Hyper-Personalization in Retail and its Benefits

Who doesn’t love personalized retail experiences? Personalized retail experiences started in a mom-and-pop shop that understood your needs and preferences, and recommended products to you. E-commerce websites now offer the same personalization, recommending products based upon recent purchases. In fact, now, brands are focusing on hyper-personalization in retail. Whether it is a brick-and-mortar shop or an e-commerce website, hyper-personalization always adds value to the customer experience.

Hyper-Personalization in Retail

Personalization is more than just addressing customers by their first names. Retailers need to think of other ways to personalize their customer experience. Take the example of Lively experience store in New York. A salesperson will give you a drink and guide you through the shopping process. The shopping experience doesn’t end there. The store’s atmosphere is intimate, with lounge chairs and greenery that gives off a clubhouse feel. It’s not only brick-and-mortar stores that have gotten their personalization right.

Sephora has got both the in-store and online customer experience strategies right. To book a consultation in the closest Sephora store, customers can use the Sephora app. The app can be used to search for products that they have virtually tried to see if they are available in-store. The company has a loyal program that has helped them gain more than 25 million members. This is a great example of how to combine the online and offline channels to create seamless experiences for your customers.

2020 has changed how customers shop and behave. Convenience has overtaken all other aspects. Retail brands have been expected to provide a better omnichannel shopping experience for customers. While things will get back to normal as more people are vaccinated and businesses reopen, Omnichannel shopping will still be a majorstay of retail. Retail brands will offer a better in-store experience than just online shopping.

Retailers must be aware of the changing shopping habits and develop a personalization strategy that meets customer expectations.

Benefits of hyper-personalization in retail

• Increase revenue and conversions: Personalization allows you to target customers with the right message. This improves conversion rates and maximizes revenue. According to Boston Consulting Group’s (BCG) Personalization Maturity Index, retailers saw a 25% increase in revenue consistently due to their advanced personalization capabilities. A staggering 110% of customers indicated that they would add more items to the basket if the experience were personalized.
• Customers have a longer life expectancy. Deep-level personalization is possible at all stages of the customer’s journey. Personalization can be achieved at all stages of the customer journey, from the moment they are onboarded to the time that they checkout and beyond. You must ensure that all channels are integrated so customers have continuity.
• Increased Net Promoter Scores: According to the BCG survey, customers who experience high levels of personalization scored 20% higher on the retailer’s Net Promoter Score (NPS). NPS, the north star metric for measuring customer loyalty, is what you may be familiar with. NPS scores that are high indicate customer satisfaction and they will recommend the service to others.

Personalization statistics that you should know

These are the key trends that will help you to personalize your retail strategy. These trends will help you shape your strategies.

Recently, MoEngage surveyed 1,000 customers across the US, UK, Canada, and Germany to find out what challenges they face and what keeps them loyal to a brand. Here are the results:

General Personalization

• Both North Americans and Europeans highlighted customer service and communication as the reasons for customer delight. 26% of American customers and European customers expect B2C companies to personalize their experience based on past shopping habits.
• Customers are frustrated by inconsistent messaging, poor product recommendations, and too many messages from brands.
• The C-level executives are also frustrated by inconsistent messaging and inconsistency of recommendations. Female C-level executives revealed that over 30% do not like receiving irrelevant content. 41% of male executives said they are frustrated by inconsistent messages from different channels. Customers in administrative positions expressed frustration at receiving inconsistent messages across different channels.
• 30% of North American and European customers preferred to receive coupons and other promotional offers. Contrary to popular belief, customers didn’t express interest in receiving newsletters or resources about charity work or social justice.

User-level Personalization

• Customers want value-added services. 32% of customers want retailers to confirm their order, deliver confirmations, and track shipping status. 24% of customers want an easier process for returning or exchanging products. Customers want flexibility when placing and picking up orders.
• Email continues to be the preferred communication channel among North Americans and Europeans. However, SMS, social media and social media messengers continue to be preferred channels for communication.
• When it comes to frequency of communication, 39% of North American customers and European customers expect brands to communicate with them weekly. However, 41% expect daily updates from brands for male executives, while 33% expect monthly updates for female executives.
• Personalization is a key focus of 26% of customers. 21% expect it to be based upon their past history and interests.
• 36% of customers have shopped online more than they did in person over the past 12 months. 40% said that they would be using a hybrid approach once normalcy returns.

The full report can be found here.

The three-way hyper-personalization in retail

Retail deep-level personalization is about creating micro-moments that are meaningful to your customers. Let’s take a look at three ways you can personalize the customer experience.

Optimize targeting using geofencing

Imagine going to a mall with a friend and being suddenly notified by your favorite fashion retailer that there is a sale at the outlet. It sounds intriguing, right? How do they know you are at the same place? To target customers, retailers have begun to use GPS-based geofencing technology. Geo-targeting is not the same thing as geo-fencing. It works at a micro level. A range can be defined by retailers around their specific location. When a customer is within a defined area, they will receive an email notification about your presence. Geo-fencing can increase footfall at your store and target customers of your competitors in the same location.

How MoEngage can help you achieve this: MoEngage’s Geo-fencing solution eliminates the line between digital and physical mediums. It triggers messages automatically when customers enter, leave, or remain within the geo-fence. It allows you to send relevant and real-time messages and improve engagement at physical touchpoints. Brands can increase customer retention by up to 30% with geo-fencing.

AI can optimize messaging

Our research revealed that customers expect brands to send them relevant messages. Customers will disengage if the brand sends them unrelated messages. What can you do to optimize messaging? AI is an option. AI can ensure that your messaging is relevant and personalized, but not too much that it creeps out the customer. AI eliminates all guesswork and will tell you what message resonates best with your customer. This will allow you to personalize and increase customer engagement.

How MoEngage can help you achieve this: MoEngage’s proprietary AI engine Sherpa removes all the guesswork and automatically figures out the right message variant and the right time to send a message to customers. Sherpa analyses the performance of various message variants and automatically selects the best-performing content to show customers in real time. It even picks the best time to deliver it.

Optimize engagement using personalization

It is harder to engage customers than it is to acquire a new customer. Optimize your customer engagement across all channels and at all stages of the customer’s journey. Make sure that your messaging and experience are consistent across all channels. You can use user data to make personalized recommendations. This will allow you to build a deeper relationship with customers.

How MoEngage can help you achieve this: MoEngage’s Flows is the perfect solution for you to segment customers, map their journeys, and delight them across the web, email, and mobile with personalized communication. You can auto-segment customers according to their behavior, and create cross-channel lifecycle communications to communicate with and engage them at every stage.

Retail will be a $27 trillion market by 2022. As customer demands evolve and new players enter the industry, you need to strengthen your personalization in retail strategies and engage your customers continuously across all channels.