Website conversion is the name of any eCommerce website. Tailoring users’ experience on your eCommerce website to their demonstrated preferences opens a vast array of possibilities. You can show them products complementary to their previous purchases. You can present offers specific to their situations. And, you can tailor your email marketing messages to reflect preferences shoppers demonstrate when visiting your site. All of these strategies are proven to increase sales. Said simply, personalization improves conversion when applied to your email newsletters, ads, website content, social media, push notifications and promotions.
Know Your Customers
The first step is to clarify who your buyers are, so you can deliver timely and relevant offers. If you spend some time analyzing purchase histories, buying behaviors and page visits, patterns will begin to emerge. If this feels like too much to do on your own, there are a number of eCommerce personalization engines you can employ to sift through this data for you. Once you have a good idea of who your primary customers are, you can appeal directly to their specific needs and desires.
Provide Real-Time Offers
Coupons and promotions should be personalized based upon behavior patterns such as how often they visit your site, how much time they spend on it and from where their visits originate. Returning customers can be offered a loyalty discount code they can use at checkout to get a free gift or a discount on their purchases. Meanwhile, first-time visitors can be offered discounts on initial purchases.
Employ Benefit Personalization
Let’s say you sell makeup. A returning customer previously bought eyeshadow but didn’t buy brushes. You can tailor specific brush offerings to remind them they might need new ones. Most women tend to buy makeup falling within certain color families. Knowing this, you can use their previous purchase history to discern which shades they prefer. This offers you the ability to show images of new products in the exact hues for which they have shown a preference. Similarly, if there are items they’ve looked at a number of times but have yet to purchase, you can offer discounts on those products to get them to buy.
Customize Layouts
Greeting a returning customer by name in the header says you value their business and consider them important. Providing ready access to their account information and purchase histories make shopping your site easier for them. Offering tips and ideas for getting the most out of products they’ve previously purchased adds value to those transactions. Observing their browser behaviors and purchase histories will position you to employ a recommendation engine to feature products complementing their previous purchases. It can also trigger impulse buys. This same strategy can be applied to items they’ve browsed extensively but didn’t purchase. You can also make use of this method in your email campaigns.
Offsite Actions
As we mentioned above, these strategies can be employed in emails in the form of personalized offers and coupon codes. If you’re among those who believe email’s best days are behind it, you’ll feel differently when you apply personalization techniques to your campaigns.
Remember, the goal is to make your customers feel special. However, your overtures must be subtle, so they also feel natural. You want to engage shoppers without hitting them over the head or coming across as insincere.
To do this well, it’s important to understand your customers and their behaviors. Craft your efforts to fit into their lives in a seamless fashion. Do this well and you’ll find personalization does indeed improve conversion. When you consistently offer people what they want, they become loyal customers.
