How To Increase eCommerce Conversion Rate with Personalization

Wondering How To Improve Your eCommerce Conversion Rate?

I can’t think of a better way to increase sales than via conversions. Optimizing your site for better conversions means more sales with the same amount of traffic.

That’s pretty sweet if you ask me!

My friends over at Spring Metrics are experts at this sort of thing. They know how increase eCommerce revenue by boosting conversions. This is a contribution from their head of marketing, Sean Godier. Hope you find it as useful and informative as I did.

4 Ways to Boost Conversion Rate with Personalization

eCommerce personalization was once a luxury; now it’s mandatory. Today’s online shoppers expect a personalized touch starting from the first time they hit your site until a package arrives at their door. Those internet retailers who are currently incorporating personalization are seeing increases in eCommerce conversion rate and significantly higher revenues.

As eBay CEO John Donahoe remarked at his 2014 IRCE Keynote session, personalization is a “huge competitive advantage” and will be “one of the biggest areas of eCommerce innovation” in the next few years. Here are four ways you can use personalization to your benefit:

Behavioral Targeting and Real Time Engagement

Behavioral Targeting is probably the best way to personalize your site experience. Remember, your visitors are different. Each has a different motivation, is coming from a different source, is in a different part of the buying cycle and has a different goal. So you need to treat each differently – in a good way.

By segmenting visitors into different groups, you can show those visitors specific, targeted content/messages which are most likely to get them to convert. Say goodbye to the one-size-fits-all site experience. There are a number of ways to target your visitors, including source, geolocation, landing page, device type, visit number and time on site.

For example, a first time visitor (who is not likely to convert) should be introduced to your store and educated about products. You could even try to capture their email address and educate them about your products via email marketing campaigns.

A repeat visitor who has never converted, however, should be treated in a different manner. He’s obviously holding back, so why not entice him with a 10% off discount? Spring Metrics does a great job at this.

Another way to use behavioral targeting is through the use of dynamic product recommendations. MyBuys excels in this area by creating individual shopper profiles which display only those products that fit the specific shopper’s profile. All of this is done in real time.

The more personal you can get with behavioral targeting, the higher your eCommerce conversion rate.

Get Specific as Possible with Retargeting

Let’s say a visitor comes to your site and views a pair of shoes. What ad will he see later when he’s presented with a retargeting ad? Is it an ad with those same pair of shoes, or is it something generic? The more generic the ad, the less likely you are to get the person to click, much less buy from you.

Using dynamic retargeting is a crucial part of the personalization process. By delivering a relevant ad—which links to the specific pair of shoes, you’ll significantly increase your eCommerce conversion rate. Make it so easy that your visitor doesn’t have to do any work.

Remember, with retargeting, it’s not about your brand. It’s about an individual shopper wanting a specific product.

Utilize Online Chat

It’s hard to get more personal on your site than with online chat. It’s a great way to engage your customers, answer questions and solve problems.

According to Forrester Research, “44% of online consumers say that having questions answered by a live person while in the middle of an online purchase is one of the most important features a Web site can offer.

Make sure your chat window is out of the main view path of the visitor, but it’s still easy to find. If your software allows you to put a message on the chat window, go with something open ended but helpful, such as “How can I help you today?” You’re putting the customer in charge, where he can engage on his own terms. Olark is a leader in online chat, but there are other alternatives as well.

Say Hello

Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language” – Dale Carnegie

When a repeat customers login to your site, greet them with a message—and use their name. Again, keep it personal. “Welcome back, Sean!” may not seem like much to you, but for a customer, name recognition is important and helps inspire loyalty. You recognize the customer as a person, not just a number.

About Sean Godier

Sean Godier is head of marketing for Spring Metrics, a SaaS company which helps internet retailers increase conversion rates and revenue. Sean is a 15+ year eCommerce veteran, heading up eCommerce for companies such as Yahoo! and Business Supply (acquired by Staples).

3 thoughts on “How To Increase eCommerce Conversion Rate with Personalization”

  1. Many thanks for your shopping cart software review, very interesting and useful article on e-commerce.

  2. Pingback: Three Ways eCommerce sites can increase conversions with site personalization | LiftQuest Blog

  3. I had no idea that so many marketers think it isn’t important to personalize users’ experience. Most of them will have to come around on that view, or their sales will suffer as their competitors continue to make user experience more personal. I think the more personal the lead nurturing and buying experience seems to each customer, the higher the conversions across the board. Copy becomes more effective because it does a better job of speaking directly to the reader. I don’t even want to think about how many times I ended up buying a book based on Amazon’s personalized emails; they’re certainly effective on me!

Comments are closed.

Scroll to Top