Why is Personalization required in eCommerce?

“You wanna be where everybody knows your name. And they're always glad you came.”

The catchy and relatable theme song from the beloved sitcom Cheers, applies as much to a bar in the Land of the Red Sox- Boston in the ’80s, as it does today in a retail storefront or an eCommerce site or an app.

Whether you’re buying…

A classy LBD that carries you from work to drinks afteror

A trendy fashion bracelet for your favorite nieceor

A royal love seat for your formal living room

Or really pretty much anything else. No matter if you buy it on 5th Avenue or in a Flea market. Don’t we all just love it, when a seller recommends us stuff we’re sure to like, right from the second we walk in? It makes us feel so important, excited and wanted.

Just think about it…

You just walk into your favorite swanky boutique and are delighted by the reassuring presence of your favorite sales associate, Jamal. The man just knows when you’re buying a shirt to hide the pounds because you haven’t seen a gym in 3 weeks and he shows you just the shirts that could camouflage your flab er extras without any delay. Or snarkiness. He also notices when you have been working out as the beast and want to obviously strut your stuff! You’re a classic, understated, subtle kind of guy and you like to show it in how you dress. Jamal totally gets that. All classic blues, blacks, greys, no flashy red and green stuff. Not even at Christmas! He knows just the stash to hook you up with. The minute, no wait, the second you walk into that store.

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Everybody Loves Jamal![/caption]

“BUT WHAT’S ALL THIS GOT TO DO WITH INCREASING MY WEBSITE CONVERSIONS BY 200%, HUH?” You ask as the angry, puzzled Ecommerce site CXO/Marketing Dude/Founder frenetically looking for answers on getting the ka-ching going!

Relax. We’ve got this.

You see, you turn to Jamal for your clothing (and comfort) because he gives you exactly what you want. Without wasting even half a second on stuff he knows or can sense you wouldn’t be super enthusiastic about. Based solely, on what you’ve shown interest in browsing or purchasing in the past. Jamal observes well, remembers better and analyzes best.

Welcome to the world of Personalization!

Yes. eCommerce personalization. That’s exactly what your customers want from your store when they shop online. They want a kindred ninja who just reaches into the depths of the soul and simply gets them and gives them what they want without them having to even articulate it.That’s exactly how online behemoths such as Amazon have managed to not only catch up with but also surpass a 50- year old brick and mortar stalwart like Walmart. Because Amazon with its tremendous technological and analytics know-how could literally preempt what your next intended purchase would be. Because in a slightly creepy, yet absolutely incredible way they could tell you what you really needed. Even before you knew you needed it!That’s why Shop Direct, the UK’s leading multi-brand online retailer personalizes the entire home page for each of its customers with 3.5 million different pages, and offers the most personalized online shopping experience ever, which by the way has led to Shop Direct’s underlying pre-tax profit soared by 43.6% to £150.4m in just 53 weeks since the execution of its personalization strategy.That’s just some of the crazy competition your e-commerce site is against. From brick and mortar stores as well as eCommerce giants such as Amazon, Shop Direct, Alibaba and more who have won customer delight and loyalty through their bespoke services for one and all!So, where does your eCommerce site stand with respect to making visitors feel this wanted and cared for?BECAUSE. YOU. NEED to personalize the customer experience. Not just to thrive but survive.Still, need more reasons?Here are a few irrefutable reasons your site should be offering a personalized experience to every customer right now! These numbers just don’t lie!

These statistics arrived at after an in-depth survey conducted by Invespcro, reveal illuminating insights:

• 48% of consumers spend more money when their experience is personalized.
• 59% of online shoppers believe that it is easier to find more interesting products in a personalized store.
• 90% of marketers believe that personalization is the future.
• 56% of visitors are likelier to return to a site that personalizes.
• 53% believe that retailers who personalize the shopping experience provide valuable experience.
• 45% are more likely to shop on a site that offers personalized recommendations.
• 59% of marketers experience great ROI after personalizing their online store.
• 75% of consumers feel downright frustrated when the content on your site has nothing to do with them

• It’s been reported that 84% of customers would no longer buy from an organization that failed to take account of their preferences and purchasing history.

So if you’re not personalizing the customer experience, you’re basically alienating the people that matter most to you if not in fact literally asking them to piss off! The consequences of annoying them, you see are dire! Because you probably WON’T get a chance to make amends. Ever again.

No wonder then that according to expert research and estimates, by 2017, 89% of marketing leaders expect customer experience to be the primary basis for competitive differentiation.

Welcome to the new World (4”) Wide Web

The latest DeviceAtlas statistics on the most popular screen sizes show that 4-inch phones are the most popular in most countries including the likes of the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Australia, Japan, and the USA. (Thank you, iPhone 5 and 5s!)

According to a Google study quoted by Smart Insights, 48% of users start any research they make on a mobile device by using a search engine. This figure is actually lower than for desktop users showing the importance of mobile-optimized websites and apps. More and more smartphone owners use their phones to make purchases online. According to a study by Internet Retailer "2016 Mobile 500", in 2015, U.S. mobile commerce sales have totaled $104.05 billion, up 38.7% from $75.03 billion in 2014.

And whilst the Internet is getting faster, our attention span has gotten even smaller than that of a goldfish. (Less than 15 seconds, FYI!) Thanks in no small way to the mobile revolution. Your eCommerce store has less than 15 seconds to get the attention of visitors that stop by! Your store is under a lot of pressure to perform! It needs to show empathy and compassion towards your attention-starved audience. It needs to show them cool and relevant stuff according to very different, individual ideas of cool and relevant.

You’ve got to cut the B.S about not being able to please everyone. Because now you have to. All the way to the payment gateway.

• You have to show Jenny a landing page with silver, backless dresses. The kind she was interested when she visited last time. She looked at many such dresses, didn’t quite get to the finish line. Maybe this time she’ll be sold!
• Marco was shopping for Christmas presents last evening. Save him time and show him what's personally relevant to him and he will most likely become a customer at your store before your competition grabs him.
• And do pop in to say Hi to Reuben who was searching for celebrity autobiographies. Delight him with the latest in success and inspiration and he will pay you in cold, hard cash.

Your Possible Objections…

• “But we don’t have the Amazonian budgets to create personalization tools in-house! (Pardon the cheesy pun, we’re upset)” you say.
• “We’re not a physical store, there’s barely any human interaction when folks are online. How do we offer such super personal recommendations?”
• “Yeah, we’re way ahead of you. Spoken to vendors in the personalization domain. It costs too much! Doesn’t make sense right now at this scale.”
• “The ROI won’t justify the expenses. It’s just not worth it even if it is within the budget.”

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Now Listen![/caption]

Tagalys could effectively increase your conversions by as much as 200%. The top reasons why retailers should consider Tagalys

• Super-easy to implement
• Economically viable and also has a Free, No-Obligation trial
• Tagalys is proven to have excellent ROI for sites just like yours (Read our customer testimonials)
• Friendliest of them all other solutions.
• IDEAL for all eCommerce categories. From books to phones. From clothes to cookware.

Tagalys maximizes conversion rate & gives merchants visual control of products displayed in Site Search, Category Pages & Product Recommendations at their online store. To know more about our solutions and features, get in touch with us now.