Personalisation of ecommerce

Personalisation of the ecommerce experience is increasingly seen as the Holy Grail of online shopping and the key to bridging the gap between online and in-store retail. But why is it is so important and what are the latest developments?

Late last year, Tesco’s CIO announced that personalisation would be the next big thing for retail technology.

“In the last decade digital technology has given retailers the ability to forge a personal relationship with their customers, and through Clubcard we are increasingly understanding more about what our customers want, how they shop, their stage in life, their tastes, their habits and so on,” Mike McNamara told The Guardian.

“In that way, new technologies put the customer firmly in the driving seat, which is exactly how it should be.”

Personalisation is a big theme in the way ecommerce is shaping. A personal experience is one of the things that brick-and-mortar stores are perceived to have an advantage over online stores in.

“Customer experience is essential to the success of any retailer, whether it be on the high street or online. However, the key to ecommerce success is personalisation,” says Roland Breadner, eCommerce sales executive, PEER1 Hosting.

“While in-store staff can quickly adapt to different customer profiles, by adjusting tactics depending on how much a buyer wants to spend or be ‘helped’ online retailers can look to incorporate the same approach, via analytics and personalisation tools that create an experience worth paying a premium for.”

The challenge for ecommerce sites is to try and replicate that personalised experience. The way it can be done is by gathering as much customer data as possible and building user profiles which can be updated as more data is received.

This kind of use of data is viewed by some as an invasion of privacy so stores need to be careful not to go too far. But done correctly, personalisation can lead to a better customer experience and improved conversion rates for ecommerce businesses.

What kid of data can be collected?

As long as the customer is comfortable with the use of cookies, you can gather enough information to get a decent picture of the person shopping online.

Geolocation will tell you roughly where they are and you can also access their buying and browsing history. From this it is generally possible to work out their gender and what other kinds of products they might be interested in.

“Investing in personalisation technology and storing more data may require an increase in a company’s hosting investment, but the move is incredibly valuable, as its website can adapt based on customer preferences,” says Breadner.

“In this day in age, it’s essential for brands to stand out in an increasingly competitive environment and the best way to do so is to personalise their offering.”

Personal recommendations

A good place to start when making personalised recommendations is the previous shopping cart. If items were added and later removed, offer them to the shopper as items they might be interested in. If a shopping cart was completely abandoned on the previous visit, keep these items in the shopping cart and remind the customer that they are still there when they visit again.

You might also want to add a Wish List function. This allows you to gather even more data around their preferences and you know what kind of products a customer is interested in.

Once a retailer has an idea of what a customer’s preferences are, it can start to make personal recommendations. It is a good idea to think about where the recommended items should appear on the site – the home page, the check-out page? Once you have decided make sure these recommendations are easy to see – preferably above the fold.

Search results

Search results are another area which is ripe for personalisation. If someone is looking for a product, you can take into consideration their usual preferences when ordering the results. Do they normally like the expensive or cheaper options? What kind of colours do they normally chose? Do they have favourite brands?

Other ways you can personalise

It’s not just about offering what you think someone might want to buy. Every point of contact that you have with a customer should attempt to address them as personally as possible. Any emails that get sent, opt-ins or transaction confirmations should have the customer’s name rather than “Dear Customer”

Social media is another way for brands to personalise. Interact with people directly and you will foster a closer connection to your customer which will hopefully give you an advantage over your competition.