Ecommerce Personalization: Benefits, Examples, and 7 Tactics for 2023

今天的消费者期望个性化的经验交流ross all digital touchpoints, but not all brands deliver.

In fact, some62% of shoppersthink companies could do a better job tailoring their customer experiences.

A strategic approach to ecommerce personalization is key to ensuring your business stands out in the market. It’s also good for your bottom line, with some70% of consumersspending more with companies that offer fluid, personalized, and seamless customer experiences.

Learning the basics of ecommerce personalization can help you sell more, retain customers, and increasecustomer lifetime value.

Table of Contents

• What is ecommerce personalization?
• Benefits of ecommerce personalization
• 7 scalable ecommerce personalization tactics
• Ecommerce personalization FAQ

What is ecommerce personalization?

E-commerce personalization is the practice of tailoring online shopping experiences to individual customers. This is done by delivering relevant content, product recommendations, and offers based on their preferences, behavior, and demographics. It aims to enhance customer satisfaction, engagement, and conversion rates by providing a personalized shopping journey.

Benefits of ecommerce personalization

Increase conversion rates

With personalization, you can show relevant products to your customers based on their browsing history. This leads to higher conversion rates. According to a report by ecommerce personalization platform and consultancyMonetate, personalized product recommendations can increase conversion rates by up to 8%.

Improved customer experience

By creating a personalized shopping experience based on customers’ needs and interests, you can improve overall customer satisfaction. It also makes the shopping experience more convenient, which is what87% of millennialssay impacts their decision making, according to market research from data and tech company Numerator.

Personalized experiences can help build a stronger relationship between your business and its customers. When customers receive product recommendations that align with their preferences and purchasing habits, they’re more likely to continue shopping with your brand.

Higher average order value (AOV)

You can also increase AOV with ecommerce personalization. Personalized product recommendations can help cross sell and upsell complementary or higher-value items. You can also send tailored discounts and bundle products based on buying behavior.Monetatefound brands can increase AOV by up to 12% by tailoring the customer journey.

7 scalable ecommerce personalization tactics

Here are seven scalable tactics for ecommerce personalization, including examples.

• Leverage intelligent product-detail page recommendations
• Show continuous shopping for returning customers
• Create personalized bestseller lists to drive click-throughs
• Integrate user-generated content across your funnel
• Retarget in-session based on behavioral triggers
• Time social retargeting with smart recommendations
• Automate three personalized messaging types

1. Leverage intelligent product-detail page recommendations

产品详情页面(PDP)建议给商店ppers similar or complementary products to the ones they’re already interested in. You can leverage dynamic upselling by recommending items higher in price but similar in style or by brand. Even with higher margins they’re proven to convert the best.

Cross-selling on PDPs makes it easier to recommend complementary items and inspire online shoppers to increase their cart size.

Pura Vidawas the first to leverageYotpofor customer reviews andNostofor personalization. It created two recommendation categories on its product pages:

Pura Vida showing related products to browsers.

Griffin Thall, co-founder ofPura Vida Bracelets, used the Nosto integration with Shopify Plus, saying the platform “truly allowed us to sync our operations with vendors, apps and tech partners, as well as provide amazing reporting.”

2. Show continuous shopping for returning customers

Netflix’s Continue Watching feature is a powerful engagement tactic. When applied to ecommerce, it has a similar impact to continuous shopping recommendations. For high-growth online retailers, it’s a value-add.

Netflix recommends that users continue watching content they previously viewed.

With Netflix, instead of manually searching and scanning through videos, you can pick up right where you left off with a click.

Similarly, continuous shopping recommendations remember your visitor’s selected items and preferences through previous sessions. Website visitors can pick up right where they left off. So, it’s easier for your visitors to buy when they’re ready without having to search again for the products they want.

3. Create personalized bestseller lists to drive click-throughs

People are drawn to popular products—think of the magic of theNew York Timesbestseller book list. To shake things up, you can highlight your bestsellers over a designated period of time.Campus Proteinused this tactic anddoubled its conversions year over year.

Energy drink category page on Campus Protein's website.

You can get creative with this approach: instead of ranking products by sales, try displaying the most reviewed or segment by location.

Showing bestsellers by location can be powerful if you sell fashion in multiple climates or if your online store specializes in sports team gear. Your customers in Los Angeles probably aren’t shopping for the same clothing during winter as shoppers in New York City. Find what works best for your unique products and customers.

4. Integrate user-generated content across your funnel

User-generated content (UGC)can bring another dimension to your site. By posting photos, videos, and reviews from customers, visitors get the chance to see your product in real life.

Consumers are receptive to making peer-based decisions. In the US,46% of consumerssay they learn about new and interesting products from friends and acquaintances.Shopify Flowmakes it possible to easilyintegrate all of your tech toolsto create seamless, inspiring experiences.

Most businesses stop short of integrating UGC throughout their onsite funnel, limiting its use to ratings on product pages or shares on social media.

Shoe companySeaVeesmakes UGC (collected from Instagram) prominent on its homepage and PDPs by linking directly to a curated collection of shoppable posts, many of which are submitted by customers through SeaVees branded hashtag:

SeaVees’s homepage showcases Instagram posts from customers who tag the brand in their posts.

5. Retarget in-session based on behavioral triggers

Off-site retargeting can be expensive. Thankfully, on-site interstitials are an alternative. The key is to be intuitive, not intrusive, with your pop-ups.

You can do this by timing or triggering pop-up offers to match each visitor’s in-session behavior. Trigger these pop-ups through automation based on characteristics like number of sessions, shopping cart value, and browsing behavior (both historical and real-time).

It’s a good idea to offer first-time visitors exclusive discounts and promotions in exchange for their email addresses so you can market to them. Here’s an example from cosmetics brandColourpop:

Colourpop’s Spin to Win pop-up on its homepage offers new visitors an interactive way to get a discount ranging from 5% to 15% off a purchase.

Once someone adds items to their cart, you can offer tiered discounts to drive upaverage order value (AOV).

Another great pop-up option is to reengage returning visitors with reminders of what they’ve browsed (but never purchased) in order to drive them toward checkout.

6. Time social retargeting with smart recommendations

Even if a visitor leaves your site, there are ways to get their attention back through retargeting on social media. To make this approach successful, you need to choose your timing wisely.

One of the more advanced forms of retargeting is granulated retargeting. The value of a site visitor declines the longer they’ve been away from your site, so you can save a lot on ad spend by layering your retargeting as their value declines. You can also shorten your retargeting period to 7 to 14 days so you’re engaging customers when they’re most likely to still convert.

It’s also important to be mindful of how you’re approaching these shoppers: whether it’s with products relevant to their previous purchases or by reminding them of yourunique selling proposition.

BOOM! By Cindy Joseph, for example, is a cosmetics company that sends retargeting ads after customers visit the homepage and collection page. It is focused on social proof and how other customers find the brand.

Facebook retargeting ad from Boom! By Cindy Joseph.

7. Automate three personalized email and SMS types

If an online shoppershares their email address or mobile number with you, your brand has another way toengage and convertthem. By continuously engaging customers, you can reach out no matter where your customers are, which keeps your company top of mind.

Here are three messaging techniques to get their attention:

1. Abandoned cart messaging

Optimizing your checkout experience is a necessary step toreducing cart abandonment, but you’ll never eliminate it altogether. For example, many shoppers get distracted and leave ecommerce sites with items still in their carts.

When this happens, you can remind them with an abandoned cart email. Clothing companyAmerican Giantsends customers an email containing items they left in their cart to encourage them to come back and finish the purchase.

American Giant sends abandoned cart emails based on customers’ shopping carts.

2. “We miss you” messaging

If a shopper forgets about their cart, you can nudge them with a kind email. Sports fan gear sellerSupporters Placesends emails to reengage visitors and announce new, exciting products to remind visitors of what they looked at in the past.

3. Order follow-up messaging

Checkout is not theend of your relationship with a customer. Check in with buyers after purchase and provide customized product recommendations based on their previous orders.

Here’s how baby and child sleepwear storeergoPouchdoes it:

ergoPouch sends follow-up emails to customers with additional items they could buy.

Learn more:10 omnichannel examples

Build an ecommerce personalization strategy today

It’s no secret ecommerce personalization has changed people’s expectations of retail brands. No longer can you get away with mass marketing or generic experiences for your audience. Every interaction needs to be memorable and bespoke in your ecommerce store.

WithShopify Plus, you can build deep marketing automations that tag high-value customers, trigger personalized email marketing campaigns, and improve retargeting efforts. That way, you can delight your customer base and grow your store.