How to apply e-commerce personalisation

If you show Arsenal merchandise to an Aston Villa fan on your website, you can be sure you won’t make any sales. You might even lose potential customers. Understanding your customer’s actual needs and preferences is the key to your business’s success.

That’s what personalisation is all about: providing your customers with experiences so relevant that they enter a ‘flow state.’ A state where no friction is experienced, symbolised by the inherent satisfaction it brings.

In this guide, we’ll show you how to harness the power of personalisation in e-commerce. And create a ‘flow state’ experience for your prospects and customers.

What is e-commerce personalisation?

E-commerce personalisation is about achieving a personalised and consistent online shopping experience based on your customers’ preferences, needs, and behaviour. For best results, e-commerce personalisation should be applied across all your channels, from the website and email to social media and advertising.

Using smart AI algorithms, e-commerce personalisation works even for anonymous visitors/prospects. Through personalised content, emails, site layouts, and more, your visitor sees exactly what meets their desires. This works wonders for improving your conversion rates and customer satisfaction. But those are just two of the benefits that e-commerce personalisation can offer.

What are the benefits of e-commerce personalisation?

From the customer’s perspective, the benefits of personalisation become apparent quickly. Because their online shopping experience precisely meets their expectations, the brand experience becomes much more personal, and the purchasing process is less time-consuming. If their shopping experience truly meets their expectations, it can even induce a state of flow.

But how does this translate into success for you? Let’s look at some statistics.

• 91% of customers say they are more likely to shop with brands that offer deals and recommendations that are relevant to them – Accenture
• 63% of customers stop buying from brands that use poor personalisation tactics. – Smart Insights
• 78% of customers are more likely to recommend and repurchase from a company that personalises (see below). – McKinsey
• Marketers report that personalisation efforts can increase revenue by up to 15%. – Adweek

Research shows that there is much to gain from e-commerce personalisation. It is not surprising that there are many examples of companies successfully applying personalisation. But to become successful, you will need to take the first steps.

Simplifying Personalisation

There are many ways to apply e-commerce personalisation in your business strategy. But it all starts with data. Because data is the key to truly understanding your customer.

While not impossible, collecting and analysing data from different channels is a complex and time-consuming task. These channels often do not communicate with each other, leading to data silos that prevent you from uniting the data into a complete 360-degree customer view.

To start with effective e-commerce personalisation, you need a tool that automates the heavy lifting. A tool that allows you to collect, merge, and turn your data into personalised customer experiences that convert.

A Customer Data Platform (CDP) does just that. It simplifies the personalisation process by using smart AI and automations to generate individual 360-degree customer profiles. Profiles that enable you to show each individual customer personalised content and recommendations.

Get Started in 7 Steps

Once you have implemented a CDP, it’s time to personalise. You can do this by following these steps:

Step 1

Assign a project manager (or create a personalisation team) and allocate sufficient time/resources for the personalisation process. This can vary significantly depending on the type of CDP. With a marketer-focused CDP like Spotler Activate, it is often easier to implement personalised campaigns, while other CDPs may require more technical expertise.

Step 2

Work with your team to develop a (long-term) personalisation strategy with concrete goals and a plan for continuous optimisation.

Step 3

Identify where the most potential for personalisation lies. If 60% of your leads come from email campaigns, then that channel is the right place to start.

Step 4

Visualise all touchpoints within the customer journey you’re targeting and analyse effectiveness. If the percentage of customers leaving after a specific touchpoint is relatively high, it’s time to optimise.

Step 5

Begin implementing personalised touchpoints. Start small by implementing one or two use cases and gradually add others. Additionally, you can let smart AI make decisions or incorporate your own strategies.

Step 6

Test whether the results meet expectations. If not, optimize! And use A/B testing as well.

Step 7

Roll out this blueprint/strategy to other areas within the company where personalisation can add value.

Schedule a demo

Our consultants are ready to show you the capabilities of our CDP Spotler Activate. This way, you can quickly determine if it suits your organisation.

Book a demo