By Aimee Chanthadavong

Getprice has launched Next Commerce as its next step in moving forward after buying back the business from News Limited last October.

Getprice co-founder and executive director Chris Hitchen and his senior management team will run Next Commerce as a fully independent operation.

“This transition has been on the agenda from the day we regained control of Getprice,” Hitchen said.

“We have always understood the considerable value of our assets and capability and are now in the perfect position to leverage those into new initiatives that support the rapid growth of e-commerce.”

As part of Next Commerce, a number of e-commerce initiatives will be introduced to the Australian market. Currently under development include TROVA and Hynt, a personalised product recommendation engine for retail applications.

TROVA is expected to launch in November 2013 and is described to be a “fashion and style discovery destination”.

“What makes TROVA different is that it is like having an army of magazine market editors at your fingertips,” David Whiteman, Next Commerce group director of product and marketing, said.

“TROVA helps shoppers discover the best, most interesting, and most relevant and personalised product selections through a combination of editorial curation and machine learning.”

Meanwhile Hynt is a SaaS integration for retailers that focused on product recommendations based on consumer intent across Getprice, the retailer's own site, and other partner shopping sites rather than simply relying on what people are searching for in that moment.

“It enables discovery on retail sites,” Whiteman said.

“The benefits for retailers are that Hynt increases average basket size, lifetime value of the customer, and repeat visits. Hynt improves the retail experience.”

The company also plans to launch an audience targeting solution, utilising the company’s large proprietary datasets, including those obtained through Getprice’s three million monthly visitors.

“Data is quickly becoming the most important competitive advantage in commerce,” Hitchen said.

“With Next Commerce, data is central to our strategy and our role is to help retailers unlock its potential. Getprice is one of the largest sources of consumer intent data in Australia. We will be leveraging that data to help retailers engage with in-market shoppers more effectively.”

Next Commerce has secured a “significant” round of funding from private investors to bolster its growth strategy, according to Hitchen.