A real buzzword that has resonated everywhere lately, personalization, is the new holy grail of customer relations. New? Not that much. We are always looking for a more personal experience, but the means to achieve it are exploding at the moment. This gives rise to a real war of personalized experiences between companies.
Why Bet on Personalization in E-commerce?
In the current context, we mean personalization in e-commerce as the use of data to offer a relevant and engaging experience for consumers across channels and devices and then measure the impact of the experience provided.
Why personalize the experience? Quite simply because people no longer buy just a product, but the experience surrounding that product.
Consumers are always attentive and connected, they seek out of the ordinary experiences and are not loyal to a single communication channel or a single company.
Today 85% of consumers expect to receive a personalized experience while only 10% of companies believe they offer this type of customer experience (Researchscape 2019).
The numbers speak for themselves, providing a personalized experience can lead to massive sales increase! It also helps increase click through rate, conversion rate, and revenue per visitor. Convinced?
The Challenges of Personalization
Understanding the benefits of personalizing the e-commerce experience is not enough to achieve the success that comes with it. We must first overcome 5 obstacles that explain why few companies succeed in offering a personalized experience.
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I do not know where to start!
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It seems complicated to set up ...
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Developing a successful roadmap seems difficult.
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Our channels are not fully connected for the action.
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What tools can I use to personalize my approach?
Solid Foundations
Planning is the best way to remove these barriers that make personalization look like an insurmountable mountain. Yes, it takes a little longer, but it is so much more effective than improvising and then lamenting a low ROI.
So, to build a solid personalization system, you need to establish some solid foundations:
Data and Audiences: Know your Customers!
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Behavioral data
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CRM data
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Second and third-party data
The advice may seem trivial, but according to Researchscape, only 45% of merchants had enough data in 2018 to implement true personalization of their e-commerce. We are seeing an increase in 2019 (now 55% have enough), but we are still far from an overwhelming majority.
Content: Give Them What They Want
When you collect enough data, and the right data, you can turn your anonymous visitors into authenticated customers and start thinking about the content that has the most value for them.
- Offers
- Recommendations
- Layout, user experience and user interface design.
Besides customer data, there are other great and winning ways to personalize your content.
Strategy: Offer Relevant Experiences
It is not enough to personalize the experience in person, although that's a very important part. All of the client's contact with the organization should be personalized. Therefore, it is imperative to take the time to think about an e-commerce personalization strategy that makes each contact relevant.
- Create a personalization roadmap
- Bet on intention to define personalization rules,
- as often as possible, automate.
To deliver relevant experiences at each stage of the customer relationship, use performance metrics for each moment of truth.
The right channel and the right strategy at the right time
Once the performance indicators (KPIs) have been defined for each moment of truth, you will be able to choose the best messages and channels for each stage of the customer journey.
For example, use SEO, SEM and video to capture the attention of potential customers in the awareness phase, when they only know they have a problem.
You can then move to a strategy based on emails, content, and social media in the discovery phase to offer them information on potential solutions to their problem.
At the shopping stage, when the customer is looking for the best product to meet their needs, you can introduce your marketing strategy, promote effective marketing as well as optimized visual configurations.
At the time of purchase, it is an easy, smooth, and frictionless transactional process that the consumer seeks. Optimize your e-commerce processes. For each transaction, customers do not just focus on price, but also availability and delivery options.
The customer relationship does not end once the transaction receipt is sent! Set up customer dialogue procedures, retargeting strategies to stay "top of mind" and keep your customers coming back to you. You need to provide the customer with easy to obtain and consistent support.
Organization: Harmonize with the Whole Organization
- Create a transversal team
- Align with personas
- Define the functional contribution to the customer journey.
The Magento 2 Solution for Better Personalization of the Experience
At the discovery, shopping and purchase stages, several modules of the Magento 2 solution can support your personalization efforts, both in terms of strategy and its implementation and monitoring:
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Audience Manager
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Experience Manager
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Target
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Analytics
It is up to you to choose the tools that have the most added value in relation to your business objectives and the personalization efforts that you choose to put in place.
Whether in the retail industry or the service delivery industry, expectations are now turning to better personalization of all stages of the customer experience. Stay in the race by setting up effective strategies and tools that will attract, engage, and delight your customers for a relationship where everyone wins, including your wallet!
