Amazon has been using algorithms to try to sell you extra stuff for years. But the technology to personalise merchandising, much further than recommendations, is advancing rapidly across ecommerce. Companies such as Sentient and Apptus and their AI-powered systems are changing site search functionality, product lists, facets and more, to try to generate more sales. I caught up with Sören Meelby, VP Marketing at Apptus, to get an introduction to the technology (Apptus eSales), and to pose some questions about the user experience in online retail. Sören Meelby: Each and every sort order typically follows a logic or business rules and'most popular' is fairly straight forward.