The Future of Personalization in Ecommerce

With fine-tuned personalization abilities, most e-commerce site now tries to customize the shopping experience to the needs of their shoppers. eBay and Amazon are examples of such e-commerce sites that practice this.

eBay deploys powerful AI-powered tools to anticipate the needs of buyers, as well as recommend items and inspire shoppers. eBay’s new strategy tends to focus more on the emergence of its new personalization feature called Interests. ‘Interests’ allows shoppers to personalize their shopping experience based on their passions and unique style.

On the other hand, Google is also upping the ante on personalization, in a bid to lure consumers from Amazon. Google’s new shopping experience, which tends to focus more on retargeting marketing, makes use of users’ previous search & shopping histories to send recommendations to consumers. Not only will this initiative allow consumers (google users) to purchase from e-commerce sites, it equally will enable them to buy locally, with more than two billion products mapped by Google to local retailers.

With the recency in the adoption of AI and machine learning, different businesses will in no distant future, be able to take a deep dive to unravel many granular details of their customer’s buying behavior and preference. This, in turn, will enable shoppers to have a more personalized shopping experience, as well as providing the needed aid for them to get their desired products and services at an exact price point based on their past buying decisions. This approach will help e-commerce companies to build attractive bundles or tailor-made promotions for individuals.

E-commerce personalization is here to stay. Increasingly, personalization has become a core component of the most engaging user experiences when it comes to online purchases. Retail or e-commerce businesses that are yet to utilize this should start now!

The Future of Personalization

Ecommerce personalisation has undoubtedly become the hottest trend in customer engagement for a while now. Many shoppers can hardly recall the last time they visit a website that didn’t use at least some degree of this method to better engage with them.

We’re still a far cry from scratching the surface of what e-commerce personalization can do. As it stands today, not many companies go beyond the recommendation engines. Using a recommendation engine will pretty much become a regular part of the experience in no distant time.

Since we’ve become familiar with the present face of personalization in e-commerce, now let’s take a quick look at the four major things to anticipate in the future.

Four Things to Expect from Ecommerce Personalization in the Future

Automation to Support Omnichannel Engagement

Automation and personalization are mostly inseparable. You can’t have the latter without the former. In the future, automation will become even more crucial, though, thanks to the growth of omnichannel marketing.

The Harvard Business Review looked at about  46,000 shoppers’ behaviors between June 2015 and August 2016; they found that:

• Only 7% shopped solely online
• Only 20% shopped in-store exclusively
• 73% used multiple channels

Omnichannel marketing is the future, but the only companies that will be able to leverage it will be the ones that can adequately utilize automation to offer personalization across all channels.

Tailored Deals and Personalized Pricing

Shoppers don’t just differ on what they want to buy. They also differ in what they’re willing to pay.

Traditionally, companies have had to study the array of prices they can charge and pick the ones that give them the most profit, even though it means turning away many potential customers.

That’s changing.

Personalization is showing companies what they can charge individual shoppers. To some degree, this is already happening. For example, Orbitz used to charge Mac users more – sometimes by as much as 30% – because that demographic tended to have more money. Thus, it stood to reason that they were willing to pay more.

Inclusion of Offline Data for Ecommerce Personalization

Brick-and-mortar stores don’t have to miss out on the personalization revolution, either. They can use this powerful method to integrate their online and offline customer experiences.

The clothing line Sportsgirl has become a trailblazer in this sense by offering an app that utilizes augmented reality. Users can scan clothing items they like in Sportsgirl’s physical catalog or in their actual stores with their phones so they can then purchase them online later.

Machine Learning

Personalization can be about a lot more than selling a product or service. Thanks to machine learning, personalisation will soon be about anticipating customers’ support needs before they even have them.

Similarly, machine learning will soon change language websites’ use based on the visitor. In the scenario where a visitor needs help, machine learning will allow the site to find the best answers based on the information they’ve provided instead of the stock replies most can give now.

If the site knows that a returning shopper is working on restoring their late-model vehicle, machine-learning will be able to recommend the best possible products but also supply them with relevant content to help with the rebuild.

AI and Machine Learning in E-commerce

Personalized marketing is not a new phenomenon, but with the power of rich media content and revolutionary machine learning and Artificial intelligence tools, brands are now able to deliver dynamic and tailored shopping experiences to drive engagement and customer loyalty. Artificial intelligence is particularly an essential part of any customized shopping experience since it serves as a bridge between customers and e-commerce retailers.

The deployment of AI-powered conversational marketing tools is a key first step. Conversational marketing tools can guide consumers through the buyer journey to ensure that consumers are able to identify their ideal products and make the appropriate purchase accordingly. Recent data shows that 81% of consumers said using a digital sales assistant would increase their purchase decision-confidence.

The myriad of options available to today’s consumers allows them to choose from numerous vendors and explore countless products online. The vast number of product option availability is as beneficial as its detriments – this is because, it clouds consumer’s ability to make a decision, better known as ‘choice fatigue.’ 46% of respondents in the UK and the U.S. say they would give personal information in exchange for more tailored product recommendations.

Another research revealed that one in four consumers are willing to pay more for a personalized product, and that reflects what we see in the market.

Effective personalization requires getting all the technology and data to work together seamlessly to deliver a unique experience to each customer. And this can be achieved by creating streamlined customization and buying experience with a solid CPQ (configure, price, quote) solution.

Conclusion

Personalized shopping experience gives e-commerce sites an edge, and businesses increasingly have been seeking ways to make their customers feel welcome.

Customization in the future likely will continue to evolve into ever more personalized shopping experiences. Customers increasingly will expect their personalized products to be delivered almost immediately. It is one thing to offer personalization and another to respond with the speed that matches today’s customers’ expectations.

As personalization continues to mature, we’ll see it move from a reactionary mode — that is, answering a question in a contextual and tailored way — to more of an assistive role, where technology will be able to keep a perpetual conversation with the customer going so that companies can better identify their customers’ needs. This creates long-term engagement that can result in additional purchases and brand loyalty.

Every business should make its customers feel like they are the most important customer in the world. To do that, you need to know and anticipate their wants and needs to deliver the most frictionless shopping experience possible. When a customer feels like they are treated well, they tend to purchase more goods and endorse the provider with repeat business and word of mouth.

Those businesses that fail to embrace these advancements won’t be in business for very long. Fortunately, you now know about four methods you can adopt to ensure your company can meaningfully engage with customers for years and years to come.