The dawn of digitalization has dramatically changed the way buyers behave in a relatively short amount of time. Think about it. Today’s consumers can shop, search and find coupons, share purchases, review products, and compare prices all from a little device in their pocket. But this doesn’t mean buyers hold all of the power. This new hyperconnectivity also empowers retailers with new opportunities to engage their target audiences. Most notably, it enables retailers to have more purposeful and personalized interactions with customers.
As more companies embrace digital as their primary source of revenue, how do they ensure they’re able to offer the same personalized experiences online as they do in-store?
Many look to personalization technology to help create engaging and relevant digital experiences today’s consumers demand. Traditional, rules-based personalization allows you to tailor experiences across different digital touchpoints based on a number of manually pre-defined rules. Content is modified and displayed to visitors based on criteria such as demographics, location, and past visits to the site. For example, a visitor in Seattle may see rain jackets on the homepage where a visitor from Honolulu sees swimsuits.
But companies that use rules-based personalization find it has limitations. Primarily, rules-based personalization is not dynamic. Rules must be set up and kept up to date manually. This can be a time suck for busy marketers. Focus segments must also be manually selected, which many marketers find impractical and difficult to scale.
Predictive or intelligent personalization, on the other hand, leverages machine learning to dynamically tailor website content or product suggestions in real-time based on a visitor’s behavior on site. The use of predictive algorithms and access to integrated customer data enables marketers to develop deep insights into customer behavior and respond quickly with hyper-personalized experiences that drive customers to take action. For example, a customer shopping for yellow sweaters may also see pants or jewelry in complementary colors to complete the look.
There is no question that predictive personalization is the future. Already, 63% of consumers expect personalization as a standard of service. As such, the ability to tailor content to unique visitors based on their actions in real-time is growing increasingly important for brands and retailers to move visitors through to conversion.
Deploying predictive personalization technology enables marketers, merchandisers, and digital commerce managers to:
If predictive personalization sounds like a good idea (and trust us, it definitely is), we recommend Episerver Intelligence Cloud, Episerver’s newest product release. Episerver provides one unified platform for content, commerce, and predictive personalization. Using Episerver, you can:
Interested in learning more about Episerver’s Intelligence Cloud and how it can help you easily create more relevant and engaging experiences at every digital touchpoint? Contact us.