A personalized ecommerce experience has become just as important to consumers as price. And retailers need to get on board with that message.. In this Executive Summary from Multichannel Merchant, you will learn: Why 3 out of 4 online shoppers make additional purchases when presented with recommended product pages What steps skincare retailer Kiehl’s took to raise its revenue per visit 11.6% Why email is a perfect vehicle to showcase personalized product recommendations And more…

1. June
2014
Executive
Summary:
personalization
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2. Personalization is the Key to
Increasing Customer Loyalty
By Erin Lynch @MCMerchant bit.ly/mcm-gplus
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Executive Summary: personalization
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With consumer spending in
the United States on the rise,
ecommerce customers are no
longer giving their hard-earned cash to the
merchant with the lowest prices.
Consumers expect their ecommerce ex-perience
to be tailor-made to their shop-ping
preferences. They want their online
experience to mimic the in-store relation-ship.
A personalized ecommerce experience
has become just as important to consum-ers
as price. And merchants are getting
that message.
According to the results of Multichan-nel
Merchant’s MCM Outlook 2014 sur-vey,
retailers rank the importance of per-sonalization
on their sites as a 5.6 on a
10-point scale. More than 30% of respon-dents
said increased use of personalization
was among the top three priorities of their
web redesigns, and one-third of respon-dents
said that if they had more money
to spend in their marketing budget, they
would spend it on personalization.
What a difference a few
years make.
When merchants and marketers1 alike
were asked to discuss the trends they ex-pect
to see dominate 2014, time and time
again, personalization was one of the top
choices given because it is a surefire way
to deliver a winning customer experience.
Shoppers now expect a personalized
shopping experience from just about ev-ery
retailer they do business with. In fact,
according to a recent study2, 84% of shop-pers
who signed up to receive promotional
emails reported that they find it helpful
if products featured in the emails are rel-evant
based on their shopping habits and
preferences.
Furthermore, 77% of online shoppers
said they were more likely to purchase
items online or in store if emails feature
products based on their shopping habits
and preferences.
Amazon is a personalization titan that
most merchants want to emulate in one
form or another. One of the main rea-sons
Amazon shines in the eyes of the
consumer is because of product recom-mendations.
In fact, more than three out
of four3 online shoppers make additional
purchases when they are presented with
recommended products that match their
personal preferences.
Bottom line: Personalization not only
matters, it is downright imperative in or-
3 out of 4 online shoppers make
additional purchases when presented
with recommended product pages.

3. More than half of all marketers are
missing out on creating a personalized
connection with the customer.
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Executive Summary: personalization
Welcome Back. If an anonymous
user leaves your site but comes back, wel-come
them with a welcome back message.
This message could include information
based on items left in their shopping cart,
items previously viewed, reminders to
submit their email addresses, or any quali-fying
coupons or promotions.
Offer Discounts. If you notice an
anonymous visitor viewing a specific item
but never adding it the shopping cart, on
the welcome back message on their return
visit offer them a personalized coupon for
the item, as well as discounts on related
items.
If a shopper does log in, merchants
should utilize this hand raiser to the best
of their ability. Use the data captured with
order histories, items left in abandoned
carts, previously viewed products, loca-der
Part of:
to appeal to your customer and to rise
above the competition.
Personalizing the Online
Shopping Experience
Big data plays a major role in the pursuit
of personalization. But marketers need to
realize that big data goes well beyond just
segmenting email lists. Merchants need to
focus not only on data that will help iden-tify
and predict consumer behaviors, but
also use it to help brands acquire, retain,
convert and keep customers.
Merchants should always remember
that personalization is about the person,
not about copious amounts of data you
can attain from a single shopper. The best
brands—and most forward-thinking mar-keters—
understand the true meaning of
personalization and deliver winning expe-riences
on every page, email, channel and
at all stages of the customer relationship.
In many cases, building a relationship
and a personalized shopping experience
with the customer can start even before
the shopper logs in to your site. You can
capture important behavior, in real-time,
such as how they got to your site, what
items they are searching for once on your
site and what products they are clicking
on/hovering over.
Here are a few tricks4 merchants can do,
right now, to personalize the shopping ex-perience
for the anonymous shoppers:
Sign In. Serve new visitors with a
welcome message on your website that
includes a voluntary email sign in, which
can be used as an email acquisition tool.
Gardener’s Supply Company did this and
experienced a substantial increase in rev-enue
and a boost in leads after launching a
welcome message on its website. The mes-sage
included a discount and email ad-dress
capture to help increase engagement
and drive conversions.
One of the quickest and easiest ways to create a
personalized experience is by just adding the shop-per’s
first name to the email greeting.
Kiehl’s RPV Rises 11.6%
Kiehl’s saw an 11.6% lift in revenue per visit to its web-site
after it combined its visitor segmentation and on-site
behavior to create a targeted personalized experience.
Many of Kiehl’s skincare and body products are for-mulated
to complement one another as part of a total
solution. The challenge Kiehl’s faced, however, was that
its best customers were unaware of the benefits of bun-dling
the individual products they love.
Kiehl’s began by splitting shoppers into groups based
on their status (new and returning) and interest in ei-ther
Product Line A and Product Line B. For new visitors,
interests were implied on search engine keywords. For
registered customers, Kiehl’s used profile data to mea-sure
alignment toward either product category.
Visitors in each of the segments were targeted with
one banner on the homepage. Their experiences were
then further shaped by their response to each offer.
If visitors clicked on the banner, that offer remained
persistent throughout the shopping experience. If they
didn’t click, they were presented with another banner
until the offer bank was exhausted or until they com-pleted
a transaction.
By segmenting its audience into smaller groups then
targeting each shopper with banners based on per-sonal
interests and online behavior, Kiehl’s empowered
visitors with choices that could drive their experiences
along the consideration path.
This two-dimensional approach allowed Kiehl’s to
identify the most relevant offer for each customer class,
which resulted in the 11.6% revenue per visit lift.
When Kiehl’s segmented its audience into two dis-tinct
groups, it gave them a clear view of the impact that
each customer type has on revenue, allowing the com-pany
to identify the most valuable audiences.
Kiehl’s was able to handle multiple possible outcomes
based on the visitor’s reactions to different offers. Each
of these reactions constitutes a
consideration path which is then
tracked, allowing Kiehl’s to iden-tify
which overall web experience
resulted in the highest overall rev-enue
life.
The campaign report results de-tail
the performance of each con-sideration
path, highlighting the
significant impact of shaping the
customer journey throughout the
entire sales funnel.
—Daniela Forte

4. Mobile is king for consumers,
thanks to showrooming, which is
why creating a personalized mobile
message is more important than ever.
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Executive Summary: personalization
Part of:
tion, etc., to create a personalized online
shopping experience. Offer recommended
products, targeted banner ads, and emails
to keep the potential shopper engaged
with your brand.
For example, if you’re an outdoor sport-ing
goods retailer like EMS or REI and a
shopper has previously purchased snow-board
boots, notify the customer about
any upcoming winter sports equipment
sales or when snowboard apparel goes on
sale. By employing personalized messages5
and highlighting specialized sales, you will
entice him or her with relevant content
that is more likely to lead to a purchase.
By doing so, you are now increasing
your chances of having the visitor make it
past the 20-second danger zone, because
you are showing them what they want.
These tactics will not only help move
your shopper down the path to purchase,
but the information can also help your
marketing department offer highly per-sonalized
email communications between
your brand and the consumer.
Getting Personal with
Email
When it comes to reaching the anytime
consumer, email seems to be the best bet
for marketers. But how many of those
emails are actually making a memorable
impact on your shopper? The answer is
not many.
In a recent survey conducted by Agile-
One6, it was determined that 34% of con-sumers
could not remember a single mem-orable
marketing email they received. Even
though 34% of consumers couldn’t recall a
standout email, the survey found that 75%
of marketers believed they sent between
five to 15 standout emails last year alone.
Part of the reason why the messages
didn’t resonate with shoppers was because
65% of marketers said they do not differ-entiate
email frequency by customer and
52% do not differentiate email content by
customer. Translation: More than half of
all marketers are missing out on creating
a personalized connection with the cus-tomer.
Email is a perfect way to reach your
customer to showcase personalized rec-ommendations.
Here are a few creative
ideas for daily email blasts that will keep
customers engaged with your brand, and
ultimately, coming back for more:
Monday Markdowns: Rather than
blasting out emails about post-holiday
sales, send a weekly campaign with new
markdowns targeted to each shopper by
category or brand.
What’s New Wednesday: Price
points are a major factor in a shopper’s de-cision
to buy a product or not, so why not
personalized email content based on new
items broken down by price points, brand
or categories to captivate the reader.
Favorites Friday: Since ratings and
reviews play a major role in a shopper’s de-cision
to buy, why not send out emails that
Identifying an unknown site visitor is key when looking to offer a personalized online shopping experience. Many merchants are getting guest shoppers to interact
more personally by offering a discount in exchange for an email address.

5. 5
Executive Summary: personalization
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include the highest customer ratings and
reviews from the products you sell based
on the shopper’s preferences and past pur-chases.
Birthdays7 are another way to person-alize
the shopping experience. Birthday
emails are a great opportunity to build
loyalty with your customers. You can do
this by creating attractive, engaging, per-sonalized
emails that match the brand’s
look and personality while simultaneously
offering discounts and coupons as gifts to
the shopper.
Of course, none of this can be done
without an email address. If a visitor is on
your website, she’s already shown some
level of interest. Why not try to engage her
by inviting her to sign up to receive some-thing
special like exclusive offers? You can
even give her an incentive to do so.
Here are four simple incentives8 you
can offer shoppers in return for an email
address:
1. Discounts and money-off promotions
2. “Free stuff” or giveaways in exchange
for their email address
3. Up-to-date information on a compa-ny’s
products, services or offerings
4. Advance notice of new products or fu-ture
releases
However, these preferences do vary by
location, so marketers should always be
aware of where shoppers are living. While
the top reason consumers subscribe to a
brand’s email is to either receive discounts
and money-off promotions, in the UK,
Australia and France, the second most
common reason is to receive free stuff or
giveaways. In Brazil and Germany, ad-vanced
notice of new products and keep-ing
up-to-date with a company’s products
were among the top reasons.
Personalizing the Mobile
Experience
According to industry statistics9, in the
first half of 2013 more than half of emails
were opened on a mobile device and more
than four out of ten mobile email users
looked at emails at least four times per day.
For this reason, creating a personalized
3 Smart Ways to get Personal
Personalization was one of the underlying themes of eTail
West – and it seemed whatever track of sessions you at-tended,
there was talk about how retailers are personal-izing
the ecommerce experience for their customers.
While dozens of merchants and vendors shared sam-ples
of how they personalize the ecommerce experience
for the end user, there were three examples that stood out.
Quiz Your Customers
SmartFurniture president and CEO T.J. Gentle said his
company wanted to emulate the store experience online.
So in a “moment of genius,” they decided to ask custom-ers
questions when they enter SmartFurniture.com.
Should a customer decide to take the quiz, Gentle said
the site “functions like a real intuitive salesperson.” The
site will match fabrics, styles and price points based on
how the customer answers the quiz questions.
“Our job is to match products with people,” Gentle said.
“And if you do that well, you win the sale.”
How Does It Look?
Overstockart.com has had “View in a Room” functionality as a part of its site for a few years now. The
idea was for the customer to take a photo of their room, upload it to Overstockart.com, and then choose a
paining to get a virtual idea of how it’s going to look in their house.
Great idea, but CEO David Sasson soon discovered the process of uploading photos was easier said than
done.
Sasson showed off Overstockart.com’s View in a Room smartphone app. With it, there is the seamless
integration between taking a photo of the room and adding the virtual piece of art. The app also includes el-ements
that allow the customer to share a snapshot of the room view in social media channels or via email.
This way the users’ family and friends can be a part of the purchase decision.
If the Shoe Fits…
Shoemakers do not use unified shoe sizes. Though a customer’s shoe size may be a 9.5, the customer
may wear a size 10 Nike, a size 9 Reebok and a size 9.5 New Balance. Shoefitr co-founder and customer
experience officer exhibited his company’s plug-in for shoe sellers, which helps customers find the perfect-sized
shoe.
Shoefitr’s shoe database helps customers make smarter decisions when buying shoes online, and gives
them a similar experience to what they would receive if they were buying shoes in-store.
—Tim Parry
40% of shoppers buy more from a
merchant that offers a personalized
shopping experience.

6. Amazon is a personalization titan that most merchants want to emulate because of their ability to tailor a shoppers experience with recommendations.
The following Multichannel Merchant articles by staff and industry experts were sourced for this executive research
summary. Please click on the article titles to learn more:
1. 2014: Things Just Got Personal
2. Shoppers Want Emails With Personalized Product Recommendations
3. A Daily Dose of Personalized Product Recommendations
4. 8 Tips for Creating a Better Online Shopping Experience This Holiday
5. 7 Ways to Support Your Holiday Sales with Mobile Strategies
6. The Cost of a Subpar Email Campaign
6
Executive Summary: personalization
7. 5 Tips for Memorable Birthday Emails
8. Meeting Customer’s Email Expectations
9. Top 10 Responsive Design Best Practices for Email Templates
10. Mastering Mobile Email Part 3: Contextual Optimization
11. Consumers Buy More When Retailers Get Personal
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message to shoppers via email is more im-portant
than ever. One of the benefits of
sending messages to a mobile device is
that it can offer a much more personalized
experience compared to a regular email.
Mobile messages can allow for real-time
optimization and advanced targeting, and
messages can now be tailored to suit the
needs of the consumer based on location,
weather and even the device used.
Electronics retailer RadioShack mas-tered
this technique10 when it sent a mes-sage
that teamed up the device used to
open the email with products sold in store
or online. In other words, if the email was
opened with an iPhone, then the content
of the email promoted the sale of iPhone
accessories.
Sometimes creating a connection with
your shopper has nothing to do with sell-ing
products. A great email creative is one
that meets the user where they are at the
moment the email is opened. You want to
engage with shoppers and create a con-nection
with them. As an example, if you
know your reader lives in New York City
include a three-day weather forecast in
your message with content referring to the
upcoming weather in that region.
Personalization is Key
Customer Satisfaction
With 40% of shoppers11 stating that
they buy more from retailers that cater a
shopping experience based on shoppers
preferences and history, it should be proof
to the ecommerce marketing community
that personalization matters. Retailers that
tap into the power of this kind of data and
personalization will not only see an in-crease
in engagement and sales, but will
also boost customer loyalty and lifetime
value of their customers over time.
Remember, the goal for all merchants
when it comes to personalization is to help
consumers find what they are looking for,
whenever they are looking for it, and guide
them through the buying process in the
easiest manner possible. ■
How can merchants better personalize
their marketing messages?
Click bit.ly/june-rk-video to watch
Listrak CEO Ross Kramer explain some
best practices for email personalization.