In today’s cut-throat competition, strong customer relationships are all you need to thrive. Today 98% of marketers believe personalization strengthens customer relationships and there is no denying that it is the future of e-commerce. While personalization in e-commerce existed forever, the recent surge due to analytics and business intelligence has been noteworthy.
With the revamp of personalization in e-commerce, customization goes beyond the typical recommendation phase of a business. Personalization is incorporated into the whole buying process to enhance customer experience. Being a part of the saturated e-commerce industry, a well-optimized business model can take you to places, whereas minor shortcomings can lead to drastic impacts.
Rather than weighing heavily on the customer’s mind for days with irrelevant product recommendations, make an ever-lasting impression through well-curated suggestions. With around 80% of buyers willing to purchase more from personalized e-commerce businesses, what is the future of personalization in e-commerce?
The Need for Personalized E-Commerce
Do you remember the last time you returned to a website for another purchase immediately after checking out only because you could not stop yourself from buying the suggested product? How did the e-commerce website get in your head and recommend what you were looking for? This is where personalization in e-commerce comes in. Before the integration of personalization, e-commerce businesses survived by adopting mass marketing, but can they prosper on the one size fits all approach? We do not think so.
71% of customers feel annoyed with undifferentiated buying experiences. Through their feedback and buying decisions, customers have shown an affinity for e-commerce businesses that offer a personalized experience. A strong need for customized services exists in the e-commerce domain. With loads of competitors present in the marketplace, personalization should be your differentiating factor. Never rely too heavily on customer loyalty as it just takes the right blend of personalization and product differentiation to shift your loyal customers to a competitor’s brand. Customers would never choose to stay loyal to a brand that does not earn their loyalty, so personalize their experience and stay ahead of the game.
While a lack of options can disappoint a customer, an overload of choices causes choice fatigue. Being stuck for hours to lower the opportunity cost might lead to the abandonment of the purchase decision. If a shopping trip requires too many decisions, buyers usually return home empty-handed. Never complicate the shopping experience for your buyer and facilitate their retail therapy by offering personalized experiences. Only by incorporating personalization into every customer touchpoint, businesses can boost a customer’s experience with their brand and maintain a strong customer base over a long period.
The Benefits of Personalization in E-commerce
1. An Increase in Website Engagement
In this fast-paced world that does not spare you a second to get some me-time, shopping for your next favorite product seems like a distant dream. Just because you do not have the time to visit a store does not mean you have to give up on that one product you were waiting for for months. Simplifying the overall shopping experience, e-commerce brings your desired products to your fingertips.
Now that your customer is only a few clicks away from their next purchase, you would not want to turn it into a never-ending process. As the e-commerce industry relies solely on websites, engaging customers through your e-commerce platform is crucial to success. Personalization in e-commerce facilitates businesses to boost engagement as customers are likely to return to an e-commerce site that offers a tailored experience.
As a business owner, make sure your website retains customer information to speed up the checkout process and recommend relevant products. Partner with Ascend Analytics to store data from multiple data sources in a structured format. We translate your customer data into actionable reports to increase website engagement and boost sales.
2. Amplified Product Sales
Have you ever gone to buy a single product but returned home with a variety of related stuff? We have all been there. With several product recommendations shown on the website, it becomes too hard to resist another purchase. As an e-commerce business owner, it is your job to increase sales transactions and the average order size.
Will every customer be keen to buy the same set of products displayed on your website? The product choice varies from person to person. An e-commerce website should tailor its recommendations to align with the buyer’s choices. At Ascend Analytics, we leverage customer data through our personalized marketing services and generate a list of suggestions based on user behavior. By customizing your product recommendation section for every customer, we ensure an increase in the number of sales transactions.
3. Expanded Customer Network
Would you like to buy a product recommended by another customer or choose the one advertised through the brand advertisements? Customers are wiser than before today and understand the deception behind targeted marketing campaigns. In such scenarios, word-of-mouth acts as the guiding light for your next customer. According to Exact Target and Forrester Consulting, 84% of marketers believe that adding personalization to customer experience boosts customer loyalty. Loyal customers act as unpaid brand ambassadors and promote your brand within their social circles without asking for anything but personalization.
Ascend Analytics enables its clients to offer a personalized customer experience by categorizing customers into different segments by leveraging the data gathered from the website. Once categorized into segments, personalizing the complete customer experience becomes a streamlined process. Such customers return to the same business and promote it to potential customers.
What is Next in Store?
If we talk about the future of personalization in e-commerce, one thing we all can agree on is the ever-growing popularity of tailored experiences. No matter what e-commerce industry you belong to, personalization in e-commerce will take over the business arena in the future.
1. Personalized Pricing Packages
What is better than buying from an e-commerce business that creates a package specifically to meet your requirements? Not every customer is on the same page when it comes to purchasing decisions. Businesses are on their way to offering tailored prices to each customer based on their prior purchase decision and buying power.
As a business owner, you should partner with Ascend Analytics to gain an insight into the buyer history and purchasing patterns through our AI and machine learning solution.
2. Automated yet Tailored Customer Interaction
Although automation has made its way to customer service departments, the impact of customization can never be understated. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are all set to brighten up the future of personalization in e-commerce. As e-commerce websites target customers from different backgrounds, tailoring their experience in their language would add comfort to their buying experience.
Machine learning changes the language according to the customer to ease the buying process for each customer by leveraging data analytics. Businesses will opt for ML to avoid frustrating customers with automated responses. Personalized channels would be leveraged to resolve each customer query in the future. As artificial intelligence and data analytics are all set to dominate the e-commerce industry in the future, opt for Ascend Analytics’ artificial intelligence feature to create AI-powered mobile apps and provide real-time customer assistance at every step.
3. Access to Accurate Forecasts
Having a holistic view of the future trends and buying patterns not only benefits the business in the future but channels current resources in the right direction too. E-commerce is on its way to personalization and businesses can expect a rise in the accuracy of future predictions. Effective personalization strategies require businesses to have a grasp over their future operations, opportunities, threats, and buying power of the customers. In the future, businesses would want to integrate personalization at every step of the customer journey and opt for predictive analysis to channel personalization in the right direction. You can only design effective personalization strategies once you are aware of the future trends. Join Ascend Analytics today and our predictive analytics will unlock future trends and add certainty to your personalization strategies.
4. Multi-Channel Marketing Campaigns
Revenue witnesses a 38% increase through personalized ads. With the undeniably strong impact of personalization in marketing campaigns, multi-channel marketing would become a part of every e-commerce business. Businesses would prefer to market their products and services through every channel available. Depending on the customer, businesses will opt for print ads, social media campaigns, television advertisements, billboards, pamphlets, and promotional emails.
Ascend Analytics plays an important part in adding personalization to marketing campaigns through its personalized marketing services. With the right set of tools, we enable businesses to create customer profiles using their data. Choosing the right channels becomes convenient once businesses analyze customers’ buying trends and personal data. Never make the mistake of putting all your financial resources at stake by investing in every advertising channel out there.
Partner with Ascend Analytics to direct your marketing campaigns in the right direction. We utilize data analytics to assess customers’ activities and engagement rate per social media platform and design your marketing campaign accordingly.
Personalization is the future of e-commerce and it is high time businesses leverage the benefits of personalization to scale business growth and boost profitability. Schedule an appointment with Ascend Analytics today and fuel your growth through personalized data-based insights.