Personalization has been the buzzword in eCommerce for years now, but its popularity is continuing to rise. With the development of new technologies that now allow for increased accessibility for both businesses and consumers, it’s becoming easier to get that in-store shopping experience, online.
Accessibility
For businesses, personalization has been an ongoing challenge to keep on top of the trends and keep customers happy. However, as is often the case, smaller businesses struggle to keep up with eCommerce personalization trends due to cost, resource, and usability. Up until now, that is. More and more personalization tools are focused on making it as easy as possible for websites to integrate functions into their eCommerce platforms through widgets and configurators so that everyone can benefit from a more personal shopping experience.
According to Dan from personalization software provider Doogma “For the customer, they get a unique shopping experience suited to their taste, pushing them further down their buying journey and making it easier to avoid the dreaded choice fatigue, with too many options driving customers away.”
For the business, they can implement cutting edge personalization tools in easy-to-use formats without the need for lines and lines of coding. Instead, adopting configurators that have software that learns from customer experience meaning less work for everyone involved.
Increasing average order value
Being able to find exactly what they need ranks highly for customers, with mix and match being a popular way of increasing the average order value. Customers are able to choose their own bundles and create custom fits that work perfectly for them. This level of option means that no-one is restricted in their online retail journey, and people can achieve that bricks and mortar shopping experience from the comfort of their home or phone.
With marketers noting an average of 20% increased sales when offering a personalized experience, this will no doubt lead to a higher average order value.
Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning
As eCommerce and online shopping shows no sign of slowing down, recreating the in-person shopping experience can be replicated using artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning. Machines can process data and produce results far quicker than humans, which means that personalization can be scaled and updated in real-time, allowing businesses to focus their attention on other areas, without any loss or detriment to their customer experience.
It’s equally an excellent way for businesses to understand more about their customers. For example, if a customer uses an AI to customize a product, that data can feed into a wider knowledge base where businesses can start to build profiles on their customers; what’s the most common color, style, size etc. This level of data can be analyzed and further used to show the most popular item chosen by the exact people who are buying your product, further encouraging repeat purchases, as you know they already like what they see. These are just a few examples of how AI will continue to develop in eCommerce, and in a post-COVID world, online shopping will continue to surge and benefit from these advancements in personalization.