Retail TouchPoints: New Research Shows Online Shoppers Expect Personalized Merchandising
By Amanda Ferrante
Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of a current article from the Retail TouchPoints website.
More than 50 percent of consumers expect personalized merchandising, starting with a personalized home page, while one in four look for these tailored experiences at the search results, product, and category pages, according to recent research from the e-Tailing Group and MyBuys, a provider of personalized recommendations for multi-channel retailers.
The survey also found that 77 percent of shoppers will make an additional purchase at least once when presented with personalized recommendations, according to the report Consumer Insights into Multi-Channel /Interactions: Practical Tools for Profitable Selling.
The e-tailing group surveyed over 1,000 consumers to find out how shoppers interact with personalized merchandising and where they expect to see personalized recommendations.
Other
findings:
- Asked how important are recommended products in the overall online shopping experience, 11 percent said "very important," 28 percent said "somewhat important," 39 percent were "neutral - sometimes valuable, sometimes not valuable," 14 percent indicated "somewhat unimportant," and eight percent said "not very important."
- Over 60 percent expect merchants to recommend similar products in addition to related items.
- Sixty-eight percent of shoppers say recommendations play a valuable role beyond shopping, including convenience and time-savings, while also aiding selection.
- Fifty-four percent of shoppers say personalized recommendations that can
be purchased directly from an email or ones that redirect you to the product
detail page are very influential in making a purchase.
Discussion Questions: When, where and how should personalized merchandising become part of the online shopping experience? What retailers are doing the best in personalizing the online shopping experience?