McKinsey research from 2021 highlights that 71% of consumers expect to have personalised buying experiences when they shop online. The key word here is ‘expect’. It’s not that consumers, whether they are B2B or B2C, desire it – we’re past that point. They expect it.
But is this expectation being met?
A recent survey of 150 eCommerce and retail marketers has shown just over half (51%) are under more pressure to deliver greater levels of personalisation to customers. But given how many consumers now expect personalised buying experiences, you would have expected this percentage of marketers to have been even higher.
If you were using Spotify or Netflix and they didn’t have elements of personalisation or recommendations that were tailored to your tastes, you would likely use the platforms less. And if Google didn’t give you search results that were relevant to what you looked for, would you use it as much or at all?
As a society, we have come to depend on personalisation, especially at a time when AI is now giving us instant and highly relevant answers to any questions we ask. This consumer mindset also translates to eCommerce websites. When consumers are looking at your website, they are expecting to have relevant interactions that are tailored towards their preferences.
As such, if websites aren’t catering to this growing expectation, they are missing out on a large and growing group of users who demand personalisation. The McKinsey survey also showed that more than three quarters (76%) of consumers get actively frustrated when online buying interactions are not personalised.
The majority of people expect personalisation and even more disengage when they don’t get personalised interactions on websites.
In an era where consumers face an onslaught of digital marketing and social media outreach, tailored communication and experiences are powerful ways of cutting through this noise. Customers want, and increasingly demand, personalisation. But how can eCommerce brands give it to them?
Style needs substance
Websites are digital storefronts, so why don’t we humanise the experience? Imagine you walk into the most beautifully lit, well-designed store, with a great layout and range of products. However, there’s one problem. There are no people around to help you navigate to the right areas, ask questions about the products and, most importantly, purchase them. If this was the case, would you buy any products from that shop?
This is a common challenge with many eCommerce websites. Very often websites are well designed, visually appealing and show you everything they have to offer with engaging sales messages. But there’s no service or interactivity. Few sites have a way to get help with your purchase. We all agree that the online website is a digital storefront. Yet in a physical store, no human interaction would be unfathomable. So, why do we as marketers accept this as a reality for our websites?
Personalisation driving an additional 40% in revenue and more quality leads
If we know online consumers want and expect personalisation but it isn’t offered, they will disengage. Naturally, this lack of interaction has a direct impact on company performance, with those sites embracing personalisation reaping the financial benefits.
The same McKinsey report showed that fast-growth organisations can gain an additional 40% in revenue by implementing personalisation as opposed to slower growing companies. Successful global companies such as Unilever and Marriott have all championed the impact of AI and personalisation on their brand performance.
Simultaneously, quality traffic is getting harder to attain. Last year, nearly three in every five searches (59%) on Google didn’t end in a click. SEO and website rankings are decreasing in value. A significant reason for this can be attributed to AI and models like ChatGPT, which are quickly becoming the primary online search method. Google itself rapidly integrated AI searches to its site.
To fill this gap, companies may turn to paid advertising – but this is a market where prices are surging. In the period 2017-2024, global paid search spend pretty much doubled twice in succession (from $105bn to $306bn). The tactics for acquiring quality traffic are coming at an ever greater premium. It’s why personalisation offers a more cost-effective way of generating quality leads and driving higher conversion.
It’s never been easier to personalise at scale
It might sound counterintuitive, but a drop in traffic can lead to an increase in sales. We’ve worked with companies that minimise low quality or nonperforming traffic. By investing in personalisation on their websites, one of our clients generated a 40% uplift in sales, despite receiving 9% less traffic. It’s never been easier or cheaper to personalise at scale – and that’s because of AI and scalable cloud technology.
AI-powered customer engagement platforms, for example, offer a wide range of tools, from providing a data-driven visualisation of the customer journey on a website to interactive chatbots. By understanding the customer and their journey – for example, where a person works, demographic info, and their lifetime journey on the page – marketers can dynamically change their content to cater for these interactions. AI can then create true one-to-one personalisation by answering unique questions from customers on chatbots in the same way ChatGPT would.
A range of additional benefits can be delivered to sales teams by connecting CRM data and understanding where conversions or drop-offs are taking place in the journey, or using personalisation methods like product recommendations, abandoned cart recovery and individualised discounts and offers.
Less traffic, more conversions
If a website is a digital storefront, then the site needs to be humanised by offering human qualities: conversation, interactivity and, crucially, personalisation – because that’s what people not only now expect, but demand.
By building a website that meets customer expectations, brands can drive their own goals too. Research has illustrated how personalisation can lead to major revenue increases for fast-growth companies. And with organic traffic harder to come by, the use of AI to personalise the online shopping experience can attract quality leads and build one-to-one customer journeys that trigger an uptick in conversion rates.
Customers want tailored eCommerce experiences – so should you. By fully leveraging the power of personalisation for your shoppers, you can choose to be a faster growing brand.