eCommerce Personalization 101: What It Is, Examples, Strategies, Benefits of Personalization for eCommerce in 2024

Most consumer brands today are looking to go omnichannel, and for good reason too. Every business operation you can imagine can be done virtually, at an efficiency rate that can only be described as exponential. The digital age has brought on a tectonic shift in the market, and consumer habits reflect that.

Consumers expect ease and convenience, and as a consumer brand, you need to align yourself closely to their evolving tastes when building your digital commerce channel. That is where eCommerce Personalization comes in.

In this article, we’ll explore what exactly personalization for eCommerce is, alongside cohesive eCommerce personalization examples. How can it benefit your business? What are the core tenets of eCommerce personalization strategy? How to get started with curating a personalized eCommerce experience in 2024? Read on to find out:

‍

What is eCommerce Personalization?

Imagine this: the shelves in a store magically rearrange to highlight your products for a consumer that’s strolling by, carefully calculated to suit their specific needs, preferences and buying habits.

While that is nothing short of magic in the physical world, it is entirely possible within your digital storefront - and exactly how personalized eCommerce experiences are created. By leveraging data to understand your customers, you can offer experiences that are so relevant and contextual, that it feels like you can read their minds.

Many online shoppers feel overwhelmed by the vast selection of products available. Personalization cuts through the clutter by presenting relevant recommendations based on a customer's browsing history, past purchases, and other data points.

eCommerce personalisation spans across channels, driven by real-time, first-party data. It encompasses both anonymous and known customers, shaping messages, content, site layouts, and products. It is a truly ‘omnichannel’ approach - blending the convenience of online purchasing with the familiarity of an in-person shopping experience to offer delight at every touchpoint. 

‍

How You Can Boost CX and Retention: eCommerce Personalization Benefits

eCommerce customisation is a useful tool for addressing "choice paralysis."  It's the difference between a friendly store assistant who anticipates your every need and a generic website that feels like a maze.

Customizing the eCommerce experience increases the likelihood that customers will find and purchase the right goods. Personalized product recommendations have been shown to increase sales by up to 8%. This translates to more money in your pocket simply by knowing what your clients desire. eCommerce customisation techniques make it easier for customers to locate what suits them best, which increases customer satisfaction and revenue.

Personalization in eCommerce does more than increase revenues. It builds up consumer satisfaction and trust, promoting repeat business. This has been well pointed out by research, wherein it was found that 78% of customers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides a customized product, good, or experience. Customers will certainly feel more valued if a retailer greets them by their names and shows them precisely the exact products that they wanted. Thus, e-commerce personalization is very essential for an online retailer in its bid to replicate this experience. This may include: 

• Personalized greetings: Using the customer's name when addressing them in emails or on the website gives a warm and intimate feel.
• Dynamic content: Presenting product categories and offers that are pertinent to a customer's previous actions keeps them interested in and concentrated on what they are probably going to buy. The days of slogging through pointless promotions are long gone!
• Customization of search results: Show products that are relevant to a customer's past searches or browsing history by personalizing search results. By removing alternatives that aren't relevant, this helps them save time and stress.

And in no way is the effect on consumer satisfaction deniable. 87 percent of millennials agree that convenience plays a big role in their decision of where to shop. That is made possible by refining the buying process and abstracting the process of how consumers find what they need. When they feel appreciated and respected, your customers are so much more likely to be die-hard brand defenders and repeat buyers who can organically vouch for your brand. 

Additionally, eCommerce personalization reveals untapped possibilities in your clientele.  The average order value (AOV), or the average amount a consumer spends on a purchase, can rise noticeably as a result. Consider a buyer perusing a brand-new laptop. With customization, users may be offered suggestions for a wireless mouse or carrying case that goes well with the laptop of their choosing. The customer's overall purchase value is increased by this cross-selling opportunity.  Furthermore, by examining consumer behavior, personalized discounts or product bundles that address their particular requirements can be provided, leading to boost in repeat purchases too.

‍

Top 5 Examples of Personalized eCommerce Experience in 2024

1. Use smart algorithms to suggest related items on product pages

Smart algorithms analyze user behavior and purchase history. They recommend complementary or similar products on product detail pages. This increases the average order value while significantly improving the shopping experience.

Sephora uses their checkout page as a trigger point for product recommendations to boost their up-sell opportunities.

‍

2. Enable seamless shopping experiences for repeat visitors

For returning customers, display recently viewed items, save shopping carts, and offer personalized product suggestions based on past purchases. This creates a continuous, frictionless shopping experience.

Amazon, for example, prompts suggestions at the search bar based on a customer’s browsing history. 

‍

‍

3. Incorporate customer reviews and content throughout the buying journey

Strategically place user-generated content like reviews, ratings, and photos throughout the customer journey. This builds trust, provides social proof, and helps customers make informed decisions.

Here’s an example of how the brand Cluse incorporates user-generated content in their Lookbook to encourage their customers to engage with the brand organically.

‍‍

4. Adapt in real-time to shoppers' actions with targeted offers

Implement real-time personalization that responds to customer actions. Offer tailored discounts, product recommendations, or content based on their current browsing behavior and past interactions.

Williampainter, for instance, uses a discount popup wheel for first-time visitors to grow its emailing list.

‍

5. Provide instant, personalized responses to customer inquiries in real time using data insights

Use AI-powered chatbots or live chat systems that access customer data to provide quick, relevant responses to inquiries. This improves customer service and can guide shoppers towards purchase decisions.

App0’s AI concierges interact with customers in real time, using data points and targeted insights to carry out nuanced conversations. The AI chatbots are capable of making personalized recommendations, answering customer queries, plugging in relevant UGC and displaying relevant offers to boost conversion rates in e-commerce. 

‍

4 Best eCommerce Personalization Strategies in 2024

At the end of the day, personalization of eCommerce customer experiences comes down to the objective of delivering as much value as possible to the end user. Empathy for their pain points, anticipation of their needs in every step of the sales process from end to end — these are all crucial. Abstractions of this elaborate process have been made easier than ever due to the evolution of AI technologies.

Let’s do a deep dive into the core tenets of eCommerce personalization strategies:

1. Add a Human Touch to your Online CX 

The digital landscape can be overwhelming at times for anyone, with an endless abyss of inventory to browse through and categorisations that may not make total sense to the average customer. Optimizing your online CX with a live e-commerce chatbot can set you apart from the competition, by humanizing your user interface.

Modern AI chatbots in e-commerce use natural language processing and machine learning techniques to understand complex questions and detect sentiments in language based on the context, which helps them respond with empathy at all times, in keeping with your brand tone. They can handle multiple conversations at once, and provide instant, personalized help 24/7. 

They can guide customers through the entire buying journey, from product discovery to post purchase support while being consistent - this creates a highly personalized CX that is curated to fit your customer’s needs. Plus, AI chatbots can proactively engage customers, offer help or product suggestions based on browsing behavior, just like a sales associate does in a physical store. Harmonizing the “human” aspect of offline shopping experiences with your online storefront can work wonders in enhancing your overall CX.

‍

2. Use a Precise Algorithm to Push Personalized Recommendations

Using advanced algorithms for product recommendations in eCommerce personalization is a big deal. These algorithms look at a ton of data - browsing history, purchase behavior and demographic info to suggest products that will interest each individual customer.

The key to this is precision and complexity of your algorithm. It should be able to find patterns and correlations that may perhaps not be immediately obvious to an average human agent. For example, it might know that a customer who buys a certain type of running shoe, can also be interested in specific nutrition supplements.

This is where AI algorithms come in. Modern AI algorithms can look at multiple factors at once, and with precision, at scale. These factors include past purchases, browsing history, demographic data, current trends and even contextual info. This kind of deep analysis gives you a granular understanding of customer preferences and needs.

And these AI systems learn and adapt. Each interaction provides new data for the system to train on, so it can refine its understanding of individual customer preferences and improve future recommendations.

‍

‍3. Build Trust and Loyalty with UGC (User Generated Content)

User Generated Content (UGC) is a powerful way to build trust and loyalty in eCommerce. It’s a form of social proof and authenticity for your brand, helping customers make informed decisions. 

But the real power of UGC is unlocked when combined with AI: 

AI powered systems can analyse millions of user reviews, ratings and social media content to find the most relevant and impactful UGC for each individual customer. They can understand the context of reviews and the sentiment behind the words. 

Presenting this curated UGC in a conversational way helps build loyalty and brand trust organically. When a customer is interested in a product, the chatbot can instantly deliver the most relevant reviews or user photos, focusing on what matters most to the customer (or what they’re worried about). 

For example, if a customer is looking for a hiking boot, the AI can prioritize reviews that mention durability and long term use. This targeted approach to UGC presentation makes it much more effective at influencing decisions.

‍

4. Understand Your Customer’s Buying Patterns

Deep knowledge of the purchasing patterns of your clients is really key to the personalization process in eCommerce. This means sifting through the data that comes in from different buying touchpoints in efforts to build an overall view of each and every customer's journey and preference.

Analyze the frequency of purchases made, average order value, and types of products a customer typically buys. Use these insights to intuit when a given customer is likely to be on the market to make their repeat purchase, possibly what they're after.

Pay attention to the seasonal trends that drive individual customers. Some may come in only during sales seasons, while others may have times of the year when they make heavier purchases.

Make use of this information in targeting your marketing approach, customizing the website experience, and maybe using it in a CRM or inventory management system. For example, a personalized email reminder can be set up for customers when it seems like they might be running low on a product that they frequently purchase.

Really understanding the buying patterns of your customers enables you to anticipate their needs; hence, their shopping experience becomes more convenient and pleasurable, naturally inspiring loyalty that increases the customer lifetime value.

‍

How To Get Started With eCommerce Personalization in 2024?

To sum it up, your eCommerce personalization strategy needs to be centered around:

• Adding a human touch
• Using precise algorithms for personalized recommendations
• Smartly leveraging user generated content
• Analyzing and understanding your customer’s buying patterns

The perfect eCommerce personalization tool should harmonize these core tenets to create the best possible CX for your digital storefront. Did you know that 53% of digital experience delivery professionals said they lack the right technology to personalize eCommerce experiences?

This is where unique solutions like App0 come to the rescue. App0 empowers businesses to deploy AI agents instantly, and at scale through its flexible no-code/low engineering platform - all with zero upfront software development costs or technical expertise. The democratization of AI technology has opened the doors for businesses across a range of sizes to execute advanced strategies around eCommerce personalization.

App0 is unique in that it has a fully-integrated AI concierge within the existing tech stack. App0's AI concierge is advanced enough to work complex tasks unlike conventional chatbots which restrict themselves till common FAQs This sophistication provides more complex conversations that are tailored to the individual customer and, thereby enriching overall shopping experience.

Through the adoption of these aforementioned strategies and use cases, combined with state-of-the-art technology like App0, eCommerce brands can offer their customers extremely personalized eCommerce experiences that not only spur engagement but also establish brand loyalty - in turn increasing revenue. It all comes down to adaptation and iteration.

‍

Conclusion

In conclusion, personalized eCommerce experiences are evolving into an unshakeable foundation for digital and omnichannel B2C brands.The evolution of technology will continue creating new opportunities for sophisticated personalization techniques. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning will be at the core of anticipating customers’ needs and scaling personalized experiences.

The most successful eCommerce businesses moving ahead will, therefore, be those that find a fine balance between exploiting cutting-edge technology and still keeping the human element alive. Businesses may ensure that they offer a fantastic shopping experience that encourages customers to return by involving their clients in their tailored marketing strategies.

If you want to provide a personalized online shopping experience to your customers, choose App0. App0 enables AI shopping assistants for eCommerce brands & provides personalized product recommendations, customer support, subscription management, return management & more.

‍

FAQs