News

Retailers failing at personalization, claims study

April 26, 2017

Less than half of retailers are successfully driving a personalized consumer experience and even fewer are using advanced strategies to customize the shopping experience.

Yet consumers are increasingly seeking both personalization and customization, according to a new Reflektion survey that polled the top 100 North American ecommerce retailers and surveyed more than 500 consumers.

"Consumers want intuitive, personal digital store experiences, yet many of the major ecommerce players are missing the mark by relying on basic strategies that broadly target customer bases," Kurt Heinemann, chief marketing officer of Reflektion, said in a press release. "This report illustrates the widening gap that exists between consumer expectations and ecommerce realities and highlights strategies from retailers doing personalization right and generating significant revenue as a result."

One in five consumers are interested in voice or photo search but none of the retailers offered either option, states the survey findings.

Here are a few more highlights:

• Only about four in every 10 e-retailers offered recommended products on home pages that were updated based on a shopper's browsing behavior
• Just 17 percent of home pages on retailers' mobile sites featured personalized product recommendations based on shoppers' browsing behavior from two prior desktop site visits while logged in under the same account
• One-quarter of retailers sent shoppers a site-abandonment email after a visitor viewed products but ended the session without buying

"Despite the fact eCommerce represents the most data-rich environment ever seen, brands still aren't doing a solid job at digital personalization," Heinemann said.