eCommerce Personalization Software: How To Select The Best One?

An eCommerce personalization software is a tool that is developed explicitly to personalize eCommerce websites. This kind of a personalization tool can be developed by the in-house IT teams of an eCommerce website. Additionally, a webstore can work with an external software company established for the sole purpose of selling or renting eCommerce personalization software.

eCommerce companies usually try to achieve some objectives from the usage of a personalization tool. Here are a few objectives:

  • Increase revenue
  • Boost conversion rate
  • Increase loyalty
  • Ensure repeat purchases
  • Boost average order value
  • Increase team productivity

eCommerce Personalization: A Tool To Compete With The Other Players

Most of the eCommerce companies have been struggling to find their ways to success in an environment where there is fierce competition. Besides, there are other issues in eCommerce i.e. low margins, low customer loyalty and ever-increasing customer acquisition costs. Thousands of dollars have been swept into the digital advertising ‘bin’. However, the conversion rate in eCommerce is still slightly above 3%.

 

Are you able to apply eCommerce personalization on your webstore ? If your answer is NO, then install Perzonalization now and start your 14 day free trial.

 

An eCommerce personalization software comes on to the stage exactly at this point as personalization can deliver five to eight times the ROI on marketing spend, and can lift sales by 10% or more. A personalization tool is more or less mirroring the sales rep’s physical retail activities on an online shopping environment with smart engines and super use of big data. Thus, one should not confuse eCommerce personalization tools with website personalization tools that only provide rule based events or A/B testing. eCommerce personalization is predicting the indivual’s purchase intentions and using this data to increase sales.

We may think of sales representatives as key players in-store. Whenever a potential customer walks into the store, the smart sales rep profile the customer in real time and try to help him/her to secure conversion to sales. An e Commerce personalization software is replacing the role of the smart rep by related product recommendations, offers tailored to the end user, cross sell or up sell recommendations etc.

Why Do We Need To Learn From Amazon.com When It Comes To eCommerce Personalization?

The first example of eCommerce personalization was brought to life at Amazon.com in mid 1990s and is said to account for 30% of the store’s current annual revenue. Ever since, executives of the e Commerce websites have been trying to find a way to personalize the shopping experience for their customers. Today – as shared by Association of National Advertisers – 83% of all organizations believe that relevant and personal experience will differentiate their organizations. Still, many companies are struggling with personalization as implementation and data related challenges exist.

Amazon is still the ‘king of personalization’ as they have a solid business strategy in personalization which is coupled with the state-of-the-art technology developed by a team of competent engineers; 100 of whom are rumored to be carrying PhD degreesAmazon’s personalization strategy focuses on analyzing browsing history and past behavior. Amazon uses this data to generate the most relevant recommendations for each individual.

Features of a Well Designed eCommerce Personalization Software

Good personalization tools – in theory – should be able to capture real-time visitor behavior happening on several channels ie. web, mobile and e-mails. It should not only be able to track clickstream behavior but also should be able to analyze and respond to customer needs in real-time.

The fundamental component of personalization is the personalized product recommendations. Not all product recommendations are ‘personal’ in the sense that the personalization software considers individual shopping behavior. Some product recommendations only focus on the relationships between products to products removing the ‘personal taste factor’ from the equation. In order to meet the needs of today’s customer, ignoring the taste factor may not be a wise decision; instead as much personal data as possible should be reviewed to personalize the experience for that individual.

On site product recommendations can as well be empowered via on site search, personalized banners&content, landing page personalization, product recommendations on e-mails, personalized marketing automation, call center messages, digital ads, mobile ecommerce site and app, social media and A/B testing.

 

Are you able to apply eCommerce personalization on your webstore ? If your answer is NO, then install Perzonalization now and start your 14 day free trial.

 

How To Choose Your eCommerce Personalization Software Vendor?

According to research from a CMO Council survey of 276 marketers in 2015, there’s a new focus on finding high-performance marketing partners with specialized knowledge and business acumen. The respondents state that they have a hard time analyzing data to create personalized experiences (just 29 percent say they are doing this well or very well). With data gathering and prediction capabilities coupled with high performing + high ROI algorithms, personalization software vendors are the top of the list companies to work with when high performance marketing technology solutions are being explored.

You may consider the below aspects during your selection process if you want to run successful eCommerce personalization activities:

eCommerce Personalization Software Selection Step 1) Defining Objectives

The vendor selection decision may well begin with defining the objectives and listing the expectations from a personalization vendor. Starting with a small list and climbing the personalization ladder with small steps may be a low risk approach. Starting with the basics, learning from the mistakes and then jumping to the next phase in personalization may be the best route for the newcomers.

eCommerce Personalization Software Selection Step 2)

Prioritization

If the priority is to instantly increase sales with at a low cost, then a high ROI personalization software may be chosen. If a tool delivers at least $10 for every $1 spent, then it may be considered as a high ROI solution.

eCommerce Personalization Software Selection Step 3) Team Structure

If there is no in-house personalization team, then a self-serving personalization tool may be prefered as it will not require much involvement from the internal team.

eCommerce Personalization Software Selection Step 4) Budget Issues

On the occasion that the C-level is sensitive in 3rd party selection and there is enough budget, then a notable personalization software vendor may be chosen as convincing the executives would be easier in that case.

 

Are you able to apply eCommerce personalization on your webstore ? If your answer is NO, then install Perzonalization now and start your 14 day free trial.

 

eCommerce Personalization Software Selection Step 5) Type Of Retail Activity

In case that a omnichannel retailer operation is present, a personalization vendor that could help with in-store activities could well be considered.

Features Of An Ideal eCommerce Personalization Tool

An effective eCommerce personalization software is the one which

  • can easily be implemented
  • delivers measurable results
  • can easily be used by the internal team
  • leaves no concern about data privacy
  • has the ability to adopt itself to trends and needs arising

Before making the decision, a short assessment on vendors shall be made and different capabilities shall be compared. Personalization could only be powerful if buy-in of the internal team is secured. With a good software and an internal team committed to results, there is no chance that a personalization project could fail.

eCommerce Personalization Software: The Conclusion

Regardless of it size and price, all personalization tools should provide a crucial benefit for your business; yielding a good return on investment. Personalization technologies may differ but in the end, every eCommerce personalization software should be able to grow your business and increase brand loyalty. Do not forget to review Perzonalization’s great features before you make your decision!

Curious to learn more? Take a look at related posts!

 


Download Perzonalization for your online store