How to Create a Personalised eCommerce Experience

Ninety percent of retailers use personalisation in one way shape or form. But using it at a basic level is not enough for it to have an effect on either your customers or your business. The ones who use eCommerce personalisation properly are seeing a $20 return for every $1 investment in it. Nowhere near enough retailers are using their data to its full potential.

Investing in a CRM or a CDP is a good first step to take if you aren’t using your data properly. They’ll enable you to centralise your data, making it far more manageable. It will also allow you to create better data-driven campaigns.

The most successful businesses operating in this space are the ones who take the time to understand their customers, grab their attention, and keep them coming back. You’d be surprised at how many companies aren’t doing this.

When you start to invest in personalisation programmes you will start to see the returns through your conversion and engagement rates.

Using Your Data To Its Full Potential

Understanding Your Customer

The modern customer expects their favourite brands to understand them at a much deeper level than ever before. They will take notice of the ones that aren’t making the effort.

Contrary to popular belief, customers are happy to give up their data, providing they get something in return. In fact, 83% of them said they would share it to create a more personalised experience. This can be encouraged by asking customers to create an account, but they need to be confident that it’s worth their time.

There are plenty of types of data you can collect to provide a stellar experience. You can learn a lot about a customer through their purchase history, transactional data, and their behaviours on your website.

Good quality customer communications starts with getting an in-depth understanding of what matters to them.

Segmentation

Treating all of your customers the same is shooting yourself in the foot. Various users will use your website for different reasons. Assuming they all want to see or hear the same thing will lead to little or no engagement from your messaging or communications.

91% of shoppers are more likely to stay loyal to brands who understand and remember them, and provide relevant offers and recommendations. Relevant being the word to concentrate on here.

This is where segmentation becomes so important. Splitting your customers into different buyer personas makes it easier to understand who you’re talking to and why. You can then create timely and relevant communications through eCommerce personalisation.

What comes from this is a far more personalised eCommerce experience for the customer. Through this level of segmentation, your engagement levels should increase as well as the likelihood of that customer converting. 

Channels

But it’s not all just about what you communicate, it’s how you do it. Just like different customers have preferences on what they want to see, they also have preferences on where they want to see it.

Your eCommerce personalisation includes this. There are multiple channels you can communicate with a customer through. So when it comes to sending them out, it can be a case of trial and error.

It’s important you analyse the engagement rates of your customers when it comes to the channel you communicate through. You really need to make the effort to understand what is working and what is not. If you don’t, you could be wasting time and resources on a channel that isn’t working. Furthermore, you could lose that customer because the message isn’t getting through to them as well as it should be.

Show Them You Know Them

After you’ve done the work to understand what makes them tick, it’s time to show off how much you understand them. Customers should start to appreciate you even more.

You’ll start to see positive returns from the money you invest in understanding your customers. Open rates, engagement, click through rates, and also conversions should see an increase.

The more personalised and relevant, the more likely the customer will follow the steps you set out in front of them.

Personalised Abandoned Cart Messages

Identifying where your customers have dropped out of the journey gives you the opportunity to bring them back to where they left. When they abandon their basket, the ideal option is to send a message and bring them right back to it to complete the purchase.

You need to make this communication as eye-catching as possible. $18 billion in revenue is lost to abandoned carts each year. So creating a great experience through eCommerce personalisation will make it less likely for you to lose out on those sales.

Personalisation here includes having an image of the item that the customer left in their cart. Linking this image back to where they left the buying process will also increase the probability of a complete purchase. The messaging should also create a little bit of a sense of urgency for the receiver so that they act fast.

Continue Shopping Section

Given the amount of choice customers have when it comes to eCommerce sites, your website may just be quickly browsed. But upon the customers return it is possible to give them a personalised experience, even after a fleeting visit.

Adding a personalised “continue shopping” section to your website shows the user that your brand remembers who they are. Something like this creates a more personalised experience and could easily lead to a sale.

Post Purchase Messaging

Communication doesn’t stop after a purchase is made. By doing so, you run the risk of losing that customer in the future. You need to make sure you remind the customer about you after a purchase is made.

These communications can come in many forms:

• A follow up email after they purchase to confirm their purchase and estimated delivery date.
• Ask for feedback after they receive their package.
• Updates on offers that might appeal to the customer.
• A personalised newsletter with company updates and tailored product recommendations.

There really is no limit to the things you can send out to keep in touch with your customers. However, overdoing it will end up annoying them. So you need to find the right balance

Shopping Cart Recommendations

The shopping cart stage is a chance to show off that you understand the customer with relevant cross-selling opportunities. This can be done through shopping cart recommendations. It’s an ideal way of increasing the average order value without affecting the conversion rate.

Recommendations based on what the customer has browsed or purchased in the past can spur the customer on to add it to their cart before completing the transaction. In fact, personalised shopping cart recommendations influenced 92% of shoppers online to buy other products.

You can also make recommendations based on what other customers have bought alongside what’s in your current customer’s basket. These are generally products that complement what is being bought.

Milestone Messages

Sending messages to customers at a certain milestone is a really nice touch and good use of eCommerce personalisation. They can create a conversation between the customer and the brand without risking being annoying. This is because the customer enjoys being communicated to in this way.

Some milestones could include:

• Customer birthdays
• Company birthday 
• User anniversary emails
• Product anniversary

Including deals or discounts as part of these messages are a great way to get these customers to act on them as well.

Providing the ultimate customer experience through eCommerce personalisation is rooted in collecting data and using it to understand your customers. Your communications will become better and better, and your bottom line will also thank you.

If you want to know more about how Xtremepush can help you maximise your eCommerce campaigns then get in touch today.