What is personalization in digital marketing for eCommerce retailers?

The Power of Personalization in Digital Marketing for eCommerce Retailers

Personalized marketing is the make and break of any eCommerce marketing strategy in today’s competitive world. As brands battle for consumer dollars, the way to win is through personalization. Consumers want to see useful and contextually relevant ads based on their interests. In simpler words, they want to see the right information at the right time through their preferred channel. It is no exaggeration when consumers say they are more interested in personalized experiences now than ever before.  

According to a study, 71% of consumers prefer personalized ads because the advantages they bring are invaluable. Making the shopping experience easier for consumers should be the priority of any business, and ensuring consumers are not seeing irrelevant ads should be the second. However, for marketers, this only works out if they have a unified view of their customers. How do your customers shop, what have they recently purchased, and through what channel? How did they learn about your product/service, and what promotions did they take advantage of in their shopping history? Customer-Driven Marketing by Confiz helps you do that. Collecting all this data can help you create detailed customer profiles, laying the foundation for delivering better customer experiences and meeting expectations.

When embarking on a new personalization strategy or revamping an existing one, personalization boils down to three main questions.

Question 1: Where to Offer Personalization in the User Experience?
 
Before deciding the most relevant place to add an element of personalization, it is important to thoroughly analyze all the channels and touchpoints of the customer’s journey. You will then be able to shortlist all your options and see where a personalized element would fit the most. Adding personalization in the right place at the right time will allow the product/service to fit seamlessly into a user’s lifestyle, making the user interface an invisible part of the entire process. Therefore, mapping out each microelement that could benefit from a more contextual experience is the process’s first and most essential aspect.

Question 2: What Information to Use?
 
The next step is to analyze the tools to use and to what degree they offer a wealth of information. Some useful tools include CRM, A/B testing, marketing automation, transactional systems, etc. Once you know where the personalization must occur, the next step in the roadmap is to decide which current tools will help support each microelement. Although your research and development of all the right tools in the market are important, you may need to change/update/substitute old tools for updated ones to yield better results.  

Question 3: How to Use Technology and Human Insight to Enable Personalization?
 
Finally, the fun part: bringing together all your channels and data to deliver a unique contextual experience to your customers. Out of all 3 questions, this must be the trickiest, but if done right, it will help you win your customers.

eCommerce Personalization Tactics

An important thing to remember is that personalization works differently for every company; something that works for you might not work for someone else. No single tactic defines personalization, and every technology class does not come without limitations. For every strategy you devise, there is a whole spectrum of technologies involved in it. Tailoring your approach per the roadmap means making your recipe of how much or little you will rely on each microelement.

Let’s take a detailed look into the common tactics and technologies used in the personalization spectrum. The way forward is combining these technologies to build a comprehensive intelligence around user intent.

Personalization Tactic #1: Understanding your Audience

The essence of personalization is understanding the customer and their needs. Whether a new visitor or a familiar customer, with the help of data, you can gather how the user entered your site and what actions they performed. Once you identify your intent, you can shorten the customer journey and enhance their experience.

The next move is to track where your customer came from. Did they come from a promotional ad? A social media post? Or a Google search? What is better is if a customer has filled out a form or purchased something from you, you can show them related products under the heading “you may also like.”  

Personalization Tactic #2: Semantic Understanding for Personalized Search

What’s rare and not commonly understood is a personalized search, hence a missed opportunity. Visitors using search convert at a 1.8 times higher rate than the average visitor. However, there is also a downside to search functions, as they usually focus on keywords instead of the user’s intent.

Personalization Tactic #3: Targeting and Profiling

The beauty of digital transformation is that you can virtually accompany your visitors while they browse your site, the same way a car salesperson would walk with a customer around a showroom. So, how exactly does a salesman pitch the right car to the right customer? First, he picks up on clues based on the customer’s likes, the features they are looking at in detail, what color they like, their budget, Etc. Then, he suggests a car matching their needs. You can take a similar approach with your online customers and what is better is that you can remain invisible while you do it.  

That is where Machine Learning and AI (Artificial Intelligence) come in, helping you process all information and match it against your inventory in real-time. It also eliminates human error, picks up customers’ past behavior, or compares it with a segment of buyers with similar characteristics. That is where Machine Learning and AI in eCommerce come in, helping you process all information and match it against your inventory in real-time.

Personalization Tactic #4: 1:1 Personalization

A customer data platform gives you a complete picture of your customers individually because crafting personalized experiences can be a challenge. So, 1:1 personalization is a powerful tool, and with the right solutions in place, you can implement transformative personalized journeys at every touchpoint. ‍

Key Takeaways

The reality in the world of eCommerce is that personalization is everything. It keeps your customers engaged, inspires them, and keeps them returning. So, begin with defining your personalization purpose and then create the road map to your e-commerce personalization journey.  

But how do you define your personalization purpose and create the right roadmap? Let Confiz help. Contact us at marketing@confiz.com, and we can help you leverage the platform for maximum results.

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