We guess you are here for a reason. Personal customer experiences have always counted in for online shops but even more so in times of Covid-19. With physical distance being the new norm, your customers now more than ever need genuine personal attention online.
Easier said than done, though. Have you ever tried offering your customers a unique shopping experience that addresses needs in real-time? You must be certain that ecommerce marketers are continuously hunting for new creative ways to do it.
In this article, we will briefly cover what customer personalization entails. We will see how it contributes to a stellar shopping experience and why it is important to consider it within your strategy. Then, we will move to some tested personalization tactics for ecommerce and fancy examples to inspire.
Are you interested in what customers share about their personalization experience? If yes, take a look at this two-minute IBM video featuring various people speaking about their preferences.
What is Customer Personalization?
Definition
Although we already suggested what customer personalization in ecommerce may mean, here comes a possible definition:
“eCommerce Personalization is the process of delivering personal experiences on eCommerce sites by dynamically showing content, product recommendations and specific offers based on previous actions, browsing behaviour, purchase history, demographics, and other personal data.”
– BloomReach
In practice, this entails that you do study your customer profiles, collect data about their shopping behaviour and invest efforts into offering targeted content.
We also immediately encounter three pre-conditions without which personalization in ecommerce is unlikely: 1) dynamic content, 2) customer history; 3) customer type.
As all these form aspects of regular marketing activity, personalization works best if integrated with your overall strategy.
When we arrive at our examples below, we will see how personalized customer experience may become a powerful tactic to leverage the best of your desired marketing effect.
Personalization Benefits
Among other things, a personalized shopping experience in ecommerce contributes to better conversion rates, stronger brand resonance, and lasting customer relationships. No doubt, this is what most ecommerce customers seem to also expect.
Let us see some of the prominent customer attitudes towards personalization in retail, according to recent research:
- 91% of customers say they are more likely to buy from brands who remember purchase history and provide recommendations;
- 83% of consumers would not mind sharing their data to enable personalized experience;
- 74% of clients think they will value their online profiles better if they are used for personal suggestions.
Should you be interested in learning more, we encourage you to do so here.
7 Personalization Examples you Would Like to Copy
1. Customer Product Fit
If your customers need to select among several product versions to complete their purchase, figure out how to help them seamlessly do it. Quizzes usually do a fantastic job here.
Let us see how we approached this issue for a great customer of ours! In the picture below, you may study how we integrated a product quiz to support the end customer’s choice. You may see the full project here.
Source: The NAP Lab
2. Personalized Product Suggestions
Addressing customer questions beforehand is one of the most effective ways to go to ensure a stellar shopping experience. This way, you will be segmenting customers from the moment they step onto your home page.
Let us take a look at the cosmetic brand of Function of Beaty. By entering their website, one may be immediately certain that he is going to make a truly personal choice of a product.
3. Customized shopping experience
A step further in any personal shopping experience is if customers are given the chance to co-create the product they are willing to buy. This type of personalization may involve changing colours, using custom photos for prints, etc.
This is how we enriched the new Dodge’s website with the option of personalizing car interiors. In the snapshot below you can see the opportunity for changing armchair colours. If you want to learn more about this particular project, please continue here.
Source: Dodge
4. Smart and relevant reviews
Social proof has manifested itself as a motivator number one for completing purchases. That is why online shop reviews are the main tool to achieve it.
Research shows that it is most beneficial if your customer recommendations are specific, searchable, and informative. You may also think of integrating a discussion forum to let people connect and discuss their customer experience with your brand.
One of the most quoted examples in this respect is offered by the beauty brand Sephora:
5. Tailored product education
Creating a personalized customer journey via education may be another winning strategy for your sales. Sometimes, it is imperative.
Let us take a look at how this unfolds for Fitbit. The brand tells the story of how to improve health by professionally managing individual sports activities. To take full advantage of any Fitbit product, however, one needs to walk the path of self-education.
6. Augmented Reality for Real-Life Customer Experiences
Another effective way of making the customer get the feel of your product, no matter if only online, is by coming up with a digital showroom.
The feature works perfectly well both online, and in combination with a mobile app. Concerning the first one, it has been our specialty to deliver augmented reality (AR) projects for the automotive industry for years. As we have written about them in previous articles, you are welcome to consult our Hyundai project here.
If you would like to see a straightforward presentation on how this may be achieved by a mobile app take a look at one of the pioneers in the field – IKEA.
Source: IKEA Place
7. A customer-oriented policy tactic
Finally, a really important personalization upgrade to your online store may be attained by your return policy. According to new research, more than 90% of customers will come back to your store if they find your return policy satisfactory.
Are we on the same page?
Thanks to the new technologies, personal customer experience in ecommerce is evolving faster than ever. This trend has been additionally strengthened by the closure of brick-and-mortars as a result of COVID-19.
The personalized shopping experience may add to your conversion rate, brand recognition and customer loyalty. It is a powerful strategy to integrate within your overall sales and marketing mix.
You may create personalization in retail by considering these proven 7 ecommerce tactics:
- Personalize your product fit and suggestions;
- Create a shopping experience to remember;
- Introduce value-adding features such as smart customer recommendations, customer education;
- Examine what the latest technologies such as AR can offer;
- Revise your e-commerce policies.
If you would like to explore the topic further or see how we design personalized solutions first-hand, do not be shy to get in touch!
