Shop Direct is investing “significant” cash in developing personalisation software as it optimises how it uses its data.

The online retailer wants to improve both the way it uses its current crop of data, and start using more unstructured data, such as data from social networks or the body of emails.

Shop Direct chief information officer Andy Wolfe said: “Personalisation is big on our agenda. We’re investing heavily in data science and analytics and will use that to drive what you see on the site.”

He said the business is currently evaluating which method to use but it plans to roll out its preferred choice within the next 18 months.

Speaking at the Amazon Web Services summit, Wolfe said personalisation is one of several technology priorities for the business at the moment, and that technology investment is increasing at Shop Direct.

He added cloud technology helps the etailer experiment with different technologies more easily. “You don’t have to invest in fixed infrastructure and you can learn about [the technology] more quickly,” he added.