Imagine you walk into a store and are greeted by a salesperson. A salesperson that knows your preference in brands, knows exactly what you want, also provides you with offers based upon the kind of credit card you carry, and all this without being pushy. Personalization in Ecommerce does exactly the same providing an engaging experience. Product personalization is the most visible category, but vast amount of personalization also involves creating a smart personalized shopping experience.

Smart Personalization

According to a survey conducted by Marketing Sherpa, more than 68% of online shoppers tend to see the products recommended to them labeled as “People who bought this, also purchased”. While Gartner in a study revealed that – “by 2020, smart personalization engines used to recognize customer intent will enable digital businesses to increase their profits by up to 15%”.

When offered a personalized shopping experience:

• Average Order Size increases
• Customer Engagement with your Website increases
• Customer Experience improves
• Customer Loyalty increases

Product Personalization

Product personalization is a mechanism to allow customers to alter the products according to their need or desire. Online shopping has encouraged retailers and manufacturers to rethink the way they relate to their customers, and how customers relate to their products. Through personalization and customization, organizations can better position themselves to meet consumer expectations for increasingly tailored retail experiences.

For example, Nike’s NIKEiD customization service allows customers to design shoes unique to their tastes, at a premium, of course. The initiative gave a quarterly revenue growth rate of nearly 30%. As per a report published by Harvard Business Review, customers are more likely to buy products that are designed by themselves and are also happy to recommend them to friends. In 2014, Coca-Cola decided to sell bottles and cans labeled with hundreds of common names. And consumers were invited to request their own customized cans which increased sales by 2.5% in just 12 weeks.

Offering customizable products online helps:

• Build customer loyalty, as customers are more involved in the purchase
• Get better insights into customers
• Boost Revenue, as customers do not mind paying premium for tailor-made products
• Increase in word of mouth recommendations for your products
• Create higher value for your service

As such, only a very small percentage of websites give you the advantage of personalizing the product but a major chunk of Ecommerce organizations, provide personalized shopping experiences. The 21st century shopper has a higher inclination towards a personalized shopping experience, as that creates a sense of belonging. Also, a major chunk of the population is intrigued more by the experience of shopping than just the product itself. This is a trend that has been catching up lately as a hot new shopping experience.

SAP Commerce (Hybris) platform gives you all the opportunities for your customers’ tailor-made shopping experience. It’s time for you to capitalize on this emerging trend and gain the higher leverage over others.