A compelling and engaging online customer experience is the hallmark of the world’s most successful retail companies. And with any stellar customer experience, comprehensive personalization emerges as a critical element that enhances the entire customer lifecycle — from the first site visit, to the purchase confirmation page, to the email that prompts a return visit.
A recent Forrester report cited product recommendations and personalization as top priorities for retailers, second only to product detail page enhancements. These priorities make sense — shoppers engage with specific product SKUs on the product page so it remains the most obvious place for product recommendations. But sophisticated companies understand that personalization doesn’t stop at the product page; personalization should augment the customer experience throughout the entire site and beyond.
The goal of personalization is not only to seamlessly guide the customer through his or her entire journey and convert sales, but also to encourage repeat visits — a task that reaches well beyond the product page. To understand the universe of personalization options, start by mapping them back to the customer buying journey.
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While the buying journey should be viewed as a continuous cycle, first impressions matter. Keep in mind that most consumers start their initial brand interaction on the home or category page. These pages offer great opportunities to personalize, even without much knowledge about your customer.
Depending on consumer history with your company, you will have varying amounts of data that you can leverage for personalization:
- The unknown customer: First-time visitors with little or no available data. For these shoppers, observe the search terms used to either land on the page or navigate on your site. Leverage data from past shoppers who exhibited a similar navigation path with an eye toward the product pages they eventually landed on and the products they purchased. You can also leverage past shopper data on click path and page dwell time to begin to make some assumptions about the context of the first-timer’s shopping visit, the affinity between search terms (the language used) and the products that led to immediate engagement.
- Limited data or the known customer: Individuals who visited your site before, but have not registered, made a purchase or entered profile data. For these shoppers, supplement the contextual personalization strategies discussed above with knowledge of past browsing history. Return visitors will carry data about what they viewed and the types of price points and the products that they engaged with. This added data allows for even more insight into shopper behavior patterns and expands the number of personalization options.
- Named customer with specific data: Customers who have made a purchase in the past and/or entered profile data. These shoppers interact with your site while offering you full integration of contextual strategies, past behavior and past purchases. You can build upon the relationship with this customer by paying attention to new interests and trends, as well as by integrating more segmentation of their options by location and availability.
Sitewide Personalization Best Practices
- Placement: Many retailers rely on one personalization rail or “personalization zone.” Instead, take advantage of the whole webpage by utilizing multiple zones — think horizontally and vertically. Diversify what you offer in these zones — provide cross-sells and up-sells in one, and “complete the look” or category recommendations in the other.
- Mobile placement: An increasing number of emails are opened on mobile devices, so include recommendations within your email promotions that are built specifically for mobile viewing. Use smaller images and limit the number and types of recommendations. Alternatively, use a carousel approach that is easily scrollable if you have many items.
- Category and subcategory recommendations: Offer items that complement products customers are already viewing. Think about offering recommendations that link categories (e.g. backyard furniture with BBQs). For instance, Hayneedle offers these intelligent recommendations; if you look at hammocks, they recommend quilts, pillows and storage bags.
- Multimedia content: Offer more than just product images — try videos for example. According to Forrester, more retailers are starting to successfully integrate video into their product photo shoots “as the cost of producing video has decreased and consumers can more easily and consistently view the video as they access web content through phones and tablets.”
In addition to infusing your potential landing pages with personalization, take advantage of all the real estate, touch points and various forms of content. Follow these best practices across your entire site to increase customer engagement:
While product pages are a great place to start your personalization efforts, truly successful companies know that they are just the tip of the personalization iceberg. They also understand that the need for personalization does not end once a consumer submits a payment. Ensuring your personalization strategy maps back to the entire customer lifecycle — from the first site visit, to the purchase confirmation page, to the email that prompts a return visit — will go a long way to secure repeat customers who are continually delighted by the experience you offer.
Dan Darnell, VP of Product and Marketing at Baynote, is an experienced software industry marketer with a strong background in marketing automation, online optimization and analytics. Prior to Baynote, Darnell was the Director of Marketing for both Adchemy, a digital advertising technology company, and Interwoven Optimost, a multivariable testing and targeting platform, where he focused on product and company messaging, public relations, analyst relations and marketing programs. Before that, Dan was a Director of Product and Solutions marketing at Oracle and Siebel where he drove innovative projects for the marketing automation and analytics products.
