a new customer service centre in Cardiff, Wales, according to Cloud IQ. “To close this round of funding, with participation by PayPal, is testament to the momentum we are building at Cloud IQ,” said Cloud IQ co-founder and CEO, James Critchley.

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On average, 75 per cent of customers will abandon their basket without buying, according to Cloud IQ. This rate can differ dramatically depending on the product you’re selling and industry you’re in, but in general, cart abandoners are the bane of e-Commerce retailers the world over. Cloud IQ’s features to counter this include cartRecovery, which lets e-retailers track site visitors and automatically re-engage if they abandon their shopping cart, typically increasing conversion rates by up to 20 per cent.

When shopping online, the majority of people draw up a shortlist of competing products or websites before making a purchase. The cartRecovery feature lets retailers monitor shopping basket items and capture user interactions so that iff the purchase is abandoned, a chain of three personalised emails can be sent out to lure these abandoners back online to complete their purchase. Cloud IQ’s basket reminder overlay is another feature that targets cart abandoners. Basket reminders detect when a customer is about to leave a site with items still in their basket, at which point an overlay message offering to send the basket by email appears. According to Cloud IQ, its clients that run a basket reminder campaign typically see 27 per cent of customers clicking back to complete their purchase, and a 3.5 per cent uplift against total sales.

Another key reason people abandon their carts is the lack of diverse payment options; an option PayPal’s involvement may address. As Cloud IQ’s Critchley added, “we are pioneering new technology which makes the internet work better for the individual, starting with e-commerce.”