Imagine this: You are looking for a new winter jacket as you walk through a shop in the shopping centre. You look at various models and take a few with you to try on. A friendly shop assistant comes up to you and presents you with a pair of sandals without asking. Does this situation seem inappropriate to you? It is - at least in bricks-and-mortar stores. When regularly shopping in online shops, it is noticeable how inappropriate the offers are that are often presented when searching for a completely different product.
How likely is it that a purchase will be made in this situation? Probably very low. Initially, there is a feeling of not having been understood and advised at all. However, the feeling of comprehensive and personalised advice is precisely the reason why customers repeatedly make purchases in a particular shop.
Data for an improved customer experience
In online retail, personalised advice is usually not possible to the same extent as in bricks-and-mortar retail. However, it is possible to influence the display of products that match the surfing behaviour within the shop. The more suitable the selection of products displayed to us when shopping online, the more comfortable we feel in that particular shop and are therefore prepared to spend more time there and complete orders. This is a great opportunity for online shop operators: those who analyse user behaviour sensibly and comprehensively are already taking a step in the right direction.
This is because customer demands have changed significantly in recent years: Transparency and appropriate information are required, regardless of time and place, with little effort and smooth transmission. This is the source of the problem for many online shop operators, because how can these expectations be met?
Personalisation as a solution
The basic characteristics of the customer journey have hardly changed in recent years: Firstly, the customer becomes aware of a product via various channels. They then develop an interest in the product presented. In the next step, the customer feels the desire to own the product and ultimately buys it. The customer builds up a relationship with the company across various touchpoints and forms an impression of whether they want to purchase the product there. Content and context play a major role in this decision, and inappropriate and impersonal marketing of the product is a recipe for failure.
Personalised content must therefore become the focus of your marketing departments. In 2019, 67% of German SMEs relied on personalised omnichannel customer interaction. Email, social media and the web should be used with standardised content to sharpen the brand image and round off the customer experience. The purchase of a product can no longer be the end of the customer relationship, but only one step in the journey. You should not give up on your customers after the transaction, but continue to deepen the relationship in order to strengthen customer loyalty and brand loyalty. All the information you have been able to collect about a customer provides a strong basis for personalised communication.
Basically, the better customers feel personally understood and advised, the more comfortable they will feel when interacting with your company. Younger generations in particular are willing to provide more data for an improved and personalised customer experience. In Generation Z (consumers up to the age of 23), this figure is as high as 62%. A more personalised customer experience is therefore clearly desired. So if you want to be successful in e-commerce in the coming years, you should place particular emphasis on three factors.
Factors for successful personalisation
1. the latest technology
A faltering data flow and working in information silos are often the product of isolated systems within an organisation. Especially due to the advancing digital transformation and the high value that the handling of data has taken on in companies in recent years, linking data silos is more than advisable. For example, if the customer information collected when visiting the website is not linked to the email database, important information will be lost. The more closely the individual databases are linked, the easier and more appropriate it is to personalise content for customers. Those who use a widespread shop system such as Shopware have an advantage here. As a certified Shopware partner, we at signundsinn are happy to help you link and integrate your CRM or email programme, for example.
2. Optimised processes
Linking data silos is just the beginning. In order to make the most of the opportunities offered by customer data, internal company processes in particular should be optimised and adapted to the goal - personalised content for a well-rounded customer experience. Programmes such as Hubspot enable personalised marketing automation. Optimised processes and good CRM also make it possible to increase customer loyalty.
3. the right employees
Once the framework conditions for collecting and analysing user data are in place, there is one last hurdle to overcome: Who are the right employees to realise the projects? Most retailers know that working with data is crucial to the success of the business, but are unsure exactly how to do this. Therefore, when hiring new employees, you should ensure that they have the relevant knowledge and experience in working with tools and data sets, or that they are specifically trained in these areas.
Personalised recommendations through monitoring
Just as sales staff in bricks-and-mortar stores can monitor the movements of their customers through the store in order to offer suitable help and advice, surfing behaviour within online shops can also be tracked and evaluated. This applies to viewed categories and products as well as the price range within which the customer is browsing. Product suggestions can be customised based on this previous search. The technological basis for these processes is provided, for example, by the Econda Recommendation Engine, which selects recommendations based on the calculation of recorded user data and displays them in a personalised manner. The tool can be easily integrated into Shopware shops. A special feature is the option of specifying certain parameters for the automated product recommendation.
Just as product suggestions can be personalised, this also applies to the price of a product in e-commerce. With the help of A/B tests, special price engines calculate the "pain thresholds" of online shoppers and thus find the optimum price for a particular product. The price can also be adapted to the end device: People who shop on their smartphone supposedly have less time and the options for comparing prices from different providers are limited. Online shop operators can use this to offer the product at a higher price than if the customer were shopping from a computer.
One thing is clear: pricing in e-commerce is already much more complex than in stationary retail and offers more scope for personalisation. This means that different factors - time of day, end device or demand - can be taken into account much more dynamically.
Personalisation on external sites
Based on user behaviour, it is not only possible to advertise suitable products in your own shop. Personalised ads for the product that the user has viewed in your shop and for other suitable products can also be advertised on external sites. In this way, the potential buyer is reminded of the product or an alternative that better matches their expectations is presented. In general, the more often a product is viewed, the more likely it is that the customer will make a purchase. If you catch the customer with your advert at a favourable moment, you can direct them back to your shop and possibly conclude a purchase. Another field is the use of the increasingly extensive possibilities in social networks to integrate your own products directly there and thus address specific target groups personallywith social commerce.
Outlook: Personalisation is the future of e-commerce
The rapid developments in e-commerce in recent years have not only led to an enormous growth in online shoppers, but also to a saturation of the market. In future, it can be expected that the number of visitors will hardly increase any further. It is therefore worth investing in marketing strategies to boost the conversion rate. Personalisation is the decisive keyword here in order to offer customers added value and stand out from the competition.
Would you like to find out how you can persuade your customers to give positive feedback on your shop to draw the attention of other potential customers to you? Find out more here.
