Best Practices For Ecommerce Personalization

The five best practices for ecommerce personalization are as follows

1. Personalized search results
2. Personalized product recommendations
3. Dynamic content
4. Customized alerts and notifications
5. Testing and optimization

Ecommerce personalization is not just a buzzword; it has become a necessity in today's competitive marketplace. In fact, according to recent research, 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase from a brand that provides a personalized experience. This is not surprising, given that personalization can increase sales by up to 15%.

Let's take the example of Jane, a frequent online shopper. She visits an ecommerce website looking for a pair of shoes. As soon as she lands on the website, she is presented with a personalized banner that showcases shoes similar to what she had recently searched for. The website also recommends related products based on her previous purchases, making finding what she is looking for easier. Jane ends up buying a brand new pair of shoes, and the website sends her a personalized thank you email with a discount code for her next purchase.

This is just one example of how personalization can enhance the customer experience and drive sales. Businesses can build stronger customer relationships by providing personalized recommendations, search results, and messaging, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

This article will explore the best practices for ecommerce personalization, which can help companies provide a more engaging and relevant shopping experience to their customers. By implementing these practices, businesses can increase customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sales.

Why is Personalization Important?

In today's fast-paced and hyper-competitive world of ecommerce, standing out from the crowd is a must for any brand that wants to succeed. Personalization has emerged as a powerful tool that businesses can use to differentiate themselves from the competition and provide customers with a more engaging and relevant shopping experience.

Personalization aims to enhance the customer's shopping experience and ultimately drive sales. Businesses can build stronger customer relationships by providing personalized recommendations, search results, and messaging, leading to increased satisfaction and loyalty.

Let’s take a look at some common ecommerce personalization scenarios - 

• Offering different results for different user types. For example, displaying more results for logged in users than for guests.

• Using user location to show relevant results. For example, if a user is searching from New York, the search engine displays results for local stores first.

• Taking into account user preferences and past behavior to show relevant results. For example, if a user has previously searched for women's clothing, the search engine prioritizes women's clothing in the search results.

• Integrating social media data to display personalized results. For example, if you know that a user is connected to a certain brand on social media, the search engine prioritizes that brand's products in the search results.

Another benefit of personalization is that it can help businesses to reduce the number of abandoned shopping carts. By analyzing the customer's behavior and preferences, businesses can send customized emails and notifications reminding customers of the items left in their cart or providing them with exclusive offers. This can help to increase customer engagement, loyalty, and sales.

Best practices to follow for ecommerce personalization

Let us explore five best practices for ecommerce personalization that businesses can adopt to improve customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sales.

Personalized Search Results

Personalizing search results is the most powerful way to boost customer experience. Customers expect an intuitive and fast search experience, and by personalizing search, businesses can create a more relevant and engaging shopping experience. Companies can use algorithms that analyze customer behavior, past purchases, and browsing history to personalize search results. This can help suggest products relevant to the customer's interests and preferences.

Here are some examples that show how personalized search results can drive immediate results: 

• Amazon: It's one of the pioneers of personalized search. Amazon's search engine analyzes customers' past search queries, purchase history, and browsing behavior to provide customized search results.

• Netflix: The streaming giant uses personalization in search results by customizing the order in which titles are displayed based on the user's interests and watch history.

Personalized Product Recommendations

One of the most effective ways to personalize an ecommerce experience is by providing personalized product recommendations. This can be achieved using algorithms that analyze the customer's past purchases, search queries, and browsing behavior. Recommendations can be displayed on the homepage, search results page, and product pages.

To understand how personalized product recommendations help with ecommerce personalization, take a look at the following key examples: 

• Spotify: Spotify analyzes user data to provide personalized music recommendations based on the user's listening history, genre preferences, and other factors.
• Sephora: Sephora uses product recommendations to cross-sell and upsell customers. It suggests complementary products based on the customer's past purchases and browsing history.

Dynamic Content

Dynamic content refers to website content that changes based on the user's behavior and preferences. This can include personalized banners and messaging. Dynamic content can be used to create a more engaging and relevant shopping experience for customers.

Here's how dynamic content has improved personalization and, as a result, helped brands in the long run:

• Coca-Cola: Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign was a massive success due to its use of dynamic content. The company printed popular names on its products to create a personalized experience for customers.
• Netflix: Netflix uses dynamic content to personalize the user interface. It displays content based on the user's viewing history, trending shows, and new releases.

Customized Alerts and Notifications

Businesses can send customized emails and notifications to customers based on their behavior, preferences, and interests. This can include abandoned cart emails, personalized product recommendations, and exclusive offers. Personalized emails can increase customer engagement, loyalty, and sales.

Here are a couple of examples that clearly showcase the importance of customized notifications and alerts for improving ecommerce personalization: 

• Grammarly: Grammarly sends customized notifications to users based on their writing habits. It suggests corrections, new words, and other helpful information to help users improve their writing skills.
• Birchbox: Birchbox sends customized emails to customers based on their preferences, interests, and purchase history. The company uses email to promote new products, offer discounts, and solicit feedback.

Testing and Optimization

Personalization is not a one-time process. It requires ongoing testing and optimization to ensure that the personalization strategy is effective. Businesses should test different personalization tactics and analyze the results to optimize their approach.

Here's how testing and optimization have allowed businesses to offer more personalization to their users: 

• Airbnb: Airbnb uses A/B testing to optimize its search algorithm. The company tests different search results and analyzes user behavior to improve the search experience.
• Nike: Nike uses testing to optimize its product recommendations. The company tests different algorithms and analyzes user behavior to provide more accurate recommendations.

Conclusion

In conclusion, ecommerce personalization is a powerful tool for businesses to enhance the customer experience and drive sales. By implementing the best practices outlined in this article, businesses can create a more engaging and relevant shopping experience for customers, increasing customer satisfaction, loyalty, and sales.

Zevi is an ecommerce personalization platform that helps businesses provide a personalized shopping experience to their customers. With its advanced AI technology, Zevi offers personalized recommendations and search results, dynamic content, and customized notifications. If you want to learn more about how Zevi can help your business, please visit our website, or try our demo today!