What's next with Mark Dodgson, CXO of Relevant Bits? Read our interview below to learn how his new product Context helps merchants create personalized shopping experiences on Shopify stores.
What is Context?
Context is the easiest to use personalization and A/B testing app on Shopify. Developed for agencies and marketers, Context enables real-time content changes across templates based on rules like customer segment (Shopify & Klaviyo), UTM parameters, Geolocation, Date range, and weather.
Are you funded?
No, we're bootstrapped.
Who do you serve?
Context is proving to be a good fit for brands on Shopify with annual revenue between $500k-$4m.
What's standout about Context?
Context is a no-code solution. Context automatically turns your existing theme sections into areas of personalization. Create content, apply rules and let Context handle the rest. It’s that simple.
What's next at Context?
Expanded Data Integrations: Over the next quarter, we’ll be releasing rules that run when specific cart actions are taken. We’re also building a rule type that enables you to present specific content based on inventory levels.
Enriched Customer Data: We’re going to enrich customer profile data based on previous visitor interactions, enabling better retargeting opportunities for the store, email and SMS. This means we’ll be sending browsing data back to platforms like Klaviyo. Real-Time
Content Modification: We’re building the ability to react and modify content in real-time based on the last interaction.
Marketing Links: We're introducing shareable links to increase conversions and average order value (AOV), driving customers to pre-populated carts and checkouts with auto-applied discounts.
Reporting & Analytics: New updates to metrics is a consistent goal. Over the next quarter, we’ll be rolling out additional improvements to metrics for A/B testing.
What's next in your niche?
Contextualized Experiences – Contextualized personalization looks at the overall context surrounding a customer’s interaction to deliver personalized experiences tailored to that moment in time and situation. Location, time of day, weather, current events, and browsing history are examples of contextual data points that can inform hyper-personalized experiences. – Context already does much of this.
AI-Driven Individualization – With the power of AI, brands can analyze data like purchase history, browsing behaviour, and interactions to determine each customer’s specific preferences, interests, and values.
What's one thing the public doesn't know about your professional background or founder story that has led you to this point in your career?
The idea of Context started in 2017. As a company we decided to take on services work to help fund the product. Within months services became lucrative, the team grew to 17, and it made the journey back to product incredibly challenging. In 2023 we made the difficult decision to focus on product. We stopped taking new work, we let go of projects, and took the difficult step of letting some team members go. While we’re still in transition, we are heading closer to a product focused organization.
What's one thing you wish people paid more attention to in the world?
I think we often forget that work is just one part of our lives. Employees are working harder, longer days, and as a result are experiencing the highest levels of burnout, stress and depression. We’re also seeing the devastating effect it’s having on families. Let’s take care of ourselves.
Who should I interview next?
Trudy MacNabb at Up at Five. Trudy and team have built “Design Packs”. Design packs are pre-designed sections for Shopify themes.