MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--AgilOne, the predictive marketing cloud company, today announced the results of a consumer survey showing which types of personalization different consumers from the US and UK expect and appreciate in their online shopping experience. The survey, conducted by the retail research agency Conlumino on behalf of AgilOne, revealed that over 70 percent of shoppers said they want brands to deliver some type of personalized experience, whether it is an alert about a new product that matches their interests, a refill reminder, or VIP customer recognition, but specific preferences varied widely. While certain types of customized experiences, such as loyalty rewards and personalized discounts, were popular across the board, appreciation levels for other areas of personalization differed greatly depending on age, location, gender, and a number of other factors.
By asking more than 3,000 adult online shoppers about what information they expected companies to know about them and what personalized experiences they appreciate, the survey uncovered that while consumers appreciate and even expect brands’ efforts to personalize the buying experience, the preferred methods for that personalization vary greatly across demographic groups. The findings suggest that a deep understanding of your customers and hyper-targeting is crucial to effective customer engagement and building brand loyalty:
- Over 79% of US consumers and 70% of UK consumers expect some sort of personalization from their brands
- More than half of consumers in the US and UK expected e-commerce sites to remember their past purchases
- Among US shoppers, the most popular personalized experiences were emails offering discounts on products they previously viewed (66%), alerts when products they like are on sale (57%) and VIP customer appreciation rewards (51%)
- Consumers in the US were much more likely to expect online retailers to personalize experiences than those in the UK: about half of Americans want to receive a new customer welcome greeting, versus only 34% in the UK
- Shoppers, aged 18 to 34, part of the “millennial” generation, were more likely to appreciate almost all forms personalization: 52% of “millennials” aged 18 to 24 expect brands to remember their birthday as compared to 21% of shoppers aged 65 and over
- Personalization of emails is much more popular than personalization of display advertising, with 66% of US consumers and 57% of UK consumers welcoming email retargeting, but only 24% (US) and 17% (UK) welcoming web-based retargeting
“As online retailers continue to serve a wider range of consumers from across the globe, it becomes more important to identify what your buyers expect and appreciate in order to make your marketing as effective as possible,” said AgilOne CEO Dr. Omer Artun. “This recent survey demonstrates that consumers have highly diverse shopping preferences, which means that marketers must tailor their campaigns to very specific audience segments rather than using a one-size-fits-all approach for each product.”
Know Your Customer to Get the Most Out of Personalization
The survey showed that while some consumer groups are highly receptive to certain personalization techniques, these same campaigns might be ineffective for others. For example, 61 percent of US shoppers aged 25 to 34 said they appreciated new customer welcome campaigns, whereas 39 percent of US shoppers aged 65 and over and 34 percent of all UK shoppers felt this way. Such wide swings in consumer preferences based on age and geography alone show how critical it is to identify and target shoppers with the types of offers and messages they want.
The findings also highlighted the importance of choosing the right form of communication to reach out to certain consumers. Emails offering discounts for previously viewed products were greatly appreciated among US and UK shoppers (66 and 57 percent, respectively), but when those same offers were presented via a pop-up window, shoppers were unimpressed, with only 24 and 17 percent of US and UK consumers expressing interest. As marketers now have more options than ever to reach buyers through different channels, this study shows that choosing the most effective avenues of communication can make or break a campaign.
You can read more about the survey in a whitepaper published by AgilOne here, and find an infographic summarizing the results here. To learn more about how AgilOne’s predictive marketing solutions can help drive effective campaigns for your business, visit www.AgilOne.com or contact info@agilone.com.
About AgilOne
AgilOne is the industry’s first Predictive Marketing Cloud that allows marketers to deliver automated, personalized experiences across all customer touch points -- online and offline. Leveraging breakthrough predictive analytics and machine learning technology, AgilOne empowers companies of all sizes to launch revenue-generating lifecycle marketing programs, including predictive cart recovery, cluster-based purchasing and loyalty appreciation, among others. With AgilOne, companies can convert more browsers to buyers and increase overall lifetime customer value.
Leading consumer brands, including The Body Shop, Betabrand, Shazam, Sports Authority, Moosejaw and shopPBS.org, use AgilOne to boost customer engagement and revenue. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, AgilOne investors include Sequoia Capital, the Mayfield Fund and Tenaya Capital. For more information, please visit www.agilone.com.
