Terms like “personalization” can start to lose meaning in a crowded field of tech solutions vying for the attention of online sellers, so definitions are very useful when it comes to differentiating.
With a tailored approach to personalization, sites and sellers use first-party data combined with other signals to create customer-centric, friction-free shopping experiences that convert.
In “The Tailored Shopping Experience: Meeting Consumers’ Online Expectations,” a collaboration with Elastic Path, PYMNTS surveyed nearly 2,100 U.S. consumers, we found that consumers now expect online merchants and brands to not only know their preferences but allow the shopper to personalize as they go.
With fast deliveries, free shipping and product recommendations that reflect knowledge of preferred price points and previously viewed or purchased items add to seamlessness and elevate the experience to align with evolving online shopper expectations.
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Consumers often pull ahead of sellers and solutions when it comes to understanding how technology and features are used for optimal shopping journeys. Our research found that 36% of consumers want more tailored online experiences, and in fact, they now expect it.
Per the study, “36% currently say they are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ interested in tailored online shopping experiences. Another 28% report being ‘moderately’ interested. Millennials and bridge millennials are more likely to be interested in these experiences, with 50% of bridge millennials and 53% of millennials saying they are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ interested.”
Additionally, 40% of consumers earning over $100k annually are similarly interested.
Online merchants and brands take a risk when they underestimate the extent to which tailored online shopping experiences appeal to the highest earners and biggest spenders.
“Millennials and high-income earners are more likely than other demographic groups to switch to merchants offering tailored shopping experiences, with 43% of millennials and 33% of consumers earning more than $100k per year saying they are ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ likely to do business with merchants that offer these experiences” over those that don’t, per the study.
Free and fast delivery is an area that consumers feel should be buttoned up at this point in the digital shift. Cart abandonment patterns show the impatience when these touches are missing.
With over 1 in 5 online shoppers abandoning carts because of unmet expectations around tailored online shopping experience, difficulty finding products and lackluster CX can hurt.
We found that “delivery costs and price are the most cited problems that led to card abandonment,” with 38% of clothing and accessories consumers and 37% of home furnishings shoppers saying delivery costs led to that lost sale. “Finding the product offered for less elsewhere was cited by 36% of home furnishings consumers and 40% of clothing and accessories consumers.”
Get Your Copy: The Tailored Shopping Experience: Meeting Consumers’ Online Expectations
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