10 Ways to Personalize Your Ecommerce Experience
Trying to create a one-size fits all website is daunting. Personalization allows the website flexibility based on the user and create the best (and highest converting) experience, targeted specifically for them. Here are 10 ideas on how to personalize your ecommerce shopping experience:
1. Customize based on geography
For skincare and haircare brands, the location of a visitor will likely play a role in what they are looking for. Have someone visiting the site from winter in the north-east? Very likely they want moisturizers. Someone coming from the humid southern US? Maybe frizz-control is a good bet.
Furthermore cross-sell sections like “You Might Also Like” often work even better if you can link them to trends in their geographic region. It might be related to weather or just local styles but likely if it’s popular in their area, they’ll have similar buying patterns.
2. Personalize the landing page based on referrer
If visitors are coming from a specific ad or article, make sure that the page they are landing on directly relates to what they clicked on to get there. For instance if there's a picture of a specific product in the ad, make sure that they can locate that product on the page and don’t bounce.
3. List previously viewed products
Including a listing of previously viewed products for visitors can increase sales and speed up time to check out for comparison shoppers. Without a browsing history, it can be frustrating for users to re-find products products and have no incentive to find it on your website vs changing to your competitor.
4. Personalizing Search for Visitors
If a customer is browsing acne skincare products for acne and searches for moisturizers, it just makes sense that the moisturizers for acne prone skin come up on top instead of making her wade through anti-aging, lifting, and dry skin moisturizers to find the ones appropriate to her.
5. Use Email Captures That Are User Specific
5-15% off offers are ubiquitous in exchange for website user's email addresses — however often these are not customized to fit the user's browsing history. For instance, a pop-up on exit intent that offers a discount on the specific item the user was just browsing will prove more effective than a general offer.
6. Build Toward Your Desired Action
Like any relationship, it's important to consider where the visitor is in getting to know you. A call to action at the top of a sales funnel to book a 1 to 1 skincare consultation might feel spammy or awkward. However after they've gone through an online skincare assessment and have gained trust, it might feel like a natural extension of their relationship with your brand.
7. Remind Users of their Abandoned Cart Items
When a user returns to a site and has abandoned items in the cart, it's a great time to post a subtle reminder to finish their transaction. Cart recovery is a great way to boost sales and improve the customer's experience on the site.
8. Promote Relevant Cross and up Sells
Rather than generic cross-sells, make them specific and personal. Even changing the wording of these sections to reflect personalization (“Recommended For You” instead of “Similar Products” helps increase conversions. Creating complementary sections like “Complete the Look”
9. Make Repurchasing Easy
For most brands, repurchasing is the goal so creating a visual, easy to find list of previous purchases can boost sales and retain customers. You can can also reward based on past purchases to increase loyalty.
10. Progressive Profiling
Rather than asking a long, off-putting series of questions, you can slowly build the customer's profile by asking one-off questions which are easy to answer but gradually build over time. For instance HotJar will gracefully slide in one simple question and disappears again — it feels effortless for the user but gradually builds their profile.