Personalisation in Ecommerce: 11 Tips for a Unique Shopping Experience

How to Personalise Your Digital Shopping Experience

The cornerstone of all business has always been consumer loyalty, and this remains a fundamental tool for ecommerce businesses, with nearly 20% of all goods purchased online. One of the biggest challenges for online retailers is generating organic engagement and personalizing their shoppers' experience. The digital shopping experience presents a unique challenge for engaging consumers and building loyalty. Still, with data analytics and some proven tactics, ecommerce brands can attract and retain customers to create a thriving online business. We will explore eleven of the best ways to utilize data analytics, drive engagement, and focus on establishing the best personalization tactics in online retail.

#1 Retargeting Consumers With Personalised Ads

The best practice for retaining customers is to dynamically merchandise retargeted ads with content or products viewed during their last visit. It's shown that targeted ads perform ten times better than generic ads and also allow online retailers the opportunity to build brand loyalty by targeting content that consumers have positively engaged with in the past. Consider testing different types of targeted ads, including previously viewed products or content, suggestive content based on previous purchases, and similar content to develop a comprehensive view of how your target demographic responds to personalised ads.

#2 Cross-sells and Upselling

Cross-selling and upselling present online retailers' opportunity to generate more revenue from existing consumers and is one of the most effective methods for personalisation in online retail. By identifying previous spending habits, you can deliver specific content or products. Because these customers have already made a purchase, it becomes 70% easier to convert them with a personalised ad. The critical consideration with upselling and cross-selling is to pinpoint the appropriate time to target a consumer and keep a finger on the pulse to identify future trends for potential engagement.

#3 Dynamic Content Driven by Data Analytics

Any content that changes based on user behaviour, data, or preference is considered dynamic. By harnessing the power of dynamic content, online retailers can generate personal engagement with consumers based on their previous online activity. What makes dynamic marketing so powerful is that it adapts to the moment and what the consumer needs by analysing what they have been engaging with and predicting their preferences. Dynamic marketing can be the number one catalyst for converting potential customers by reaching them at the ideal moment.

#4 Tailor Ads to Weather Conditions

Consumer behaviour can be significantly impacted by weather conditions. Because this type of personalised marketing is hyper-focused, its power lies in its ability to tap into consumer needs, emotions, and upcoming purchases. By compiling local and regional weather data and forecasts, you can integrate real-time conditions into your personalised marketing strategy. Studies have shown that the weather impacts consumer behaviour subconsciously. By combining previous trends with weather forecasts, online retailers can personalise ads to increase conversions while understanding their consumers' needs. 

#5 Target Consumers Based on Location and Season

Geotargeted ad campaigns tailor the digital shopping experience to a consumer's exact location, allowing marketers to develop a profile of their target demographics and the unique content or products they need. This is critical in the digital age as online retailers have the potential to reach global markets. Geotargeted content is highly focused and makes the content very relevant to your target market. It also allows your brand to stand out and make itself part of consumers' local community, which increases recognition and loyalty. Combining this with consumer data and real-time dynamic marketing, online retailers can create personalised marketing campaigns that act both globally and locally.

#6 Dynamic Demographic Personalisation

Today's consumers have many ways to interact on multiple platforms, devices, and digital marketplaces, and distinguishing your brand is fundamental to ongoing success. This diversity in the marketplace also means that no two consumers are identical, and creating customer profiles that cater to their individual needs will build loyalty and recognition. The fundamental concept of dynamic personalisation optimises a consumer's journey and enhances their overall digital shopping experience. By utilising powerful algorithms, online retailers can analyse data from age, gender, location, online behaviour, shopping trends, and even preferred devices. This can create important personalisation in online retail and provide users a customised shopping experience. 

#7 Pinpoint Time-based Market Interest

Choosing the right time to get personalised marketing in front of consumers is especially important to the success of personalisation in eCommerce. Many consumers engage with platforms before work, during their lunch break, and in the evening, so if you were to target a consumer at 3 am your chances of creating engagement will be drastically reduced. Using data analytics, you can find out when your consumers are online and ensure that your personalised ads reach them at the ideal time to increase conversions and generate organic engagement. You are systematically responding to each of your customers' needs in real-time. You can incentivise consumer action by offering a flash sale or only holding an item in their cart for a prescribed amount of time.

#8 Dynamic Pricing 

At its core, this is simply the concept of selling the same product to various consumers at varying prices depending on their current needs and market conditions. An excellent example of this concept is peak pricing, which identifies when the greatest number of consumers are on your site and generates pricing based on demand. Penetration pricing is another type of dynamic pricing that works well for gaining recognition in a new market by pricing below market value to bring in consumers who can then be targeted with personalised ads later based on the data collected during their initial engagement. 

#9 Suggest Scarcity or Limited Supply

By suggesting a product is in limited supply or out of stock, online retailers can generate interest and increase sales by compelling consumers to action. This model makes particular sense for the digital shopping experience since consumers don't interact with the product in-person. Also, if a customer is on the fence about making a purchase, perceived scarcity can cause them to make a purchase instead of abandoning a site to check competitors or view other content.

#10 Maintain Relevant, Thoughtful Reviews

One of the primary factors in making a purchase is online reviews, and consumers trust products and content with well-maintained review sections containing honest opinions from their peers. Word of mouth has moved online. By keeping your reviews current, responding to negative reviews or criticism with a thoughtful solution, and creating a personalised connection with your customers, you can generate digital referrals. If you receive a five-star review, respond to that customer with an authentic greeting, and you will build a relationship that they will trust as their needs evolve.

#11 Build Content that Consumers Interact With

Interactive content is favoured by more than 93% of digital marketers and is an effective tool to create personalised ads. When a consumer interacts with your content, you get a snapshot of who they are and what inspires them to choose a product or content. This information is crucial to creating a personalised digital shopping experience that feels organic and builds trust.

The world of digital marketing is ever-changing. Having a dynamic, personalised ad campaign in your arsenal will ensure that your ecommerce business stays ahead of the curve and builds organic engagement with your consumers while providing thoughtful ads that build brand loyalty and recognition.