If you’re not personalizing your ecommerce store, you’re leaving money on the table.
Ecommerce personalization can take many forms. But at its core, personalization is using data to create unique, tailored experiences for your visitors.
Think about it this way:
A generic ecommerce store is like a one-size-fits-all piece of clothing. It might fit some people… but it’s not going to be a perfect fit for everyone.
An ecommerce store that’s been personalized is like a custom-tailored suit. It’s made specifically for the person wearing it and as a result, it looks and feels incredible.
In this post, I’m going to show you how personalization can help you increase sales on your ecommerce store.
How Ecommerce Personalization Works (and Why It’s Important)
Before we dive into the benefits of ecommerce personalization, let’s first discuss how it works.
Ecommerce personalization starts with data. Specifically, first party data that you’ve collected about your customers and their interactions with your store.
First party data is information that you’ve collected yourself through things like website cookies, customer surveys, loyalty programs, and email marketing campaigns.
This data gives you insights into who your customers are, what they want, and how they interact with your store. Armed with this information, you can start to create personalized experiences for your visitors that are relevant to their needs and interests.
For example, imagine that you run an online store that sells men’s shoes and accessories. And let’s say that you have a first-party data file containing information about the last 500 visitors to your site.
Using this data, you could create a segment of visitors who:
- Bought something from your store in the past 30 days
- Spent more than $100 on their last purchase
- Visited your site from the United States
- Clicked on at least 5 pages during their last visit
Now imagine that one of these visitors comes to your site and clicks on a pair of shoes that are currently out of stock in their size. With ecommerce personalization, you could display a message like this:
“We’re sorry—that item is currently out of stock in your size. However, we have other items that may interest you.” And then show them a selection of similar products.
Not only does this message address the specific need of the customer (finding an alternative to the product they wanted), but it also increases the chances of making a sale by showing them other relevant products.
Types of Ecommerce Personalization Tactics That You Can Use
Now that we’ve discussed how ecommerce personalization works, let’s take a look at some of the most effective ways that you can use it on your own site.
Product Recommendations
Product recommendations are perhaps the most common type of ecommerce personalization tactic—and for good reason.
Product recommendations work by showing customers items that are similar or related to what they’re currently looking at on your site.
For example, Amazon uses product recommendations extensively on their site. They show customers items that are similar or related to what they’re currently looking at.
In fact, a study by McKinsey & Company found that 35% of Amazon’s revenue comes from product recommendations.
There are two main ways to recommend products on your ecommerce store:
Automated recommendations: These are recommendations that are generated by algorithms that analyze customer data (like purchase history and browsing behavior) to identify patterns and trends.
Manual recommendations: These are recommendations that are hand-picked by you or your team, based on your intimate knowledge of the products and your customers.
Geo-Targeted Messages
Geo-targeted messages are messages that are customized for visitors from specific locations.
For example, imagine that you run an online store that ships internationally. If a visitor from the United States comes to your site, you could display a message like this:
“Welcome! We offer free shipping to the United States.”
However, if a visitor from Canada comes to your site, you could display a different message:
“Welcome! We offer free shipping to Canada on orders over $100.”
Geo-targeted messages are a great way to customize the experience for international visitors and ensure that they have all the information they need to make a purchase.
Time-Sensitive Messages
Time-sensitive messages are messages that are only displayed for a limited time. They’re often used to create a sense of urgency and encourage customers to take action quickly.
For example, imagine that you’re running a sale on your site. You could use a time-sensitive message to counting down the time until the sale ends:
“Hurry! Sale ends in 48 hours!”
Time-sensitive messages are an effective way to increase conversions and encourage customers to take action quickly.
Customer Segmentation
Customer segmentation is a tactic that involves grouping your customers into different segments based on shared characteristics. This allows you to send highly personalized messages to each segment.
For example, imagine that you have a clothing store for men and women. You could create two customer segments—one for men and one for women. Then, you could send segment-specific messages to each group.
Customer segmentation is a powerful ecommerce personalization tactic that can help you increase conversions and sales.
These are just a few of the many ecommerce personalization tactics that you can use to increase conversions and sales on your store. If you’re not already using personalization, now is the time to start. Implementing even a few of these tactics can have a dramatic impact on your business.
Newest Arrivals
If you have a lot of products, it can be hard for customers to find the newest arrivals. This is where the “newest arrivals” personalization tactic comes in.
With this tactic, you showcase the newest products on your store in a dedicated section or page. This makes it easy for customers to find the latest products and encourages them to come back to your store regularly to see what’s new.
The “newest arrivals” personalization tactic is a great way to increase conversions and sales on your store.
Another common tactic is to show customers your newest arrivals—i.e., items that have just been added to your inventory. This type of ecommerce personalization helps increase sales by giving customers another opportunity to buy something they may be interested in (especially if they didn’t find what they were looking for during their initial visit).
On-Site Search Results
Your on-site search bar is another great tool that you can use for ecommerce personalization because it allows you to show highly relevant results based on what each individual customer is searching for on your site..
For example, imagine that a customer searches for “men’s jeans” on your site. If you have a pair of men’s jeans in your inventory, you could display them as the top result. This would increase the chances of the customer finding what they’re looking for and making a purchase.
On-site search results are a great way to increase conversions and sales on your store.
Personalized Landing Pages
Personalization can take many forms, but one of the most effective is Personalized Landing Pages (PLP). also called lead capture pages or squeeze pages.
A PLP is a page on your website that’s designed to collect a visitor’s contact information (usually their name and email address).
And unlike your typical web page, a PLP is highly customized to fit a very specific persona.
For example, imagine that you own an online store that sells kitchen supplies. A PLP for someone who’s interested in buying a new kitchen mixer would look very different than a PLP for someone who’s looking for a new set of pots and pans.
The key to creating an effective PLP is to use copy and design elements that are proven to convert. Here are some examples:
– Use a strong headline that tells the visitor what they can expect by giving you their contact information.
– Use images and videos to further explain what the visitor will get by filling out your form.
– Use social proof (testimonials, customer logos, etc) to show that others have made the decision to give you their contact information and they’ve benefited from it.
– Offer a bribe in exchange for the visitor’s contact information. This could be in the form of an ebook, video course, or even just a coupon code.
– Keep the form fields to a minimum. The more fields that you require, the fewer people will take the time to fill it out.
– Use an attention-grabbing CTA button that motivates the visitor to take action. For example, instead of using a generic “Submit” button, try something like “Send Me My Discount Code” or “Send Me My Free eBook”. Personalized Landing Pages can be extremely effective at converting visitors into leads or customers. By taking the time to create a PLP that’s tailored to your ideal customer, you can increase conversions and get better results from your marketing campaigns.
Cart Abandonment Emails
Cart abandonment happens when people add items to their online shopping cart but then leave the site before completing the purchase. And it’s a huge problem: According to Baymard Institute, 69% of shoppers abandon their carts before completing a purchase..
One of the best ways to recover lost revenue from cart abandonment is to send a cart abandonment email.
A cart abandonment email is a message that’s automatically sent to someone who abandons their online shopping cart. And these emails have the potential to recover a ton of lost sales. In fact, one study showed that cart abandonment emails can recover up to 13% of lost sales.
Here’s how Cart Abandonment Emails work:
First, you need to set up an automation sequence in your email marketing software that sends out a series of Cart Abandonment Emails.
Next, whenever someone adds an item to their shopping cart on your site but doesn’t checkout, they’ll automatically receive your Cart Abandonment Emails.
The key is to send these emails quickly (within an hour of someone abandoning their cart) and include things like:
– A sense of urgency: Cart Abandonment Emails with a sense of urgency have been shown to increase click-through rates by 8%.
– A discount: Offering a discount in your Cart Abandonment Email can increase conversion rates by over 30%.
– Free shipping: Free shipping offers have been shown to increase conversion rates by over 50%.
– Product images: Showing product images in Cart Abandonment Emails can increase click-through rates by over 23%.
– Customer testimonials: Customer testimonials can increase conversion rates by 34%.
Sending Cart Abandonment Emails is a simple way to boost your ecommerce revenue. And if you set up these emails correctly, they practically write themselves. All you need to do is sit back and watch as your Cart Abandonment rate plummets… and your ecommerce revenue soars!
The Bottom Line
Ecommerce personalization can have a huge impact on your business by increasing sales, engagement, and customer loyalty.. If you’re not already using ecommerce personalization tactics on your site, now is the time to start! Not sure where to begin? Try implementing some of the tactics listed above and see how they impact your business..