Luke JohnsonIn today’s economy, amidst tremendous growth of online shopping, merchants are evaluating different approaches to acquire highly valued customers, convert shopping carts to purchases, retain customers, drive repeat purchases and create stronger customer loyalty… and the solution is this: Personalized eCommerce.
Brick-and-mortar retail stores have an advantage over online stores in that they can offer personalized service. In-store sales persons can interact with the customers to find out wants, needs, and preferences, and can then suggest additional items to complement the existing items.
Existing batch and present mode in online stores
- Batch and blast mode – the same site experience and offers are presented to every shopper.
- No customer segmentation based on behavior patterns while presenting products and offers.
- Most eCommerce stores simply present the best current selling product to all the shoppers, which isn’t necessarily relevant to each customer.
- This results in lower conversion rates.
Personalized eCommerce/Offer Management Platform
- Personalized products/offers at the right time and in the right place.
- Adaptive based on demographic, behavioral, and transactional data.
- Multi-dimensional learning – My Store, My Category, My Brands, Popular Store, Popular Product, Popular Offers, etc.
- Multi-Channel – Web, Mobile, Tablet, etc.
In the age of the Internet of Things and the “data revolution,” information about the customer is coming from multiple sources (devices ranging from laptop to mobile to tablet, and platforms ranging from search to social media). In fact, enormous amounts of data related to customer likes and dislikes is available, which should lead to richer customer insights.
When personalized and relevant products or offers are presented to the customer, the retailer creates a personalized experience that reflects the customer’s behavioral preferences — 59% of online shoppers say it is easier to find interesting products on personalized eCommerce stores, and 45% are more likely to shop on a site that offers personalized recommendations. Just as an example, buying the right bottle of wine is made easier when you see your favorite wine in your searches and in your personalized pages.
- 75% of consumers like it when brands personalize products and offers.
- Personalized Products/Offers improve click-through rates by 14%, and conversion rates by 10%.
- 61% of consumers prefer offers, even if this results in less privacy.
- 56% of consumers say they would be more inclined to use a retailer if it offered a good personalized experience.
- Nearly three-fourths (74%) of online consumers get frustrated with websites when content (e.g. offers, ads, promotions) appears that has nothing to do with their interests.
- O2’s study “The Rise of Me-tail” shows that adding personalization experience to shopping could lift sales by 7.8%.
- 40% of consumers buy more from retailers who personalize the shopping experience across channels.
- 94% of companies agree that personalization “is critical to current and future success.”
Personalizing the entire shopping experience translates directly to higher conversion rates and higher order values. Shoppers who engage with personalized recommendations typically convert 353% more frequently than shoppers who do not engage with personalized recommendations. Amazon’s analytical approach to personalization has led them to making $ 543 in revenue per user, the highest among online retailers, and ten times more than Groupon, the second highest.
Sources:
http://www.practicalecommerce.com/articles/63629-How-to-Personalize-Shopping-on-an-Ecommerce-Site
https://blog.kissmetrics.com/analytics-ecommerce-conversion-rates/
http://frosmo.com/en/blog/can-you-measure-the-benefits-of-personalization-to-your-ecommerce-business#.VMnUcWiUdqV
http://www.smartinsights.com/conversion-optimisation/product-page-optimisation/web-personalization-software/
http://www.richrelevance.com/
http://www.retentionscience.com/
This article originally appeared on the Echidna blog and has been republished with permission.
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