January 23, 2014 at 15:53Three personalization strategies for an online store
Personalized recommendations to users help customers quickly find the goods or services they need and increase sales.
There are several definitions for this term. The most suitable, in my opinion, was given by Ginny Hopkins in her post on Hubspot: “personalization is the attraction of a client using technology in such a way as if you yourself are standing in front of him.” Personalization in this context can be compared to an experienced sales assistant who tries to guess the wishes and needs of the buyer, and the more the consultant meets the buyer on the trading floor, the more he knows about him and the better he does his job, offering the best products for the client.
Today, personalization is one of the most interesting and important areas of e-commerce and digital marketing. This process helps online stores provide the best service, creating strong relationships with customers that are beneficial to both buyer and seller.
In this article, we describe three strategies for small or medium-sized online stores that are just starting to become familiar with personalization.
Strategy number 1. Build a long term relationship
This strategy suggests considering personalization as a way to improve your user experience. Its goal, as mentioned above, is to become the same consultant who wants to learn more about the client and offer their help in the form of relevant search results, specific recommendations or even a specially selected description of products that will help the buyer make a choice.
Naturally, from the point of view of the seller, personalization is primarily aimed at increasing conversions, but it is important to avoid the temptation to get a momentary sale at any cost to the detriment of the service as a whole. It’s more profitable to bind the client for a long time and stimulate repeat sales without chasing a single deal right here and now.
According to researchSmartfocus.com, “up-sells” are 20% more effective than “cross-sells”, i.e. prompting a customer to buy a larger quantity of one product or a similar, but more expensive product brings more income than a simultaneous offer to buy several different products at once. However, as part of a long-term relationship strategy, the seller does not always have to chase a big check from “up-sells”, but competently apply cross-selling opportunities that will more reliably “tie” the user to the service.
Strategy number 2. Personalize for real
Experts often use the term “crowd wisdom” to describe data about general trends among buyers. The wisdom of the crowd gives initial ideas about a new user that can be used as long as the site does not know anything about it. This data will be useful to you because it reflects general trends generalizations, although not related to the individual needs and desires of a particular client. Therefore, the use of the phrase "People who bought this also buy that" is not entirely about personalization.
As a real personalization, you can give an example: if during the first visit the user who needs skates looked at three different pages of the product, then on the second visit, when he uses the site search, among the first results of the search there will be precisely these three positions that he had previously viewed.
Strategy number 3. Act in real time.
This is correct when the seller wants to collect as much information about his buyer as possible. Then he will get the opportunity to better configure recommendations and offer better service. However, this cannot justify a delay in the beginning of active actions - to engage buyers more effectively in real time.
Imagine that a potential buyer looked at several pages with men's trousers, added several to the basket, and then began to search through the search for “white shirts”. In this case, he should not show women's shirts at the top of the search results, but offer logical and most likely to buy men's shirts, based on behavioral information from the current session.
Thus, personalization is a powerful marketing tool that helps online stores build long-term relationships with customers, build their loyalty and increase sales conversions.
Transfer. Source
PS Dear Habravchians, in this article we are starting a series of posts on what personalization and recommendation systems are. We hope that we will be useful in this difficult, but interesting topic. We will be very grateful if you write in the comments which questions and problems in the field of personalization interest you?
There are several definitions for this term. The most suitable, in my opinion, was given by Ginny Hopkins in her post on Hubspot: “personalization is the attraction of a client using technology in such a way as if you yourself are standing in front of him.” Personalization in this context can be compared to an experienced sales assistant who tries to guess the wishes and needs of the buyer, and the more the consultant meets the buyer on the trading floor, the more he knows about him and the better he does his job, offering the best products for the client.
Today, personalization is one of the most interesting and important areas of e-commerce and digital marketing. This process helps online stores provide the best service, creating strong relationships with customers that are beneficial to both buyer and seller.
In this article, we describe three strategies for small or medium-sized online stores that are just starting to become familiar with personalization.
Strategy number 1. Build a long term relationship
This strategy suggests considering personalization as a way to improve your user experience. Its goal, as mentioned above, is to become the same consultant who wants to learn more about the client and offer their help in the form of relevant search results, specific recommendations or even a specially selected description of products that will help the buyer make a choice.
Naturally, from the point of view of the seller, personalization is primarily aimed at increasing conversions, but it is important to avoid the temptation to get a momentary sale at any cost to the detriment of the service as a whole. It’s more profitable to bind the client for a long time and stimulate repeat sales without chasing a single deal right here and now.
According to researchSmartfocus.com, “up-sells” are 20% more effective than “cross-sells”, i.e. prompting a customer to buy a larger quantity of one product or a similar, but more expensive product brings more income than a simultaneous offer to buy several different products at once. However, as part of a long-term relationship strategy, the seller does not always have to chase a big check from “up-sells”, but competently apply cross-selling opportunities that will more reliably “tie” the user to the service.
Strategy number 2. Personalize for real
Experts often use the term “crowd wisdom” to describe data about general trends among buyers. The wisdom of the crowd gives initial ideas about a new user that can be used as long as the site does not know anything about it. This data will be useful to you because it reflects general trends generalizations, although not related to the individual needs and desires of a particular client. Therefore, the use of the phrase "People who bought this also buy that" is not entirely about personalization.
As a real personalization, you can give an example: if during the first visit the user who needs skates looked at three different pages of the product, then on the second visit, when he uses the site search, among the first results of the search there will be precisely these three positions that he had previously viewed.
Strategy number 3. Act in real time.
This is correct when the seller wants to collect as much information about his buyer as possible. Then he will get the opportunity to better configure recommendations and offer better service. However, this cannot justify a delay in the beginning of active actions - to engage buyers more effectively in real time.
Imagine that a potential buyer looked at several pages with men's trousers, added several to the basket, and then began to search through the search for “white shirts”. In this case, he should not show women's shirts at the top of the search results, but offer logical and most likely to buy men's shirts, based on behavioral information from the current session.
Thus, personalization is a powerful marketing tool that helps online stores build long-term relationships with customers, build their loyalty and increase sales conversions.
Transfer. Source
PS Dear Habravchians, in this article we are starting a series of posts on what personalization and recommendation systems are. We hope that we will be useful in this difficult, but interesting topic. We will be very grateful if you write in the comments which questions and problems in the field of personalization interest you?