A Guide to E-commerce Personalization: Tactics, Benefits & Adoption

According to a report by Salesforce, 73% of online shoppers expect E-commerce companies to understand their preferences and needs. Another report by McKinsey says 76% of customers don’t appreciate it when companies fail to deliver personalized interactions. Around 62% of customers want companies to ANTICIPATE their NEEDS.

So, what drives better user engagement on an E-commerce platform?

Is it a swanky portfolio of achievements? Or a long list of awards? While these things may matter to increase user engagement on E-commerce platforms, yet they are NOT reliable metrics for determining their brand identity based on user-engagements.

Then what defines better engagement for an E-commerce website?

It is how you PERSONALIZE customers experience in alignment with their needs, demands, and expectations. That’s the reason why E-commerce personalization doesn’t pan out for success for brands, as most of them don’t honor the concept realistically.

For them, personalization means imposing some unrealistic promises on target customers. When such E-commerce personalization tactics are implemented, that’s where the brands start to lose trust and authenticity.

What is E-commerce Personalization Exactly?

TREAT YOUR CUSTOMERS LIKE A VIP.

Yes, that’s what concludes an E-commerce personalization. No fluffy words, no unrealistic promises, and no self-aggrandizing achievements. It all boils down to one and only reality – making your customers feel awesome!

Technically speaking, E-commerce personalization means ensuring a delightful, hassle-free, and great shopping experience for your customers based on some actionable customer data reflecting their behavioral patterns, such as purchase and browsing history, preferences, etc.

These customer datasets are meticulously analyzed (in a reasonable way) by using AI-powered technologies to derive insights into what customers would want and then personalize services or products accordingly to ensure customers engage with brands, and have meaningful shopping experiences.

Note that a brand’s E-commerce personalization journey spans cross-channel, on-site, and in-app. It brings forth improved brand awareness and product discovery, apart from how it drives repeat purchases.

Statistical Overview of E-commerce Personalization

The value of global E-commerce market size was $9.09 trillion in 2019. It is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 14.7% during the forecast period between 2020 to 2027.

According to the report by Salesforce, 73% of customers want E-commerce companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. It has also observed in its findings that a unified experience helps brands build long-term customer relationships.

Benefits of E-commerce Personalization

1. Enables Convenient Shopping Experience For Customers

• Boosts sales as brands help customers cut through the clutter and find what they are looking for
• Allows you to create best purchases intent for customers by serving them product recommendations based on their browsing history
• Helps your business lead customers from brand awareness to repeat purchases

2. Builds Improved Customer Loyalty

• Brands can build a higher level of customer loyalty by personalizing rewards and incentives for customers
• With referral rewards, brands can also build better customer retention and engagement

3. Enhanced Customer Experience

• Personalized products or services help customers narrow down their shopping preferences
• Personalization by not overwhelming customers with excessive options leads to better engagement and customer experience
• Personalizing products serving different demographics or helping customers with curated recommendations results in better customer experience

4. Better Insights Into Customers

• Personalization helps brands gather sufficient knowledge about products preferred by customers
• Customer data insights help you build rich insights into purchasing habits of customers. This way you can personalize recommendations aligning with customers’ expectations
• Data insights can also help brands re-strategize their personalization strategies

List of Top E-commerce Personalization Tools

• Salesforce
• Qubit
• Nosto
• Clerk.io
• Bloomreach
• Yieldify

PRO TIP – Hire a trusted e-commerce software development partner for personalized shopping technologies. Your business will drive enhanced customer experience down the line.

Developing E-commerce Solutions With Top E-commerce Personalization Tactics

1. Tailor Content

Tailor your dynamic content and layout elements, such as information bar, calls-to-actions, pop-ups, and product recommendations to customers’ preferences.

2. Intuitive Recommendations

Analyze customer data using AI automation tools and offer product recommendations based on customers behavioral patterns, preferences, and geolocations. Leverage Product-detail page (PDP) recommendations or maximize dynamic upselling to convert the sales.

3. Multi-Channel Shopping

E-commerce brands can build uninterrupted shopping experiences by allowing customers to pick up their interactions with the company they have left off and enjoy shopping on their preferred channel.

4. Drive Campaigns Based On Data-Insights

E-commerce brands can easily create targeted marketing campaigns resonating with audiences segmented by each specific customer group based on the data collected from different sources.

5. Implement Dynamic Pricing

Brands can use predictive analytics tools on their websites to analyze latest market trends, customer behavior shifts, pricing models of competitors and market forecasts. Based on this analysis, they can implement dynamic pricing in real-time to boost sales and personalize customer experiences.

6. Send personalized emails

Brands can ensure personalized customer experience by emailing newsletters or promotions based on historical data of customers. The emails should be based on behavioral patterns of customers in the past, like recent views, purchases, or items in cart, etc.

7. Improve website’s search engine

E-commerce brands can boost customer engagements on their platforms by improving their site’s search engine. For this, introduce personalized query recommendations or improve your site’s search engine with query auto-completion. These should reflect historical data of customers, like previous search history.

As a result, the tactic would help boost your customers’ purchase intent when they find their desired items so quickly with your site’s intuitive search engine.

Also Read: Future of AI in Search Engine

8. Target dynamic ads

Brands can use this E-commerce personalization tactic to attract customers who have abandoned their carts. Custom-tailored dynamic ads reflect relevant recommendations for customers based on their demographics, preferences, or previous online behavior.

9. Leverage user-specific content

One of the winning E-commerce personalization tactics is by leveraging user-generated content. People appreciate content resonating with their discretion. Such user-generated content is highly impactful, influencing purchasing decisions of customers and fostering a strong bond with the brand.

Companies Exemplifying The Use of E-commerce Personalization Tactics

Amazon

Amazon’s “Frequently bought together” section is one of the finest examples of E-commerce personalization tactics. It simplifies customer journey and makes it more satisfactory by suggesting additional products at checkout that customers can purchase together.

Speedi

A famous E-commerce website based in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Speedi uses personalization tactics to boost customer retention rates and reduce cart abandonment. Using this tactic, the brand has increased in active customers, boosted conversion rates by 28%, and earned customer loyalty 6x times.

ASOS

An online fashion and cosmetic retailer, ASOS leverages E-commerce personalization tactics by simplifying customers’ quest for products based on their search terms. It offers suitable recommendations on related products on category and search pages.

E-commerce Personalization – Adoption Strategies

In this section, we are covering what brands should do before kicking off their E-commerce personalization tactics.

1. Understand Customers

E-commerce brands must have a comprehensive understanding of customers they target. Before you start with personalization, ensure you have sufficient data reflecting each stage of the customer journey.

For this, make use of analytics, email marketing tools, and pop-ups. Create a personalization e-commerce strategy for each segmented customer base to personalize their experiences eventually. The reason why understanding customers matters is how it will pan out success for your E-commerce personalization tactic. Clincher – a customer well-understood is a brand loyalty well earned.

2. Ensure Data Quality for an effective E-commerce personalization

This is essential in the context of ensuring that data is structured, integrated, and made available for personalization. Therefore, E-commerce retailers should ensure that raw data collected from websites and different channels should not remain siloed.

3. Create Customer Journey Maps

Map out the buyer’s journey to build a personified shopping experience for your customers. It will help you figure out areas where you can incorporate personalization more effectively. You can also get an idea of appropriate personalization tactics you should use for each segmented customer group.

4. Personalize experience through omnichannel

While you can personalize the experience of your customers through your E-commerce websites, there are different channels you can use to personalize customer experiences. For example, you can leverage social media channels, live chats, and other communication channels for every customer interaction.

Know More: Ecommerce Security Threat

Closing Statements

E-commerce personalization is an intelligent business strategy that online retailers can leverage to improve customer experiences on their digital platforms. Top-rated brands like Amazon are already making use of this E-commerce personalization tactic giving new definition of excitement and purpose to their customers.

In fact, personalization has become one of the most powerful industry standards for cultivating brand loyalty, customer relationships, and conversion rates. To implement personalization in your E-commerce business successfully, the most important thing is to gain absolute clarity on your customers, understanding their wants, and preferences. Enhance your strategy by incorporating the right tech stack for eCommerce development to ensure seamless and effective personalization.

Based on data reflecting behavioral patterns of customers, you can create a solid roadmap for your E-commerce personalization, like personalizing products and services commensurate with your customers’ expectations and needs. At last, you can consider hiring an E-commerce website development company to build a loyal customer base for your E-commerce platform. Binmile is one such name that can help you with the futuristic solutions. The Software development company it offers have already assisted leading brands improve their customer experiences several times. Schedule a call with our expert for more details.