Benefits Of Personalization In Ecommerce

Ecommerce sites all use personalization in different ways. Stores without any personalization function at this point are missing out on sales and improving customer satisfaction. After all, offering a personalized online shopping experience brings customers the same benefits as an in store assistant would be able to. With AI technology allowing more accurately personalized offerings than ever before, it’s a no-brainer to include it in your merchandising strategy.

Personalized Recommendations

A great benefit that personalization can bring is through offering personalized recommendations. These can be included at many different stages of the shopping journey. Some places where these recommendations would work well are:

• Home page

• Checkout page

• Product pages

• Just after clicking ‘add to cart’

By including AI driven personalized recommendations in your users’ shopping journey, you are helping them. They are seeing products that are relevant and useful to their shopping experience, which boosts their brand impression. On top of that, since you are providing products that they will also want to purchase, you are boosting your sales and AOV. This is a great example of how personalization is a benefit to both the merchant and the shopper.

Personalized Marketing

Outreach marketing is a common practice for any eCommerce business these days. Trying to keep customers engaged once they have spent at your store is very important. Trying to foster a sense of community within your shoppers can have great benefits. A strong brand image, and a special way of connecting with your shoppers is how this is formed.

One way this can be created is through personalized SMS and email marketing. If users are receiving a message from you either in their inbox or on their phone, you want to make sure that it’s a message they are happy about receiving. Personalization can be a way of achieving this.

Through using data gathered from their in store experience, you can know what kind of content they are looking for. Sending them reminders about products they abandoned in the cart, or sending personalized deals and offers for them can be a great way of generating more sales. Personalized marketing has a much higher success rate than generic marketing, so it’s a huge benefit to use this strategy.

Personalized Offers

Consumers like to feel special. When discounts and offers are storewide, sure, they do have a good outcome. However, when specific customers are offered discounts about specific products relevant to them, this can go a long way. This makes the customer feel valued, seen and understood. For this reason, creating personalized discounts and codes can be a great idea.

First-time shoppers receiving 10% off their first purchase is an example of a widely used personalized discount. However, you can be more creative with it if you see shoppers who, for example, are interested in a certain type of product, and offer them discounts on this. This personalized approach will encourage customers to spend more, whilst boosting your overall sales.



Personalization At Scale

One key element to consider when it comes to personalization is ensuring that data privacy laws are maintained. When it comes to personalization, having data available is necessary in order to provide this service. However, this data should not come at the expense of users’ privacy.

A great way of achieving this is through click-profile personalization. This is personalization based on click-profile data, so you gather a record of your shoppers based on their actions on site, as opposed to background information on them. This helps to create a profile to offer them personalization from, whilst at the same time does not overstep any marks.

This data can then be used to offer personalization at scale, whereby segments are created of your users to offer personalization experiences to a wider group. All of this without infringing on any of the tightening data security laws. 

Conclusion

With AI technology rapidly advancing, it’s not hard to understand why personalization is flourishing in the eCommerce industry. Being able to provide an optimized eCommerce experience is crucial in order for shoppers to feel valued. The more shoppers feel valued, the more they will return to your store, and the more you will watch your business grow.