You will oftentimes hear a technology and innovation startup describe itself as “the Uber of the technology industry”. If you have ever wondered why brands will use such terms, mostly it’s about the personalized experience that the popular organizations offer.
Personalization is a clear-cut case: Shoppers expect brands to identify them instantly. Indeed, most shoppers (80%) are likely to purchase if there is a personalized experience. Similarly, poor or lack of personalized experience discourages sales, something that could lead to the collapse of an online business.
On this note, I find it important for online businesses to survey how they can apply personalized strategies for e-commerce success and consider approaches such as the Zolak visualization solution. In this post, we share examples and ideas for real-time personalization in e-commerce.
Real-time Personalization: what is it about?
Before we delve deeper into the ideas and examples, you probably would want to understand the concept of real-time personalization. When you personalize in real-time, it means that you customize the shopper’s journey in your business or platform. This kind of personalization is centered on machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). Using big data, the business can craft a personalized journey for the customer.
Real-time personalization in e-commerce looks at the “who”, “where”, and “what” of the customer’s journey. First, you want to identify your specific audience. Here there are numerous attributes to consider including online behavior, price preferences, and general purchasing history. Then you identify what motivates your customers. Is it their problems and the possibility of your product solving them? When you have covered these questions adequately, you can now decide where to direct the real-time personalization efforts.
Personalization is not an entirely new concept; it started with email marketing. While the body of the email remained the same for every recipient, the mere act of inserting the recipient’s name in the mail was a huge step forward. Real-time personalization based on emails was a dream during the time of Gary Thuerk in the 70s, but we are now at the center of this revolution.
Some Examples of Real-Time Personalization for E-Commerce
When I realized how important feeling seen is important for online clients, I embarked on personalization for my energy management products business. I can recall that I first started by sending personalized emails. That was five years ago and my team is still using this as one of the major personalized strategies.
It has been a learning journey because there is more to emails, including sending them at the right time. The buying history and demographics were very helpful in creating personalized emails to our clients. Over time, we have discovered more ways of making emails even more personalized, such as the use of direct links.
But remember that the real-time personalization journey for every organization is unique. It depends on where you want to start because there are many other examples of real-time personalization for e-commerce.
For instance, if the goal is to minimize the frustration of the customer when navigating through your platform, the self-service feature is a wonderful idea. It doesn’t have to be complicated. How-to guides, FAQs, and product user guides are just right. A self-service experience does more than just help clients solve their issues. It also enhances brand loyalty because the customer feels appreciated.
To be on the same wavelength as online clients, you need to understand their language. That means avoiding technical lingo as much as possible when chatting. You may be an expert in your industry, but you are not sure about the same for your customers. While it is important to deliver important information about the industry, it would be worthwhile to avoid difficult language.
Talking of language, real-time personalization is also about being available always. Customers want to be attended to at the click of a button, otherwise, they will find somewhere else to shop. So whether you use an automated service or a customer care team, round-the-clock availability is necessary.
Real-time personalization on product detail pages can work magic, yet it’s so easy to execute with the help of algorithms. As the shopper views some products, you can present other products that have similar characteristics. This gives them alternatives and increases the chances of making a sale.
Also Read: How Much Does It Cost To Build an E-Commerce Site?
In Conclusion
We’ve shared some examples and ideas for real-time personalization for e-commerce. Whichever you choose to adopt for your e-commerce business, the most important thing is to prioritize the user’s needs.
Interested in how you can start and fast-track your real-time personalization journey to be able to deliver the best to your online customers? Just identify one element of the customer experience that you can personalize and start there.