Three must-haves to deliver rich, personalized commerce experiences
If you could find a way to improve your conversion rate by 10 times, revenue per visitor by 8 times, and average order value by 9 times, would you want to know how? These are the results brands are gaining when they invest in delivering personalized commerce experiences to their customers.
Not only that, but 71% of customers expect tailored experiences, and 76% get frustrated when they don’t receive them, reports McKinsey.
But getting personalization right isn’t easy. Not only do you need rich customer data to create highly personalized experiences at every step in a customer’s journey, but you also need to do this across multiple touchpoints, brands, markets, and business models.
While this may seem like too much for any one team to manage, the most successful brands are finding ways to do it. And they’re all using the same essential elements in their personalized commerce programs, supported by a flexible, unified platform and real-time data insights.
In this blog, you’ll learn three foundations you need to deliver rich, personalized experiences that pay off across the customer lifecycle.
Essential #1 — Lay a technological foundation that supports multiple go-to-market strategies
Customer expectations and market trends can change on a dime, and you need to be ready to change with them. No longer can you support only B2B or B2C channels or focus strictly on product sales. As you adapt your business practices and models, you’ll need to accommodate a variety of buyers, multiple geographies, product and service sales, subscriptions, in-store kiosks, marketplaces, and more. All while accommodating consumer preferences and chosen devices.
To support a variety of go-to-market strategies, you’ll need help from a single, flexible platform. Here’s a real-world example to show you how to do it.
Wacom creates consistent commerce experiences for everyone, anywhere
A top name in digital tablets and pens, Wacom needed a way to consolidate multiple ecommerce sites so it could provide consistent experiences for customers around the world. The company also wanted to personalize interactions by region to serve up the most relevant content.
After consolidating its B2B and B2C business models into a single platform, the brand was able to eliminate silos and allow data to flow more easily to support seamless personalization. Wacom can also provide more relevant content to customers in every region by personalizing experiences based on language, currency, payment methods, promotions, and policies.
“We’ve seen a 50% increase in conversion rates after switching to Adobe Commerce, indicating that we’re improving customer shopping experiences,” said Balaji Ganesan, vice president of information services at Wacom. “We also increased revenue by 25%.”
“We’ve seen a 50% increase in conversion rates after switching to Commerce, indicating that we’re improving customer shopping experiences. We also increased revenue by 25%.”
- Balaji Ganesan
Vice President of Information Services, Wacom
Essential #2 — Focus on building a unified profile for every visitor
Taking personalization beyond the basics starts with getting to know as much as you can about your customers’ wants and needs — as well as their behaviors and past purchases across the commerce journey. This means being able to automatically collect and aggregate data from multiple systems into a central profile to get a complete view of your customers.
Once you have a deeper knowledge of your customer, you can present customized experiences for targeted segments, including site discounts, product recommendations, automated abandoned cart campaigns, push notifications based on proximity to store, and cross-sell campaigns based on previous purchase and browsing history.
Yet with so many disconnected marketing and business technologies managing different programs and channels, gathering behavioral, transactional, financial, and third-party data into one place can be difficult. It’s no wonder only 25% of merchants have a 360-degree view of their shoppers, notes 451 Research in its report “Data Growth and Personalized Experiences Are Top of Mind for Digitally Driven Businesses.”
Only 25% of merchants have a 360-degree view of their shoppers.
-451 Research
But knowledge is power. ABB — known worldwide for robotics, power, electrical equipment, and automation technology — standardized on Adobe Commerce to create a dynamic ecommerce experience based on a unified view of their customers. Through prebuilt connectors, ABB was able to integrate Mirakl, a marketplace platform, with Commerce to meet evolving customer expectations around wider product selections.
As a result, the company was able to increase site traffic, sales, and loyalty year over year, with sales from just one quarter equaling sales for the entire previous year.
“The data from both [Commerce and Mirakl] offers the insight into customer needs and buying habits that can be used to continually evolve ABB’s marketplace and services,” said Art Boyd, senior vice president of growth partnerships at Mirakl.
Essential #3 — Integrate real-time data insights across the customer journey
Once you’ve integrated data from your various services — including commerce platform, marketing automation, ERP, and others — you can gain real-time commerce and customer journey analytics to help you drive the best business results. In fact, firms that use advanced insights to inform their business processes are 2.8 times more likely to report double-digit, year-over-year growth.
Firms that use advanced insights to inform their business processes are 2.8x more likely to report double-digit, year-over-year growth.
- Forrester
May 2020
A centralized data insights platform can help you track data across the entire customer journey for more targeted campaigns, product recommendations, promo offers, and site experiences. You’ll need a combination of commerce data (such as sales revenue, average order value, and merchandise performance) and customer data (like site behavior, lifetime value, and churn rates).
How Lovesac uses data to tailor ecommerce experiences
Lovesac provides custom-built sofas that customers can create themselves using the brand’s online configurator. Customer research is a top priority for the brand with the end goal of tailoring the online experience based on direct feedback from the people who use it.
Input from visitors over the past several months has helped Lovesac update its online configurator with simpler instructions, improve the look and feel of its products on the site, and reduce page load times at crucial steps in the buying journey.
And since moving its online buying experience to Adobe Commerce, the company has seen double-digit growth in conversion rates and double-digit growth in average order values.
“Today’s digital experiences don’t start with your company’s products or business objectives. They start with what your customers want.”
- Sue Beckett
VP of Digital Marketing and Ecommerce, Lovesac
Invest in personalized commerce — and better business outcomes — today
Personalized commerce experiences are a must for today’s consumers, from the initial ad, email, or push campaign to the site experience, and through checkout and post purchase. And they’re within your reach.
With the help of a centralized commerce platform, you can build rich, customized experiences that adapt to your go-to-market strategy, break down data silos, and unify data. As a result, you’ll be rewarded with higher conversions, more revenue per visitor, higher average order value, and more return on your technology investment.
There’s more where that came from
Watch the full Experience Makers Live session, “5 Essentials to Drive Business Growth with Personalized Commerce,” for deeper insights and key takeaways.