{"id":22384,"date":"2023-12-28T14:49:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-22T21:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/library\/5-ecommerce-personalization-questions-with-tech-experts"},"modified":"2024-06-11T18:10:13","modified_gmt":"2024-06-11T18:10:13","slug":"personalization-roundtable-tech-experts","status":"publish","type":"library","link":"https:\/\/www.bloomreach.com\/en\/blog\/personalization-roundtable-tech-experts","title":{"rendered":"5 Ecommerce Personalization Questions With Tech Experts"},"content":{"rendered":"

As customers\u2019 demands of brands grow higher and higher, ecommerce personalization<\/a> is becoming more and more important to digital commerce<\/a> companies. <\/p>\n

One of the many goals companies should have for their personalization efforts should be to create a connected commerce experience for loyal customers. But that\u2019s easier said than done in ecommerce. <\/p>\n

How can your company ensure it is prepared for the future with personalization<\/a>? By making the investment in necessary personnel and technology resources now. <\/p>\n

That was one of several topics of discussion in our Conversations to Conversion: Bridge the Gap With Personalization<\/strong><\/em> webinar with our partners Sinch, Mailgun, and Fast. Keep reading for more highlights from our technology experts, or you can watch the entire webinar on demand here.<\/a><\/p>\n

What is the definition of ecommerce personalization? <\/h3>\n

A: Martin Simo, Product Marketing Manager, Bloomreach<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

When it comes to ecommerce, personalization is so much more than a Webster\u2019s Dictionary definition, or even the various definitions you\u2019ll find floating around the internet. In our world, personalization is quite literally the key that unlocks growth for your company and allows for easy optimization of the customer experience. <\/p>\n

Ecommerce personalization is the practice of using commerce data<\/a> responsibly to get to know, guide, and impress your customers with experiences that are so relevant and contextual, they feel like magic. Ecommerce personalization spans cross-channel, on-site, and in-app, resulting in measurable journeys that engage and lead customers through brand awareness to product discovery to repeat purchases. <\/p>\n

At Bloomreach, we pride ourselves on making personalization simple and actionable for marketers, merchandisers, CRM managers, and other key stakeholders. We do this with the Bloomreach Commerce Experience Cloud<\/a>, which features Engagement<\/a>, Discovery<\/a>, and Content<\/a> solutions that provide growth fuel for digital commerce.<\/p>\n

How do you spot good opportunities for ecommerce personalization and create the right customer experience?<\/h3>\n

A: Jonathan Bean, Chief Marketing Officer, Sinch<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

The good news is there are a ton of opportunities here. Not that many companies are doing personalization well in this situation. <\/p>\n

Where is the biggest area of frustration in your customers\u2019 journeys? Once you know that, how can your company ease that frustration with personalization? Because it really is possible to do that. <\/p>\n

Focus on fixing areas of frustration with personalization. Also focus more on loyalty than the acquisition phase with personalization. <\/p>\n

At Sinch, we\u2019re going from cookies to conversations. We\u2019ve been brought up on third-party data<\/a>, cookies, capturing, and that\u2019s going away. We need to move to a more authentic way of doing both acquisition and loyalty, and that\u2019s what personalization gives us. <\/p>\n

A: Alex Meadow, Head of Consumer Product, Fast<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Connecting with customers at the right point of their journey is essential. Context is very important. You can personalize a customer experience perfectly for customers, but if you serve it up at the wrong time, it will feel disingenuous and it can actually degrade trust. <\/p>\n

For example, let\u2019s say a customer just bought a jacket from your company and is now looking for a scarf to go with it. If a company serves up a recommendation for another jacket, it\u2019s going to look like the company is just trying to sell another expensive jacket. <\/p>\n

By tailoring that product recommendation<\/a> to ensure that matching scarves are being shown rather than expensive jackets, it shows that the company is listening and actually trying to help the customer rather than just trying to sell expensive merchandise. Keying in on what the customer is trying to do rather than just pushing a sales goal will help build brand loyalty and trust. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

How can companies differentiate their communication to stand out from the crowd? <\/h3>\n

A: Nicole Jacobson, Vice President of Marketing, Mailgun<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Being different and standing out in a crowded space starts with taking chances. This is the thing that most companies don\u2019t do \u2014 they are afraid to be different. <\/p>\n

You\u2019re never going to stand out if you\u2019re doing the same thing as everyone else. Some companies are watching the competition too much rather than having their own stance or strategy. Companies won\u2019t stand out if they first don\u2019t have their own stance. <\/p>\n

From a tactical email perspective, you have a very crowded inbox that you\u2019re competing with at all times. Research has shown that the two ways to stand out in an inbox is making sure that you have a really recognizable sender name, and having great subject lines. Those really help you stand out. <\/p>\n

Those are things that you can test. For us, the sender name has been a first name plus the company name \u2014 like \u201cNicole at Mailgun\u201d for instance. Testing those things can really help get someone to click on your email. Doing that helps you stand out in ways that other things might not.<\/p>\n

A: Martin Simo, Product Marketing Manager, Bloomreach<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

At Bloomreach, our Commerce Experience Cloud really spans almost all aspects of the customer buying journey. Because of this, we have a \u201cknow me, guide me, wow me\u201d framework that we work off of to differentiate ourselves and stand out. <\/p>\n

\u201cKnow me\u201d is the most basic first step of ecommerce personalization. In today\u2019s market, that means collecting commerce data compliantly to develop a baseline understanding that leads to connected customer experiences later on. Without data, you\u2019re just guessing. <\/p>\n

\u201cGuide me\u201d involves using that collected data to lead customers to experiences that data suggests they would enjoy. The point of personalization is to build additional brand loyalty and help facilitate the customer journey. Your personalization efforts must have those two end goals in mind at all times. <\/p>\n

\u201cWow me\u201d encompasses the experiences had by customers with your brand that are mind-blowing and delightful. Having deep background knowledge of your customers and products allows you to present an experience to them that is exactly what they are looking for, sometimes without them even realizing it. <\/p>\n

Personalization vs. optimization \u2014 what would you say is the difference? <\/h3>\n

A: Alex Meadow, Head of Consumer Product, Fast<\/a> <\/strong><\/p>\n

Optimization is creating a better experience for a broader set of customers by finding the common denominator between them. Personalization is a more advanced form of optimization, but you\u2019re really reducing that common denominator to just one. You\u2019re trying to find a specific pain point and then address it so that you\u2019re really creating unique experiences for individuals. <\/p>\n

Ideally, they should always be used in conjunction and that\u2019s how you get the most powerful experiences. Mirroring the two together is really where the power of both techniques come into play. <\/p>\n

A: Nicole Jacobson, Vice President of Marketing, Mailgun<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Personalization is using data to focus on one person. Optimization allows you to more broadly serve a larger audience. <\/p>\n

For companies who are not using personalization, if you aren\u2019t quite ready for that at your company, optimization is a great baby step into personalization. I don\u2019t see why any company wouldn\u2019t use at least parts of optimization (A\/B testing<\/a>, CTA testing, etc.). Optimization can generate meaningful metric lifts. <\/p>\n

Optimization can lead companies into personalization when they are ready for it. <\/p>\n

What are some tips on how to create better customer outreach and offer better customer experiences? <\/h3>\n

A: Jonathan Bean, Chief Marketing Officer, Sinch<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t be blinded by your data. Get out there and test things yourself, or even better, talk to a few of your customers. Interview people in a particular cohort and actually find out what their experience with your brand was and how we can do it better. Getting on a call and getting qualitative data is super important. <\/p>\n

The other thing to consider is \u2014 how do you like to communicate with your friends and family? Similarly, how do you communicate with your customers? I think the trend we will see more and more is that your customers will expect a more personalized experience. That means experimenting with different channels than you\u2019ve used in the past and communicating in different ways with them. <\/p>\n

A: Martin Simo, Product Marketing Manager, Bloomreach<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Whenever we talk to companies that are really successful with personalization, there are two things that they are doing to offer a better customer experience. <\/p>\n

The first thing is intentionality. They come in with a clear plan and they use personalization to achieve very specific goals. Whether it\u2019s improving email conversion rate, improving search conversion rate, improving add-to-cart to final conversion rate \u2014 whatever it is, they are intentional about trying to improve those metrics. <\/p>\n

The second is running a lot of experiments. These companies are testing a wide variety of different things to ensure that they are offering as optimal of a customer experience as possible. They are able to make changes to certain things when the data tells them to but they are also able to understand the \u201cwhy\u201d behind more of what they do because of the amount of experiments and how they analyze those results. <\/p>\n

Bloomreach Powers Ecommerce Personalization Initiatives<\/h3>\n

With demands for an optimized customer experience soaring higher and higher, your commerce-driving team must be committed to working together to ensure that the customer experience is not disjointed and the customer can flow seamlessly through the customer journey. Ecommerce personalization is key in strategizing and scaling winning customer journeys. <\/p>\n

Bloomreach offers the technology to businesses across the world to not only support personalization efforts, but to also ensure that your company has the capability of offering a connected customer experience. Bloomreach powers the equivalent of $400 billion in commerce annually and serves over 850 customers in a wide variety of industries with our Commerce Experience Cloud<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Schedule a demo today<\/a> to learn more.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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