Part of your online store’s success in eCommerce is curating a fantastic experience that your customers adore.
One way to elevate your online store is by incorporating an impressive customer experience that shares relevant information with your visitors.
As a eCommerce business, it’s crucial that you think about every touchpoint new and existing customers will have within your business.
If you have ever wondered about any of the following questions, such as
- How can you create an environment where your customers still receive a high-touch experience?
- What are ways we can stand out within our market?
- How can we show our loyal customers we appreciate their patronage?
Then you’ll want to incorporate the insights I share in this article.
Leveraging the power of personalization is one way to ensure your customers feel like a priority within your business.
What is eCommerce Personalization?
Have you ever been shopping online and noticed that you were being recommended other products based on previous products you’ve checked out? Or how about receiving a special email showing you complementary products you may like? Amazon does this quite often.
What you’ve experienced is personalization. Thanks to the use of technology, mixed with some buyer psychology. Businesses can now recommend the best products a customer may need in their buying journey.
Instead of showing every customer the same products. Companies can now showcase certain products based on their website visitors’ interests.
This increases the likelihood of more sales conversions and increases the lifetime value of your customer relationship.
As a business, leveraging eCommerce personalization as part of your strategy can help you create an impressive customer experience.
Here are some benefits that you should consider when deciding your approach.
The Benefits Of eCommerce Personalization For Product-based Businesses
One of the top benefits of incorporating more personalization within your eCommerce business is…
Increased customer satisfaction
When your customers feel like a priority, you’ll see happier customers who shop with you more frequently.
Happy customers also lead to more word-of-mouth recommendations to friends and family. Think about how quickly the right recommendation on social media can catapult a business into being busy and sold out in minutes.
Another benefit is…
Less cart abandonment
One of the highest areas of lost revenue for eCommerce stores is abandoned carts. When someone is browsing your online store, fills their cart, and decides not to make a purchase. It causes your cart abandonment rate to increase.
When you personalize your customer’s buying journey, you’ll be better able to reduce the likelihood of cart abandonment because you’ll show your visitors products they are highly interested in.
Also, check out 7 Ways to Reduce Abandoned Carts on Shopify for further insights on turning this number around.
Higher return visits
Customers who always find what they are looking for or discover products that fit their interests tend to have higher return visits.
Think about any favorite places that you frequently shop. Why do you keep returning?
For example, most people have an Amazon account and will receive custom emails recommending additional products that may interest them.
Plus you can count on Amazon to most likely sell products are you already looking for.
You can leverage this strategy within your own business to help increase online sales.
Increase in customer lifetime value
As a business owner, customer acquisition and retention are key performance indicators you’ll want to improve. You also know that gaining new customers takes more money and resources than maintaining relationships with existing customers.
Acquiring a new customer today involves more trust-building and smarter touchpoints. Historically, you would need 7 instances of engagement to convert customers. Now that number can be higher based on your customer’s journey.
Using personalization within your eCommerce business can lead to more brand loyalty and lower costs for customer acquisition.
How to Incorporate Personalization Into Your eCommerce Business?
Now that you know how personalization can affect your business. Let’s explore some methods you can incorporate to help you create a more personalized eCommerce experience.
Beginning with…
1 | Understanding Your Customers
Understanding the type of customers you serve will solve many business challenges.
I discuss this on my podcast eCommerce Cultivated in an episode called What Do Luxury Customers Want Before They Buy? The key information you need to understand what motivates customers to take the next step in the buying process.
If you don’t understand the customers you are selling to, you will struggle to serve them the type of experience they desire.
One way to get clarity around who your customers are or the type of customers you want to attract is by revisiting or creating a brand strategy.
Briefly, brand strategy is about uncovering what makes your business unique, establishing what you want your business to stand for, who you are serving, and why.
With an effective strategy or plan, you’ll understand your customers’ wants and desires so you can craft experiences that lead them to convert to paying customers.
2 | Use the Right Tools and Systems
Once you’ve understood your customers and their desires, you’ll need the right tools and systems to implement into your business.
Starting with your biggest business asset… your website.
As a business owner who sells products. You’ll want to be sure you are using the right eCommerce platform to run your business. Here at The May Creative, I recommend Shopify as a top-notch platform to help you provide a luxury experience. Here are a few reasons.
- Shopify is made specifically for product-based businesses.
- Shopify offers a ton of integrations with various tools that make running your business easy.
- You’ll have access to dedicated support to ensure your business runs smoothly.
- Plus more!
You’ll also want the flexibility to create an omnichannel shopping experience where your customers have a luxury experience. Whether they are shopping in-store or online. The overall experience should be consistent so no matter where your customer shops, they have the same experience.
Shopify offers plenty of options to ensure you can create that type of environment. An environment that will help you foster stronger relationships and increase the trust within your business.
3 | A Solid Email Marketing Platform
If you’re subscribed to my eCommerce newsletter for modern product-based founders, you’ve probably received insights on how to use email marketing to increase sales conversions and more.
Email marketing, on average, drives about 30% of sales for eCommerce stores. Here’s why…
It gives you direct access to customers; most people open their emails daily. Plus, you aren’t competing with algorithms that choose when to show your content.
Using the right email marketing system, you can maximize your engagement by personalizing which of your products gets shown to your subscribers. Note this is a more advance marketing tactic and requires the right email marketing platform to pull off.
As mentioned, I highly recommend Klaviyo (aff link) for eCommerce businesses as a go-to email marketing and customer management platform.
Klaviyo’s system offers above-industry-standard tools to help you deliver an exceptional customer experience. With direct integration with Shopify, you can send recommended products to your customers based on their shopping behaviors.
Klaviyo also equips you with the tools to send abandoned cart emails to help recoup lost cart sales. You can also set up a brand awareness campaign to help introduce customers to your business. Allowing you to nurture a more meaningful relationship that will lead to sales.
The level of science behind the platform just blows my mind. There is much the platform can do to help you maximize your sales.
4 | Gather Feedback From Your Customers
I firmly believe in getting feedback from your customers. This not only helps you run a better business, but it also helps you create stronger relationships with your customers. As you are taking the time to get to understand their needs.
Take some time to gather feedback from your customers can be via…
- Surveys
- Customer support emails
- Notes from chat conversations
- Product Reviews
- Social media conversations
- Plus more!
Gathering this information will help you make intelligent business decisions that you can use to amplify your personalization efforts.
By getting the information directly from your ideal customers, you craft a digital experience that motivates them to return.
Create an eCommerce Personalization Strategy
Now that you’ve learned about incorporating eCommerce personalization for your business. Assess your current strategy and if you don’t have one no worries it’s never too late to get started. The point is that you’ll want to take action and find ways to create a better customer experience. So that you can reach your overall business objectives.
Whether that is to increase sales conversions or foster brand loyalty an eCommerce personalization strategy can help you have a concise vision of where to point your focus.
If you need help, deciding where to start reserve a Strategy Session and we’ll uncover your unique plan for your business goals and vision.
