SiteSpect

Score8 out of 10

20 Reviews and Ratings

What is SiteSpect?

Key features include: - A/B, split, and multivariate testing campaign management - Targeting and personalization - Front-end usability testing - Back-end testing using Origin Experiments - Site acceleration with SiteSpect AMPS(R) - Mobile site and native app support

Categories & Use Cases

A/B Testing

William Van Fleet View profile

Manager II, Digital Commerce Operations in Marketing at 1-800 CONTACTS (501-1000 employees employees)

Pros

One of the primary reasons we selected SiteSpect was the fact that the experience is flicker-free. From that standpoint, it is still more capable than any platform we've seen demonstrated.
SiteSpect is very useful to run "target" type campaigns. For our purposes, we can quickly deploy changes that would require more lengthy core development times.
SiteSpect's support is top notch, and the tool is so robust that almost any testing scenario can be realized.

Cons

We've never been able to reconcile SiteSpect's analytics with our own, so the value of that offering is completely lost on us.
SiteSpect isn't a business user friendly tool. We use either front-end or full-stack developers to build and deploy our tests. Without some front-end dev knowledge, a marketer would probably find SiteSpect intimidating or difficult to use.
While SiteSpect is truly flicker-free, the functionality comes at the expense of an extra hop for our website visitors. This can add latency and complicate troubleshooting efforts.

Return on Investment

SiteSpect has definitely provided a consistent ROI on the testing front. I can't discuss specific numbers, but the tool has allowed us to generate revenue through successful tests and by streamlining certain optimization efforts.
The technical knowledge required to successfully execute tests and campaigns in SiteSpect requires a meaningful investment in talented developers and capable analysts. I would expect a small or inexperienced organization to have a lot of difficulty getting the same value.
SiteSpect has enabled us to deploy a lot of proof-of-concept experiences much more rapidly than we could have otherwise. As long as it is administered by capable staff, it is reliable and a great way to go to market rapidly.

Other Software Used

Demandware, Adobe Photoshop, JIRA Software

Jonathan Hodak View profile

Senior javascript developer in Corporate at Target (10,001+ employees employees)

Pros

It is able to intercept the code from your server, inject your code and then it continues on to the end-user's computer with virtually no speed interruptions.
It has several different options for performing A/B tests from regular factors to client-side factors, and origin experiments.
It is extremely flexible and configurable for the needs of your company or organization.

Cons

SiteSpect has a number of areas that are a bit difficult for users to understand, the main one being traffic allocation. Without getting into a long example the basic fact is that if you have 10 experiments running, it is very possible to have a very difficult time understanding how much traffic is going to each test, which is obviously not ideal for A/B testing. This problem is being addressed and hopefully will be fixed before 2017.
SiteSpect is very powerful, and it does have a GUI interface to help you make simple changes to your website, however to really use it to its potential, you will need developers who are comfortable with advanced CSS and JavaScript to use it.
The workflow of setting up experiments in Sitespect is also a little counter-intuitive. This is being addressed and fixed, but as it sits currently it does take some getting used to.

Return on Investment

SiteSpect has had a huge impact on this business, being in the online retail market A/B testing can have enormous impacts especially when you are using it on a website that has millions of visitors a day.
SiteSpect has also allowed us to rapidly implement hotfixes on several occasions where we had a known problem and fixing the problem on the production environment would take time, this gave us a kind of quick fix until we could implement the permanent solution.

avinash cipalli

Web Developer - Consultant in Marketing at Intuit (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Pros

If we have a production bug, we can release the temporary fix without a build, provided the bug is a front-end related.
We can test multiple modules in a single campaign (or A/B test).
We can control the traffic flow and designate who will be eligible for the test and who will be not.

Cons

We have not been using the product long enough to understand any potential shortcomings.

Return on Investment

We can control the what percentage of the traffic needs to see the change.
We can run multiple parallel tests in the site.

Bobby Patterson

at Optimetrum LLC (10,001+ employees employees)

Pros

SiteSpect's architecture is superior to other optimization tools because it eliminates the need for post-render calls to overwrite default site content. That means you don't have to worry about a flickering effect.
Because SiteSpect listens to http traffic and modifies the requested page on the fly, it is very easy to instrument tests on your site. You don't have to modify the production version of your code.
SiteSpect's origin experiment capabilities allow you to test and optimize server-side application code. This feature is extremely valuable for optimizing applications such as checkout on an e-commerce site.

Cons

SiteSpect recently came out with a feature to test and optimize mobile applications. I have not used this, but it fills an important capability gap with the product I was using at the time.

Return on Investment

I'm not able to share exact numbers for confidentiality reasons, but I've seen the significant increases in conversion in an e-commerce environment through the use of SiteSpect. These are big numbers that get the attention of senior executives.
Beyond the gains you can get by using SiteSpect to optimize conversion, you can also save money by using SiteSpect to test the value of content and 3rd-party applications on your site. It's a great tool for evaluating 3rd-party products on your site because you can expose them to a limited audience and determine whether or not they really add value.