Confused.com clicks on analytics to improve customer understanding

Price comparison site opts for SAS software to better segment clients

Confused.com wants to better target car insurance customers

Price comparison web site Confused.com is to implement analytics software to help understand its customers better and so boost sales.

The online firm is to work with supplier SAS to better segment its market, and to target customers more effectively with the aim of increasing the number of new clients and improving retention of existing ones.

The company said it hopes to be able to look at which customers buy what, why they buy it and when, to identify the best people to target with offerings such as home insurance, utility services and financial products.

Traffic to the Confused.com web site has been increasing as consumers seek to shop around for the best deals available during the recession.

“Our main requirements are to reduce our cost of offer, bring down marketing costs, improve cross-sales with other products on the site, and increase retention,” said Tom Beverley, customer director at Confused.com.

“We want to improve the level of customer insight and are developing a lot of personal finance products that require better one-to-one targeting. Prior to SAS, customer insight was limited to information gathered via car insurance quotes, with no segmentation apart from very simple demographics such as age and TV region.”

Confused.com operates in an increasingly competitive market, against rivals such as Comparethemarket.com, moneysupermarket.com, Uswitch.com and Tesco, with growing costs for high-profile TV and advertising campaigns to attract customers.