Personalization preferences in 2021: What shopping brands don't know (yet)
We've heard lots of reasons why consumer brands fail to provide a personalized shopping experience to their customers, the most common one being, "Shoppers don’t want to receive communication from brands and are bothered by it."
So, we decided to check the accuracy of this claim for ourselves.
We surveyed 1,000 shoppers from four of the top global markets – the US, the UK, Canada, and Germany.
And, as always, after a comprehensive analysis, we've put together some of the most interesting findings for you. These are all a part of our Personalization Pulse Check Report, 2021.
What we found was that not only are shoppers willing to share their information in exchange for a personalized experience, but they look forward to regular communication from brands.
Here are some eyebrow-raising trends shopping brands need to know:
39% of shoppers want to receive weekly communication from shopping brands
Our study revealed that 16% of shoppers want to see daily communication from brands, while 39% want to hear from brands weekly, and 25% of shoppers want brands to communicate with them once a month.
And here's one that might surprise you – 14% of shoppers don't mind the frequency as long as the communication from brands is relevant to them!
The takeaway for shopping brands:
Keep a close eye on how your customers are reacting to your messaging frequency. You'll need to maintain dynamic lists and regularly update them based on the frequency and recency of email opens, email clicks, and clicks on push notifications.
If a customer hasn't opened your email in the past seven days, maybe you want to send the next email after fifteen days. If a customer has clicked on the past two push notifications, maybe you want to send them more daily messages, and so on.
27% of shoppers are frustrated by irrelevant and non-personalized product recommendations
When asked about the causes for their frustration with consumer brands, 27% of shoppers said that irrelevant content or product recommendations frustrate them the most. 27% also mentioned that inconsistent messaging from the same brand across multiple communication channels is a cause for frustration, while 16% of shoppers listed brands' failure to remember preferences from their previous purchases as their primary source of frustration.
26% of shoppers want brands to personalize their shopping experience based on previous purchases
The survey showed that a majority of shoppers want personalized product recommendations based on their previous purchase history (26%), interests (21%), and preferences (14%).
The takeaway for shopping brands:
Invest in understanding your customers' preferences, interests, and affinity. As your customer base grows, you'll get better at recommending products based on their behavior and actions on your shopping platform.
21% of shoppers turn to mobile apps for their shopping needs
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit globally, most shoppers turned to digital channels to communicate with shopping brands. While 18% of shoppers turned to social media, 21% adopted shopping mobile apps. 21% of shoppers picked email and 11% preferred SMS as their frequently used communication channel.
So, to conclude...
Consumers are well aware that brands are collecting information about them. What they want in return is a personalized customer experience, regardless of the mode of communication used. Now is the time for brands to deliver on that promise.
The question isn't if you're implementing personalization anymore, it is how well are you doing it. You can grab a copy of our Personalization Pulse Check Report to know more!
This article is part of MoEngage’s data-backed insights series. We analyze anonymized consumer engagement data using AI and ML methodologies to generate insights that help you drive growth. Follow us to receive a notification when we publish our next data-driven story, research article, and more!