Paulmann Licht drives 26% revenue uplift

Paulmann Licht, a leading German lighting manufacturer, wanted to make it easier for customers to find the right products across its extensive online catalog while reducing the manual effort required to maintain search performance. Following a controlled evaluation between its existing search solution and Mastercard Dynamic Yield Experience Search, the retailer achieved a 26% revenue uplift in the test group, revealing a significant opportunity to scale business impact across additional markets.

As product assortments expanded, maintaining search relevance required significant manual effort. Teams regularly adjusted synonyms, field weighting, and business rules to ensure customers could find the products they were looking for. This challenge was particularly acute due to Paulmann Licht’s complex product catalog, where many products exist as part of broader lighting systems. Previous empty search results created dead ends for shoppers. The team wanted a search experience that could better understand search intent, reduce no-results searches, and reduce dependence on manual optimization, along with objective proof that a more intelligent approach could generate meaningful business value.

Paulmann Licht partnered with Mastercard Dynamic Yield to conduct a structured bake-off between its existing search experience and Experience Search. After a joint workshop to align on business objectives, success metrics, and testing methodology, the teams launched a 50/50 A/B test with Experience Search running in its default configuration.

Key capabilities evaluated included Semantic Search, Auto Suggest and Query Understanding, Typo Tolerance, SKU and Product Recognition, and Intelligent Merchandising. Rather than relying exclusively on keyword matching, Mastercard Dynamic Yield analyzes the intent behind a query and connects shoppers with relevant products even when their search terms do not exactly match catalog terminology.

The initial test phase focused exclusively on measuring out-of-the-box performance. Once that baseline was established, the teams worked together to refine relevance for selected high-volume queries. By separating the validation and optimization phases, Paulmann Licht was able to clearly understand the value delivered by the underlying search technology.

The evaluation delivered a statistically significant outcome, with Experience Search achieving a 98% Probability to Be Best. Most importantly, those improvements translated directly into revenue growth, with a 26% revenue uplift among users exposed to the Dynamic Yield Search experience.

Following the evaluation, a value assessment highlighted a significant projected incremental revenue opportunity in the initial test market. Paulmann Licht identified strong potential to extend similar revenue gains across additional markets. Beyond revenue, the project also demonstrated that search relevance could be improved while reducing the operational effort traditionally required to maintain performance.

Paulmann Licht continues to explore additional opportunities, including testing Affinity Boost, evaluating Product Listing Page Search, and exploring Visual Search.