Everyone wants to feel like they are being specially catered to, whether it’s when going out for a meal, or what we see online. This goes doubly for ecommerce websites, as they specifically want customers to buy from them. However, many ecommerce stores are failing to offer personalisation that can help them find and convert new customers, as well as retain them.

However, did you know that only 44% of retail websites personalise more than half of the shopper journey. This means that many ecommerce stores are failing to offer personalisation that can help them find and convert new customers, as well as retain them.

In this article, we are going to look where retail websites are currently doing their personalisation, why they feel they can’t do more and a few ideas you can start offering a more personalised shopping experience

Current ecommerce segmentation state

For retail ecommerce websites, the main focus of their personalisation efforts is towards the ‘commerce’ phase of the shopper journey, or where consumers are ready to make a purchase

The general spread of where personalisation efforts are made for retail websites is:

• Awareness – 33%
• Discovery – 34%
• Research – 54%
• Purchase – 52%
• Retain – 31%

The numbers above carry over multiple different areas that companies have contact with their users, such as via their website, the emails they send, the ads and posts they use on social media, the types of content they produce for their website as well as more.

This misses out on the stages that can help give potential customers their initial contact to hear and learn about the company and also nurture existing, retained customers to get repeat sales, which is 5x cheaper to do than acquiring new ones.

Drawbacks of personalising

The problem with not personalising the message or recommendations to your audience is using a one size fits all approach to your website and marketing can result in lower performance of your efforts.

Here are a few stats to show you where retail ecommerce personalisation and segmentation efforts are failing and how they can affect your business.

65% of firms do no kind of list segmentation for their email marketing. Emails sent to an unsegmented list will mean sending the same communications to all customers. This is bad practice as people may have signed up for different reasons, such as;

• Learning about the latest discounts and new products.
• Find out more tips on how best to utilise their purchase.
• Updates on the company’s latest endeavours and work.

Emailing this list with the same message will result in people becoming disinterested in your offerings, as they aren’t relevant to them, unsubscribes from your email list and potential lost sales.

60% of firms do not segment their customers for product recommendations. This is not a great practice as recommending a product based on what someone has viewed is likely going to be different, depending on the item and the range. This can lead to missing out on potential cross-sells and up-sells, by having static product recommendations.

Segmenting your audience, throughout the buyer journey will lead to more accurate targeting and sales. The ability to better measure and scale your marketing as you know where the spend is working and being able to tailor your messages to your customers, meaning they have a better experience with you, viewing you in a positive light and being more likely to be a return customer.

Why ecommerce companies struggle with segmentation

So now we know where ecommerce companies are doing their personalisation and the opportunities they miss out on when not doing it, but what are the reasons they are not segmenting and personalising their messages?

• 58% of retailers believe they don’t have the technology to support their personalisation strategy
• 67% of retailers believe they don’t have a clear personalisation strategy
• 55% of retailers don’t have a single executive responsible for personalisation
• 59% of firms believe they don’t have a feedback loop for their personalisation strategy/li>

These are only the main reasons that ecommerce retailers are not personalising their message. We’re going to go through a few ways that you can improve the personalisation for your audience.

Ways you can segment your audience

Ways you can segment your audience for better personalisation, and where these can be applied (this is not an exhaustive list). You may be able to combine these for even better targeting and personalisation.

Geographic location

Based on people’s geographical locations, if you have physical store(s) where people can come and see your products, you could send an email to those who are within a reasonable travelling distance, even offering an in-store discount.

If you have products that are more suited for those in rural areas (as opposed to urban), you can target those products to people who are in the correct area.

Where this can be applied

• Awareness
• Discovery
• Research
• Purchase
• Retain

Demographic

You may have particular products that are more geared towards a specific demographic, whether that be male or female, within a specific age range. If you know the target demographic for a product or line skews a particular way, this could be used to segment and target them.

Where this can be applied

• Awareness
• Discovery
• Research
• Purchase
• Retain

You can use the items particular people have viewed, you could use this for specific marketing, for example, a specific product or range of products, you could send an email to the people who have viewed you could email them with that and similar products they may be interested in.

Where this can be applied

• Research
• Purchase
• Retain

Items customers have purchased

Similar to items people have viewed, where you have a specific product or product range that people have purchased, you know they have the item, so can offer complementary items to go along with it.

Where this can be applied

• Purchase
• Retain

Whether they buy in-store or online

If you have both a website and physical store, you can segment based on and market differently, depending on where they have purchased. For example, a coupon that gives a discount for those that buy in-store, or an online-only discount.

Where this can be applied

• Purchase
• Retain

Which pieces of content have interacted with

If you track what people have viewed on your website, you could look at what information they have consumed, such as which blogs and articles they read, and what they have downloaded. This could give you an insight into a solution they are trying to find, that you can then offer via with the right product recommendations or other content to help them find the best solution.

Where this can be applied

• Discovery
• Research
• Purchase

Last time they ordered

Can be used to try and re-engage a customer who has not ordered in a while or even who has made an order recently, to follow up with other recommendations they may be interested in. If someone has not placed an order within 6 months, let’s say, you might follow up with an email and discount code to try and encourage them to make a repeat order.

Where this can be applied

• Purchase
• Retain

If you need any help with your ecommerce website then get in touch with us.