
Today it is not enough to just bring your business online, you must also keep a strong connection between you and your customers through excellent use of personalization. An aspect physical stores cannot compete with, customizing the experience for each of your customers will set you apart from the pack in today’s crowded E-commerce landscape.
Why Personalization?
Traditionally in retail stores, you would be greeted by a sales associate upon entering, forming a bond of sorts with you as you go around the store and try on products. Shopping on the internet, however, is a vastly different experience, being more cold, impersonal, and done through a glowing screen in your home.
Personalization is something that we as customers have grown so accustomed to online that we hardly notice it, unless it is absent. In fact, Shopify found that 86% of customers said that that personalization had impacted what they eventually purchased from an E-commerce business.
Additionally, humans apply emotions—consciously and unconsciously—to everything they experience, and this applies to digital commerce too. If someone has a positive experience, a sense of loyalty will emerge, resulting in them likely returning for repeat business.
Steps to Better Personalize Your Business
Naturally, it is nigh impossible to apply that warm human touch over the internet, but the advancement of technology still allows you to reach out to your customers in an inviting way.
With plenty of information data out there like browsing and purchase histories that can help you get a grasp of what customers want so you can make them truly feel like individuals, not just one of your many regulars. Even something as small as knowing a customer’s name is pleasing to 75% of consumers according to Forbes.
Here are some tips on how to personalize your experience for each of your customers:
Your data is your friend
As an owner of an E-commerce business, keeping track of your data should already be second nature to you for managing your monthly costs. However, this can also be applied to your customers to better grasp what they are looking for out of your digital store.
With E-commerce platforms like BigCommerce or Shopify, you can utilize a wealth of customer analytic data, from the web traffic each page gets, the words customers search for, and their personal information. Investing in these services, or a consulting company like Katalyst Software Services Limited, will give you the edge your sales and marketing team will need in the future.
As Convenient as Possible
Now that you have the data, comes the important part; putting it to use. With your customers’ browsing and shopping habits at your disposal, you can fully get a grasp of how you can make the shopping experience easier for them.
Say you run an apparel business, and your data shows that customers do not spend as much time on the graphic tees section of your website due to a lack of sorting. From here, you can make a wide assortment of changes, maybe by sorting the items by popularity or price range, or revitalizing the category section to allow to search by colors or designs.
These changes, no matter how small, can mean worlds of difference to retaining customers on your website. We all love convenience, and when the most relevant products and content are given to customers right out of the gate, they tend to stick around longer.
Bring In-Person Online
Convenience and aesthetics are important, but what many E-commerce businesses tend to forget when running their online store is a personal touch. It is nigh impossible to recreate the physical store experience online with hundreds of people visiting your page each day, so change your methods with the times!
An easy way to pull this off is through personalized emails and coupon codes. Through your data pulled from your website, you can include the names of your customers in everything, from promos, receipts, and more. It is a small touch that, whether they realize or not, is comforting, recognizing them not as a faceless customer, but for who they actually are. Notice on deals for products they like or coupons for their birthday are even better touches to build up a relationship with a client across the web.
Additionally, many websites have taken up AI chatbots and live helpers to assist customers with any questions they may have. Gone are the days where they had to wait for hours on emails or call centers, these recent developments allow consumers to get a helpful answer they need within minutes.
How We Can Help
Sifting through all of the data and numbers collected from your website, it can be overwhelming to even know where to start on your journey of increased personalization. That’s where the talented digital commerce team at Katalyst comes into play to help make sense of all this information. From setting up E-commerce platforms for small businesses like BigCommerce, Magento E-commerce, and Shopify, to showing you what your data represents, we have trained agents ready to help your digital business live up to its true potential.
If you have questions or want to learn more, feel free to reach out to our team today, and check out our other informative blog posts on E-Commerce here.