In the days of unprecedented market competition, personalized customer experiences is mission-critical to every business—and those in eCommerce aren’t exempt. Believe it or not, 91% of customers prefer buying from brands that offer personalized recommendations over those that don’t. So, if you want your business to not just survive but thrive in the new market, you’ve got to get serious about creating a personalized customer experience strategy.
For an eCommerce business, personalized customer experiences brings several benefits—better sales, better product development, brand loyalty, and customer-centric services, to name a few. Here’s how you can achieve business success with ramped-up personalization.
Understanding the Importance of Personalized Customer Experiences in eCommerce
Why should you care about personalizing your customer experiences, you ask? Because it creates customer loyalty. People who see that you care about them and their needs will naturally keep coming back for more.
So, how can businesses achieve this? Start by collecting data. By using customer data, you can deliver unique experiences. When users log into their accounts, they will be able to view customized content and recommendations.
You can send them personalized recommendations by taking cues from their purchase and browsing history. Businesses that implement personalization effectively generate 40% more revenue than those that don’t. Moreover, you can also use this data to create a loyalty program for a specific group of customers.
All of this builds a connection between your business and your customer. Don’t be surprised when you start enjoying tangible results immediately—repeat customers, fewer cart abandonments, and an increase in average order value and customer lifetime value.
Leveraging Customer Data to Deliver Personalized Experiences
A staggering 66% of customers say that seeing non-personalized content discourages them from buying or engaging with a brand. Non-personalized communication means customers won’t stay loyal to your brand. Needless to say, eCommerce businesses must prioritize creating truly personalized customer experiences.
Even small changes can go a long way in developing relationships. For example, address customers by their names in emails and other communication. Companies using personalization techniques record an increase in revenue between 10% to 15%.
Data can also be extracted from the user’s browsing behavior, purchase history, and preferences. You can use this information to send personalized recommendations and create promotions and content that resonates with the customers.
Creating a Customer Journey Map for Personalization Success
The next most important milestone in delivering personalized customer experiences is mapping their journey. Every customer has a unique set of preferences and attributes that they use to shop online. You’ll need to create a customer journey map to understand these preferences.
Well, then, how do you build their journey map? By identifying where the five customer touchpoints lie in your business. They are:
- Awareness
- Research
- Consideration
- Purchase
- Support
These are the five stages a customer goes through before making a purchase. You will need to understand how each customer behaves at each stage and build a personalized plan for every touchpoint.
To do that, you must step into your customer’s shoes and think as they do. Taking note of the touchpoints, you need to personalize a customer’s experience when visiting your eCommerce store.
In the first stage, they become aware of your brand and continue to build a rapport with your business. However, whether the customer makes a purchase or comes back for more depends on how you present them with personalized options. The motive is to help the customers make better decisions at every step.
The Benefits of Mobile-First Optimization for Personalized eCommerce Experiences
Building your eCommerce store to thrive on both desktop setups and mobile devices is mission-critical to delivering high-quality personalized customer experiences. That’s largely because 187.5 million people will do their online shopping from their phones by 2024.
This means an eCommerce business must create a mobile-first personalized user experience. In doing so, they’ll naturally provide the customers with better accessibility, engagement, and convenience.
Everything an eCommerce business must do to build personalized customer experience journeys on a browser, they must do the same for mobile. All of the recommendations, promotions, content delivery, etc., must be sent via mobile.
What’s more, doubling down on the mobile shopping experience empowers you to use mobile-specific features to your advantage. Smaller screens to fill mean your eCommerce site or application will load faster and be interrupted by fewer pop-ups.
Personalization at Scale: Tips for Managing Large Customer Datasets
As of 2022, Amazon had 310 million customers. How does Amazon manage to provide a personalized experience to all of them? The answer is Personalization at Scale.
To implement large-scale personalization, follow these tips:
- Segment your customers according to their behavior.
- Reach your customers through the right channels.
- Personalize content according to the customer’s preferences.
- Build a multi-language personalization system.
Effectively implementing personalization at scale can ultimately send both your bottom line and customer loyalty soaring. One unusual but effective strategy is to go against the grain and not aim for perfection.
Every day, people respect effort over results. So, don’t wait for next quarter’s stats to pull through, start forging better customer relationships via more personalized customer experiences today.
Once you’ve established good relationships with them, they’ll instinctively return. Even better, they’ll become a free advocate for you and very likely bring their people with them. A whopping 78% of customers will repeatedly buy from a brand—and even recommend them to family and friends—when they’re gifted quality personalized customer experiences.
Scale Your Personalization Strategy
Zobrist employs innovative solutions built for mobile eCommerce businesses. This puts you on the fast track to better webpage performance. As a result, you’ll be able to deliver the highest level of personalized customer experiences. Better personalization means higher revenue, a loyal customer base, and a higher conversion rate.
Contact us to learn more about how we can help your eCommerce business rise to the occasion and give your customers the personalized customer experiences they deserve.
