5 ways to personalise your website to improve the customer experience

Consumers expect a level of personalisation from all types of businesses, with 74% of customers feeling frustrated when website content is not personalised (Instapage). In fact Wunderkind Audiences claim that 80% of frequent shoppers only shop with brands that personalise the experience.

These are just a couple of the many reasons why personalisation has been a top priority for marketers over the last few years. However, many businesses are still yet to implement personalisation throughout the customer journey, despite the democratisation of personalisation technology.

Connecting the dots between strategic understanding and execution is proving to be difficult for marketers. To help, we dive into 6 ways you can use personalisation to improve the customer experience and increase engagement.

1. Personalised navigation bars

A static navigation bar can be uninspiring and confusing which leads to a high bounce rate. It is most probably one of the first things the user sees when they land on your website, but if they can’t find what they are looking for quickly, then most likely they will leave your site.

The solution is to personalise parts of the navigation for the user based on their browsing and buying behaviour. Don’t forget to ensure there is still an element of discovery to view other pages too!

Image Source –  Fresh Relevance

2. Product recommendations

In a competitive landscape, it is essential that marketers do everything in their power to stand out from the crowd and deliver a frictionless journey that breaks down any barriers to purchase.

Relevant product recommendations are key to delivering on this. There are many types of product recommendations that can be considered including:-

• Previously viewed – When in a buying cycle, regardless of product, it is likely the consumer visits more than just your website. It’s often tricky to remember what they saw on your site vs the many other sites they have visited. A recently viewed items section reduces this friction and provides an extremely useful service to the consumer.
• Similar products – As we’ve mentioned earlier most traffic to your site are browsers. They are consumers looking for ideas, and may not have really decided what it is they are looking for. Similar products help the consumer discover new products that they may not have seen. It matches similar products to the one you are viewing to let the consumer compare products without needing to start a new search.
• Frequently bought together – Another great way to surface products that might not ordinarily be considered is just before or during the checkout process. For clothing brands, a complete the look section might be really useful to the customer.

Image Source – Pure360

3. Personalised web banners

Whether it’s to greet the customer by name, serve up personalised products, display imagery that fits with the buyer’s persona or even add weather-related content, personalised web banners can be a great way to reduce that dreaded bounce. It enhances the customer experience almost like having a shop assistant remember a regular shopper. These add trust and familiarity, as well as giving you the opportunity to showcase products that the customer has a higher propensity to purchase.

Image Source – Fresh Relevance

4. Store locators

Personalising the nearest store locations to the customer can be a very useful addition to your website. Using geolocation you can serve the local store information such as opening times, the store manager’s name and phone number. Sometimes it’s the simple things that can deliver significant impact.

5. Social proof

To buy or not to buy? That is the question. Consumer decision-making is driven by reviews, reviews that are trusted by billions of people across the world. Searching for a review on the product and the company is now part of any buying process. Consumers have the power to conduct their due diligence on everything from a lip liner to a new electric car. It is essential that brands assist in this hunt for assurance by adding social proof to all products.

Image Source – Pure360

Best Practice Tips

Now that you have an idea of some of the personalisation campaigns you could be implementing to enhance the customer experience, here are some best practices to keep in mind.

• Avoid limiting choice. Make sure your audience can still easily access your whole range of products. If you personalise every element of their experience you may limit them to similar products.
• Always test and learn. Don’t forget that not every type of personalisation you try will work. Always have a hypothesis for what you think will happen. Report against this and then make refinements.
• Personalise with a purpose. Make sure there is a good reason to personalise. Only personalise if you have reason to think it will improve customer experience and increase your bottom line.