COVID-19 was a turning point for businesses around the world. Even those businesses that previously relied on conventional brick-and-mortar stores had to enter the digital race and make e-commerce their primary means of business.
The e-shopping extravaganza is showing no signs of slowing down even after the COVID-19 pandemic. Customers find e-commerce a rather convenient way of shopping compared to the time and energy they otherwise have to spend commuting to local stores and strolling through aisles.
However, if your customers find it difficult to look for their desired product, their sheer disappointment may lead to lost opportunities for the business. Since customers have infinite options to purchase similar products on other websites, you have to stay a step ahead in providing a great customer experience to your customers. This is where the role of personalization comes into the spotlight.
Let’s dig deeper into what personalization means and how you can use it as a tool to enhance customers’ shopping experience.
What is E-Commerce Personalization?
The word personalization is self-explanatory – it essentially means providing a unique shopping experience to individual customers based on their preferences, recent searches, and demography. Many retail and apparel businesses have already adopted this model for both websites and customer interactions.
For example, some popular apparel websites like https://www.charlesvermont.co.uk offer personalized views to customers with items they have recently viewed or those related to their recent shopping history. Such a customized view makes it much easier for the customers to find what they’re looking for and makes them feel valued. When customers visiting an apparel website are welcomed with a list of clothing items they’re most interested in, chances are they’ll spend more time on your website and make purchases.
E-commerce websites, online stores, web apps, and social media marketing campaigns are personalized through various methods. Businesses may use a customer’s demographic information, their recent search history, social interactions, likes and dislikes, as well as their visitor history to create personalized content.
Personalizing Your E-Commerce Website/ App
If your website offers a standard view for all customers, you need to make some significant changes to personalize the e-commerce experience for each of your customers. Here’s how you can do that:
- Build Personalized Landing Pages
Many times, a buyer sees a specific product advertised on social media and clicks on it to discover more about that particular product. To their disappointment, they land on the standard page with no signs of the product they clicked on. Such customers are more likely to leave your websites if they struggle to find the intended outcome, and they may never return.
Personalized websites usually show a standard landing page to first-time visitors with a range of products that may pique the interest of the potential customer. However, once the customer navigates the website and searches for products, the subsequent visits will show the products and categories that best match the customer’s preferences. This type of simple personalization builds the basis for a great shopping experience, which keeps your customers coming back for more. Be sure to make the most of cookies to track your customers’ navigation and assess the type of products they view most during their visit.
- Use Product Detail Page (PDP) Recommendations
Your customer opening a product and reading all the details is standard. However, you can level up the game by simply adding recommendations of other related or complementary products at the end of the web page.
Product detail page (PDP) recommendations are a simple personalization technique that provides much-needed assistance to customers based on the type of product the customer is currently viewing. The recommendations can include similar products with varying quality, make, or design. This helps customers compare prices and styles and ultimately increases customer engagement with the website.
PDP recommendations also include complementary products. For example, if your customer clicks on a particular gaming laptop, you can provide suggestions like gaming keyboards, video cards, Bluetooth controllers, laptop coolers, headsets, etc. Besides, you can display customer favorites, recently viewed items, and bundle-purchase options.
- Provide Personalized Assistance Through Quizzes and Surveys
How do you interact with your customers when they visit your brick-and-mortar store? In an ideal situation, an assistant will ask the customer for the type of product they’re looking for and their preferred style and sizes. The purpose is to make your customers feel valued and give them a personalized shopping experience. The same applies to your e-commerce website or app.
Depending on what type of products your business deals in, you can use short quizzes or quick surveys to determine your customers’ preferences. This will help you provide a personalized shopping experience to your customers, guiding them to targeted products that best fit their needs. It also shows you value your customers’ choices, which increases their confidence in making an online purchase.
- Increase Direct Interaction with Customers
Exceptional customer support makes way for a great shopping experience. In fact, good customer service can improve the online conversion rate by an impressive 8% and grow revenues by 17%.
No matter how exhaustive your website details are, customers usually feel the need to interact with the business for more information and queries regarding products, upcoming promotions, etc. For this purpose, include interactive features like live chat (chatbots), automated calls, and screen sharing in your e-commerce website and app. When a query or request is promptly addressed, your customer will feel more confident and valued. This will ultimately lead to increased conversions and happy, loyal customers.
Although most chatbots are a great option to respond to customer queries instantly, be sure to keep the human factor in your customer interactions. This could be through prompt email responses or live chat with a sales representative.
- Personalize Views Based on Customers’ Demographic Information
A customer’s demography is vital information that can help you personalize their shopping experience and increase conversions. For example, a multi-national apparel brand can use the geographic data of a customer to sift clothing options. A customer in Australia may look for summer apparel, and at the same time, a customer in North America may be more interested in winter jackets and coats.
You can also use the customer’s geographic location to determine the language option for your website. You can display your website in the national language to each customer, which will make them feel at ease while exploring your website. Moreover, you can use geographical information to convert the standard measuring unit to the local preferences.
Use analytical tools, IP information, and public datasets to gather the required information and personalize pages for customers. Cookies will be another main source to determine the visitor’s location and other important indicators.
Bottom Line
Personalization has more or less become a norm in all digital solutions and commercial applications. From entertainment websites to social media and popular B2B and C2C platforms, we can see personalized views that aim to maximize user engagement and improve their experience. So, if you haven’t already, it’s time to implement the above strategies to enhance customers’ shopping experience.
