How to offer relevant content in the online store based on customers preferences?

Customers are increasingly expecting more personal and relevant shopping experiences online. Therefore, it's important to think about how you can create as relevant content as possible on your website based on available data about the customer. You have different options depending on whether the customer is anonymous or known.  

For visitors who have not registered any personal information, the content on your online store can be optimized by using anonymous data from analysis tools such as Google Analytics. Individuals are placed in different groups/segments and receive content accordingly. The content for the different groups/segments can be adapted to different categories such as new vs. returning customers, popular products and categories, conversions, gender, age, location, device, and traffic. Utilizing anonymous data in this way gives you the opportunity to improve your content, but it does not give the possibility to deliver personal experiences to each individual customer.

It's also possible to optimize the content of the online store by using cookies. This is a small text file that is downloaded and stored on the computer when the user opens a webpage. For example, it can be used to remember the shopping cart, register where the user is moving around the website, and purchase history. This is not data related to you as a person, but to the device used.

It's only when the customer has created an account/user in the online store that you can offer personalized content based on the information stored about the customer. Personalization is about offering personal experiences by dynamically viewing/changing content, product recommendations and specific offers based on demographics, interest, behavior, purchase history, and other personal data. Examples of using personalization can be a display of complementary products, display of related products/categories, products/categories the customers have recently viewed/purchased, targeted discounts on recently viewed/purchased products, and banners tailored to each customer.

Why should you prioritize personalization: 

• Marketers see an average increase of 20 % in sales when a personalized experience is offered. (Monetate)
• 80 % of consumers are more likely to buy when brands offer personalized experiences. (Epsilon)
• 77 % of consumers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that offers a personalized experience. (Forrester)
• 90 % of US consumers find personalized marketing content somewhat to very appealing. (Statista)
• 92 % of marketers say customers and prospects expect a personalized experience - up from 85 % in 2019. (Evergage)
• 83 % of customers would exchange data for a more personalized experience. (Accenture)

To get customers to register personal information in the online store, a customer club can work well as an incentive. With a customer club, you can offer unique benefits that make it attractive for customers to sign up. Once the customer has filled out a form, you are sitting on key data that will help you improve your future visits. If we use this data to offer personalized content, customers will have a relevant shopping experience in the online store.

read more about customer clubs here  

In a clothing store, for example,  in the registration form, you can ask the customer about personal information such as name, gender, and date of birth. This can be combined with other data such as purchase history (in the physical store and online store) and behavior (click/ view history) in the online store. The result is that members who visit the clothing store get content, product recommendations, and specific offers based on this data.

• Here we see an example from a website where the customer is greeted with a personal message and a simple overview of their coupons/offers. 

• Here are examples of product recommendations the customer can get on the website based on behavior in the online store.

Focus on the entire customer journey

All pages on your website should be customized to be as accurate as possible in the various phases of the customer journey. If we can use the data that we capture to provide content/products that we believe are relevant at the moment, we show customers that we understand them and their preferences. We have to offer the content that most likely ends up in a sale, or content that leads customers to the products that they want to buy. In this way, we simplify the customer journey, help customers to complete purchases, and create good customer experiences.

Contact us if you need some tips or help on how to best customize the content on your website!