Personalization is the key to making your brand stand out in the sea of e-commerce noise. Everyone business knows that they need to provide a simple, pain free transaction process across any and every channel, and that they should simplify the navigation, streamline their content, personalize content based on previous purchases, and minimize form lengths to increase their conversions rates.
Let’s look beyond that. In 2022, personalization, when it comes to e-commerce, means looking beyond these quick wins to really add value to your consumer and give them something that your competitors aren’t.
Here’s three key trends we suggest you turn your attention to, in order to stay one step ahead of your competition…starting with what every e-commerce website should have in place.
The power of a personalized online shopping experience
With online marketplaces & aggregators such as Amazon, your business has to work so much harder to build brand awareness and equity. Consumers are more likely to use generic search terms such as ‘red wine’, within search engines or online marketplaces, rather than searching by brand name, so building brand awareness to drive traffic customers to your website is key. This will allow you to cultivate a DTC experience and gather data on your customers to better understand them, their purchasing habits and to form relationships with them.
By your website acknowledging previous buyer behavior, it makes the conversion process seamless for your customers, and increases loyalty/repeat purchases. 47% of add to cart clicks are from a personalized page****, so to increase your conversion rate, ensure your website provides customers with product recommendations based on previous purchases.
The personalized customer experience should end once a purchase has been made. 26% of wine club members edit their shipment to personalize to their desires****, meaning customers add extra bottles to their shipment, swap SKUs or customize their shipment day to better suit their needs. Your brand has an opportunity to differentiate amongst competitors by offering customers a personalized experience from transaction to taste. Same applies for any product be it supplements, protein, groceries, the list is endless
And how do you communicate to your customers so that they can tailor their next order/shipment? Email marketing. 30% of customers are prompted to edit their shipments when they receive an email****. A simple notification such as ‘your next shipment will be sent to you in two weeks’ allows your customers to manage their subscriptions and help to position you as a brand that cares about their customers $.
Personalize your payment options and currencies
53% of merchants plan to expand payment methods in 2022*. Meeting the consumer where they’re at financially is imperative for any ecommerce business. You can now offer a multitude of options to personalize payments for your customers –
- 60% will add digital wallets – an estimated 4.4 billion global consumers will shop with a digital wallet by 2023, accounting for 52% of ecommerce payments globally*
- 60% plan to take QR-code payments – by 2025, QR-code payment users are expected to exceed 2.2 billion, equating to 29% of all mobile phone users globally*
- 65% of merchants plan to add buy now, pay later as a payment – BNPL payments online are on the rise, expected to account for roughly 24% of all global ecommerce transactions by 2026, up from just 9% in 2021*
Younger shoppers appreciate the flexibility of BNPL, with 44% of Gen Z and 37% of Millennials expected to make a BNPL payment in 2022, compared to 23% of Gen X and 9.4% of Baby Boomers*. This suggests that younger consumers are more budget conscious and have less disposable income to use on a monthly basis.
You can also expect payment providers to advance their technology solutions to enable cryptocurrency for interesting use cases like loyalty and rewards, and provisioning them into digital wallets*.
Creating personalized experiences & communities through NFTs
BossLogic, in partnership with Johnnie Walker, presents a ‘once in a lifetime’ collection – Seven one-of-a-kind works of art, each a celebration of the souls of life, paired with seven rare, vaulted bottles of 48 year old Blended Scotch Whisky. They’re offering a luxury experience – in two individual NFTs. The first NFT includes a bottle of Johnnie Walker Masters of Flavor, and the second will be a unique piece of digital art by renowned graphic designer BossLogic, who rose to fame through his work with Marvel.**
Diageo’s Sophie Kelly, Sr. VP North American Whiskies, expects to see these community and club type experiences on the rise. “Look at what is going on with NFTs. People ultimately are buying into their communities,” she says. “The notion of consumers buying into community club type experiences is really interesting. What has the pandemic done? It has blurred the lines between physical and digital in a way that we have never seen, in a way that is accelerating. The sexy terms out there are the Metaverse and NFTs, but there is also ecomm and everybody buying and ordering digitally. You are going to have to have ease of transaction, convenience and a frictionless experience.”***
This is just the start of what’s to come in the future. Our ecommerce experts are on hand to discuss any online challenges you’re currently facing. You may not be ready to enter the world of NFT’s, but personalization cannot be ignored and is critical to your omnichannel success.
Sources:
*Global Payments 2022 Commerce and Payment Trends Report
**https://blockbar.com/brands/Johnnie%20Walker/657c3b94-d711-4146-8d5b-963525952319
***https://www.forbes.com/sites/johnkoetsier/2021/06/16/nfts-are-experiences-not-things/?sh=4180f9cd4ac9
****Future Drinks Expo 2022
