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Brands can’t afford to enter 2021 without personalised customer experiences
By Jil Maassen, Lead Strategy Consultant at Optimizely F
rom small, impulse buys to large scale purchases, consumers often choose products they’re familiar with. They know
the product works, have had good experiences with it in the past, and trust the brand that provides it. In fact, 81 per cent of consumers make purchasing decisions based on how much they trust the brand. This relationship, between a brand and a returning customer, is a top priority for businesses to develop. Loyal customers serve as great word of mouth marketers and give brands consistent business, with between 25 to 40 per cent of business profits being generated by returning customers. However, the pandemic has turned these relationships on their head.
Consumers have been forced online. For some, this was already their preferred method of purchasing. For many others, a digital-only shopping experience was something very new. This in turn has weakened well established customer loyalties between consumer and brand. In fact, a new report by McKinsey revealed 75 per cent of consumers have tried new brands, places to shop, or methods of shopping over the past six months. The ease of shopping at a preferred supermarket, buying pet food at the store on the way from work, or having a quick lunchtime browse for new clothes at a favourite high street shop is a thing of the past. With people working from home and new rules restricting in-person shopping experiences, many have turned to online shopping for the majority of their needs. With that comes new experiences. Online, it’s much easier to explore, browse, and compare, and a brand new product is only a single click away.
With the most important shopping season already upon us, businesses are in a desperate
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attempt to maintain customer loyalty during the holidays. So what has separated brands like Asos, who have brought on an inf lux of new customers and kept them coming back for more, from businesses that have struggled with lost leads and uncompleted baskets?
Customers expect relevance With such a huge number of buying options online, grabbing and maintaining people’s attention is much more difficult. If a person logs on to a website to buy a sofa, but the first five they see are all the wrong size, price or style, it will only take them five seconds to find another business that can better cater to their search. What they needed to see in the first instance was a webpage that was tailored to their preferences, recommending relevant options based on their initial search terms and giving them the option to search specifics once they click on to the site. That sofa company needed to offer a personalised customer experience, and has lost a visitor and a potential sale as a result.
Founder of Amazon, Jeff Bezos has said, “Businesses have the opportunity to develop very deep relationships with customers, both through accepting preferences of customers and then observing their purchase behavior over time, […] to accelerate their discovery process. If we can do that, then the customers are going to feel a deep loyalty to us, because we know them so well.” This ethos has contributed to Amazon being so successful, doubling its quarterly profit despite Covid-19 costs. Other businesses should aim to replicate this emphasis on personalisation.
Brands that don’t personalise their online experiences are unlikely to develop loyal
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