TrustRadius: an HG Insights company

Zaius (discontinued)

Score7.7 out of 10

15 Reviews and Ratings

What is Zaius (discontinued)?

Zaius, or Optimizely Data Platform after being acquired by Optimizely in March 2021, was a a customer data platform, or as the vendor describes it, B2C CRM. It helped B2C marketers grow revenue from their existing customer base using segmentation, personalization, marketing automation, and attribution tools. It is discontinued.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Zaius (discontinued).
View all reviews

Optimizely Data Platform - A Solid Option

Incentivized
Adam BorbelyView profile
Digital Marketing Specialist in Marketing at WeGotSoccer (51-200 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We rely on Optimizely Data Platform on a daily basis to execute our email marketing plan, allowing us to adequately segment our audience for targeted communications as well as trigger automated messages like cart and browse abandonment, welcome series, win-back, and anniversary campaigns.

Pros

  • It's relatively simple to use
  • Segment building is quick and can be easily customized with field data
  • Chat support is generally fast to respond

Cons

  • Needs a more robust SMS marketing tool
  • Wish we had more control over reporting (e.g customizing the attribution model)
  • Account service has been lacking since Optimizely Data Platform takeover

Most Important Features

  • Easy and accurate segment building
  • Control over field data creation

Return on Investment

  • Aided us in achieving the best Black Friday/Cyber period in our company's history, with sales up over 40% YOY

Alternatives Considered

Mailchimp

Other Software Used

Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe Illustrator CC, Creator by Zmags

User-Friendly Platform

Incentivized
Laura Mahoney
Content Manager in Marketing at Guest Supply (1001-5000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Optimizely Data Platform is used to manage product content and drive product taxonomy and classifications.

Pros

  • It is extremely user friendly.
  • It is very flexible and allows me to make product adjustments at a large scale quickly and efficiently.

Cons

  • Automation of data from other platforms such as our ERP.
  • The approval process needs work. I should be able to flag fields that have issues and give users feedback if a product is rejected.

Most Important Features

  • Multiple edits.
  • Filtering and exporting product data.

Return on Investment

  • We hit record numbers this year in regards to sales which is attributed to the launch of our new e-commerce website.

Other Software Used

Appsian360 for SAP and PeopleSoft, Optimizely B2C Commerce Cloud

I do not believe there is anything better

Incentivized
Steven LaffView profile
Principal in Corporate at A Far Site Better LLC (1-10 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Zaius for email marketing, and unlike every other platform I have used over the past 15 years (I know, a scary long time), Zaius is the first that basically does not impose limitations on our ideas for how we want to market.

For example, they can do the usual email suspects, such as cart abandonment and browse abandonment. But I hate getting browse abandonment emails for products I looked at once and never went back to. Or when I bought something else in the same category as what I looked at, I sure as heck do not need a reminder email about looking at that again. With Zaius, we simply do not send out browse abandonment emails unless someone has looked at the same item X number of times within Y number of hours or days, and did not add something from the same category to my cart.

That is just a simple example of how Zaius allows us to pretty much put into action virtually any idea we want easily. It allows us to do things way more intricate than that WITHOUT THEM HAVING TO DO ANYTHING. Once you learn the system, what you can do on your own is astounding.

Pros

  • Support. This is the Achilles heel for so many companies, not here. They are top flight and the best part is they have so little turnover. Everyone I worked with three years ago is still there. In different positions at the time, but still there and they still help us when needed. That is VERY reassuring.
  • Product Roadmap. They are always working on the platform, always moving forward and always listening to their customers. Maybe with me, they pretend to listen, but things get done! :)
  • Their people. A company is only as good as its people, and these folks are genuinely engaged and caring. I love that.
  • Transparent. Whenever there is any technical issue with the platform, I get an email telling me exactly what is happening, how it effects their service and that they are working on it. This is honesty at its best.

Cons

  • They finally have gotten on-site recommendations, hooray! I wish it happened sooner, and it is still early in its development, so I would say some things take longer than I would hope to do. But who does not feel that way about everyone? The key here is it gets done, and they keep improving things, which I love.
  • I would like there to be more opportunities to use it outside of eCommerce. I would love to use it for content-specific sites, but honestly, that is not what it was built for, so I will shut up about that now.

Return on Investment

  • VERY positive effect on ROI. Email is the most cost-efficient marketing channel there is.
  • They have just added their own SMS powered solution. This makes it so much more economical than other solutions. And that also means they will keep improving on it like they do with everything else they do.

Other Software Used

Intercom, WordTracker

Solid CDP & ESP!

Incentivized
Verified User
Employee in Marketing (11-50 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

My team uses Optimizely Data Platform as a CDP and ESP. The tool makes it easy for us to store and use data, and we also regularly use it for additional tasks such as reporting, sending surveys to customers, and setting up onsite captures or pop-ups. It has been a sufficient tool to run both drip campaigns and promotional/one-time emails.

Pros

  • Drip Campaigns - ease of setup & reporting.
  • Onsite Forms - again, ease of setup.
  • Data Manipulation.

Cons

  • A/B testing within priority groups.
  • Ability to delete custom fields.
  • Support team could be quicker to solve larger problems.

Most Important Features

  • Support team.
  • Open-Source.
  • Ability to house custom attributes, flows, reports, etc.

Return on Investment

  • Positive impact on rev.
  • Increase in team bandwidth.
  • Increase in customer capture rate.

Alternatives Considered

MailerLite, Mailchimp, Attentive Mobile, Remarkety and HubSpot CRM

Other Software Used

Optimizely Web Experimentation, Heap, Looker, Atlassian Jira Align, Asana

Innovation Stalled A Bit When Optimizely Took Over

Incentivized
Verified User
Manager in Marketing (201-500 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

I use the platform for email and mms marketing. The platform allows me to combine in store purchases with website activity in order to create more relevant marketing audiences.

Pros

  • marketing segment creation

Cons

  • Reporting
  • Pop ups
  • UX

Most Important Features

  • segmentation

Return on Investment

  • positive

Alternatives Considered

HubSpot Marketing Hub, Listrak and Mailchimp

Other Software Used

Google Ads, Meta for Business, Canva, Yext, Semrush

Usability