Declaring it a "retail first," Shop Direct, the U.K.'s fourth largest retailer, last week launched a fully personalized homepage for its flagship brand, Very.co.uk.
Visitors to Very.co.uk can now be greeted with homepages designed specifically for them. Shop Direct states, "This means that the twenty something who shops with Very.co.uk for that perfect party frock can find her favorite fashion brands 'front of shop' whilst the homemaker looking to furnish their abode can view electrical and homeware offers."
Tapping its "wealth of customer data," the company uses algorithms to predict customer behavior and optimize individual homepages with targeted products and offers. The algorithm produces 200 million promotion affinity scores, which rank the relevance of offers for each customer.
In sum, Shop Direct can serve 1.2 million versions of the website to its customers considering the combinations of which promotional messages are used and in what position. Shop Direct expects this number to rise to 3.5 million by the end of the year.
Shop Direct said it has already introduced personalized website navigation across its websites, using browsing behavior and purchase history to order the department store categories based on their relevance. Customers, for example, who regularly search its sites for items for kids will be presented first with the toys and child & baby categories at the far left of the navigation panel.
"We know that relevance wins in retail and right now customers are drowning in a sea of irrelevant choices," said Shop Direct group chief executive Alex Baldock, in a statement. "This is the digital equivalent of Selfridges laying out their Oxford Street store for each shopper."
According to the recently released Accenture Personalization Survey, the most popular choices in personalized online experiences are websites optimized by device (64 percent) and promotional offers for items the customer is strongly considering (59 percent).
- Shop Direct moves closer to goal of building the world's most personalised shopping experience - Shop Direct
- U.S. Consumers Want More Personalized Retail Experience and Control Over Personal Information, Accenture Survey Shows - Accenture
- Consumers Conflicted on Digital Trust - Want Control over Personal Information, yet Expect a Personalized Retail Experience - Accenture