The vast majority of consumers now expect a personalised experience or they will walk and that means leveraging mobile.
The call comes as more than 83% of customers reported they expect brands to personalise experiences for them and is set to be just one of the many talking points among established brands such as Waitrose, JD Williams and Eurostar at this year’s annual Monetate European Summit, which takes place today.
According to Gartner, by the end of 2016, 89% of brands expect to compete primarily on customer experience rather than price and product as the key brand differentiator, and, with global online abandonment rates at their highest level since 2013 (69%), retailers need to employ different online strategies to appeal to shoppers and help push them towards the final purchase.
Neil Roberts, Head of Digital at Eurostar, says: “With high levels of competition, businesses are constantly thinking of ways to stay ahead of the curve when it comes to customer experience and interaction. Our customers are no longer just expecting us to engage and satisfy them; they now want us to inspire them too.”
JD Williams has also become a strong advocate of personalization, with the fashion retailer seeing an 18% rise in conversions through using personalization techniques in its mobile marketing.
More recently, Gap relaunched its app, and branded it Gap+, to deliver a greater level of personalised experience to its customers.
Mike Harris, VP EMEA at Monetate, adds: “Brands need to be interacting with customers on an individual level, as opposed to simply delivering a one-size-fits-all approach. To be successful, you need to connect with each customer, in every moment, through all touch points, based on everything they know about them.”
Harris continues: “In retail, you can differentiate and drive performance in two ways: one is through product, and the other through experience. If you don’t have clear competitive advantage with the first, experience becomes even more important. Brands need to deliver relevance to the customer, not just in one interaction, but over time.”
Monetate’s most recent Ecommerce Quarterly (EQ1 2016) report found 42% of purchases occurred within the first hour of a shopper’s browsing session, making website first impressions count more than ever.
Look out for our in depth look at personalization with Eurostar next week.
