Modern online customers have a lot of choices, and e-commerce stores are working hard to make their products and websites more appealing and interesting than those of their competitors.
Just think about it: out of all the Ecommerce brands in your niche, why would a customer choose you or come back to make another purchase? Even though discounts and great products are great, there is no way to beat personalization in a time when customers want everything to be tailored to their needs and wants.
This is the main goal of personalization, because it lets you tailor your whole digital presence to the values and stories that resonate with your target audience. This makes them more likely to come back and tell their friends about your great online store. Assuming you’re already keeping track of all your key metrics and collecting customer data, let’s jump right into the specific steps you can take to give your visitors a more personalized experience.
Everything begins with the homepage.
You can think of your homepage as the storefront for your website. It can either entice customers to go deeper into your store and look at your products or make them hit the back button and look for a more relevant website that speaks to their values, likes, and unique sensibilities. But if you use cookies on your website, you can easily find out where your customers are and study how they use your web store. This lets you make a more personalized homepage and a better marketing plan as a whole.
When they go to your homepage for the first time, they will see your standard content and design, which is made for your target audience. That’s fine, but you want to take it a step further and use the cookie information to show them more relevant content the next time they visit. For example, if you have a section for men and a section for women, make sure that returning male customers only see the men’s section and the right localized website. This will make their second visit more rewarding and less work for them.
Try to make your domain unique.
Creating a branded domain is, without a doubt, one of the best ways to increase brand stickiness, awareness, and visibility, both in the search results and for your customers. But you also need to personalize your domain to make it more appealing to today’s online audience. If you want to personalize your service without ruining your short and sweet domain name, choose a TLD that isn’t.com or any of the other standard TLDs.
Choose a top-level domain that has all the benefits of a traditional TLD plus a personal touch that will make your domain name more memorable, relevant, and recognizable in the online world.
Make your online ads more personal.
For an Ecommerce business that wants to grow, it’s important to put money into a Google Ads strategy and paid advertising on social media so that the brand shows up at the top of all relevant search results and in front of the right people on social media. But not everyone will react the same way to the same ad. That’s why ad personalization should be high on your list.
Again, use the cookie information to tailor your ads to what your visitors do and how they interact with your site. Place these in search engine results and on social media so that each customer sees the right product, which will make them want to click on the link to your site. Even if she knows the brand, why would a woman looking for handbags click on a link to your men’s section?
Customer service should put an emphasis on personalization
Focusing on building a great customer service department is another powerful way to personalize your service quickly and well. Customers want to talk to their favorite Ecommerce brands these days, so you need to answer all messages quickly, pick up calls within a minute, and solve any problems quickly.
This means you need to buy a phone system. However, you can save money by switching to a cheaper VoIP service, which will get rid of the need to buy new hardware and reduce your telecom costs while letting you run a customer service department that is open 24/7. Make sure that your customers can talk to your agents in at least a few key languages. This will help you personalize your service through localization.
Offer personalized guides to visitors
You might not be able to figure out the best list of products for a new visitor, but it only takes a few clicks to get enough information about a customer to start giving them personalized buying guides right away. Some sites have a “recently viewed items” section, and you should too. However, you should go one step further and offer complete product packages that fit each person’s needs. So, they can choose to get the set for a special price, or they can pick their favorites from the guide. Either way, this is a personal touch that the customer will appreciate.
Wrapping up
There are many things you should add to your online store and many things you need for your digital marketing strategy. Still, personalization should always be your top priority, so use these tips to really stand out from the crowd and build a brand that everyone knows and loves.