At one time, the term ‘e-commerce personalization’ might have conjured up visions of simple product recommendations. But when considering the definition of e-commerce personalization – “the process of how brands offer customized experiences for visitors on websites” – it’s clear that there is a lot more involved – and rightly so.
Today’s ultra-sophisticated consumer is a digitally savvy shopper with extremely high expectations. The online marketplace is crowded, with dozens of brands competing for the same audience. Holistic e-commerce personalization is a process whereby online sellers provide their visitors with unique experiences, designed to meet their preferences and singular needs. This type of personalization relies on insights derived from a number of elements: previous activity by users, their browsing patterns, purchase history and other personal data; and delivers not only personalized product recommendations but customized content and special offers tailored to that user.
With a finely tuned e-commerce personalization strategy, brands can ensure customer loyalty and repeat business, with the assurance that those customers tend to be willing to pay more for that type of consumer experience. It’s a win-win, based on offering the right products at the right time. This might involve tools like a product carousel, displayed in various areas of a website or in an email for example. The products in the carousel have been curated via an algorithm that identifies the customer’s info and interests. It might be as basic as gender, geographic location, or previous purchases, but can also be influenced by previously viewed products, content consumed or even social media posts. At the end of the day, these consumer insights can be broken down into identity data, descriptive data, attitudinal data, and behavioral data.
But it doesn’t end there. Although a product carousel can be an effective tool of e-commerce personalization, used alone, it’s not going to change the world. Personalization of search results can be an additional means of dominating the e-commerce market. Here again, the use of algorithms ensures that products for which the customer has an affinity are pushed upwards in the pages and even listed in order of their preference.
Brands can also focus on compelling, highly personalized content to enrich the customer experience. This might be seen in the form of a large hero banner on the home page of the business website. The banner can be created as multiple versions, with the most appropriate one displayed to a particular user, based on the data that has been collected about them. Showing content that is relevant to each customer, rather than showing the same content to everyone, has been proven to increase KPIs such as conversion rates, and is another effective tool in the e-commerce personalization drive.
This personalization initiative can be increasingly refined, based on collected insights and algorithms. It can be used to display customers’ product preferences first, or to show specific filters based on the user’s previous filter navigation history. Even things like delivery preferences and payment methods can be personalized based on customer insights. The truth of the matter is that personalization programs deliver more engaged customers, yielding 20% higher customer satisfaction and a 10 to 15% boost in sales conversion rates.
And here’s where BPO outsourcing companies can play a big role in supporting your e-commerce personalization initiatives. Ultimately, business process outsourcing provides a profitable and results-based approach to personalizing the customer experience within your organization. Anexa – a BPO industry leader – has a carefully curated pool of talented, technology-savvy agents who have been trained to recognize that ‘one-size-fits-all’ is an outdated, ineffective customer service model. These customer-centric specialists support the concept of reaching the right person at the right time on behalf of your company.
Much like the online pioneer Amazon, we support innovative and forward-thinking solutions when striving to personalize the customer experience. We endorse and manage campaigns including brand awareness, multi-dimensional data collection, loyalty points programs, customer offers and more. Partnering with Anexa by outsourcing your help desk and various customer service departments will place you at the forefront of the personalization movement.
Identifying your most loyal customers can often be a great starting point – targeting those “regular” shoppers yields a return on investment THREE TIMES higher than mass promotions, which in turn delivers more relevant, multi-dimensional data on your customer base. Make innovative offers to individual customers (again, as Amazon does). Considering that only 23% of consumers today believe that retailers are doing a good job at personalizing the customer experience, this needs to become a strategic priority for companies.
To learn more about how Anexa can help to personalize the customer experiences originating at your help desks and related customer-facing departments, contact us today.