Cross-channel, customer-centric marketing (AKA personalized marketing), the practice of tailoring offers and promotions to consumers across multiple touch points based on their past shopping or browsing experiences, appears to increase buyer readiness, engagement, and sales activity, according to a study by MyBuys and the e-tailing group.
Among more than 1,100 consumers surveyed: 40% said they buy more from retailers that personalize their shopping experience across channels, 41% said they buy more from retailers that send them personalized emails, and 39% said they buy more from retailers that personalize Web recommendations.
Those findings are reinforced by sales data from MyBuys' database of some 250 million shoppers: Customer-centric marketing delivers a 25% increase in total online sales and a 300% improvement in customer lifetime value, according to the company.
Below, additional findings from the report titled "Engage Consumers & Increase Buyer Readiness Through Customer-Centric Marketing," based on a survey conducted by the e-tailing group for MyBuys.
Tactics That Drive Purchasing
Among consumers surveyed, key drivers of "buyer readiness" are finding the right product (67%) at the right price (55%).
However, personalized promotional emails (57%) and personalized online advertising (35%) are top tactics for prompting consumers to purchase:
Rewards for Personalized Marketing
Also, consumers' awareness about personalized marketing is growing:
- 66% say the retailers where they shop offer promos and merchandise tailored to their past purchasing and browsing behaviors, up 13 percentage points (PPs) (or 25%) from the 53% who said so roughly six months earlier.
- 64% say they receive personalized emails from retailers tailored to their past purchasing and browsing behaviors, up 13 PPs (or 25%) from the 51% who said so roughly six months earlier.
Moreover, the impact of personalized marketing appears to be growing:
- 44% of consumers say they value retailers that remember their past shopping or browsing behaviors, up 7 PPs (or 19%) from the 37% who said so roughly six months earlier.
- 41% of consumers say they buy more from retailers who send personalized emails, up 7 PPs (or 21%) from the 34% who said so roughly six months earlier.
Appreciation for Personalization
Most people value good recommendations: 6 in 10 consumers say personalized product recommendations make it easier to find the products they are most interested in (59%) and provide a valuable service (53%).
In addition, more than one-half of consumers say website recommendations (55%) and emails (54%) personalized based on their past browsing and shopping behavior are "desirable to receive."
Willingness to Share Data
Overall, consumers understand why retailers collect personal information and most are willing to share information with retailers if they gain something in return:
- 54% say they accept and acknowledge that retailers are collecting information about their online behavior in order to provide a more personalized experience on their website.
- 54% say they're willing to share information to expedite their shopping experience.
- 51% say they’re willing to share data to receive a better shopping experience.
Abandoning Websites
Given the right product at the right price, consumers become "confident and ready" to buy.
However, many say when they leave websites without purchasing it is most often because they were "still in the research process" (44%) or found it "hard to browse for the products" (33%).
When consumers do abandon websites, among the sites they head to are Amazon (60%) and search engines (42%).
About the data: Findings are based on a survey of 1,108 consumers who shopped online four or more times in the previous year, spending $250 or more; it was conducted by e-tailing group with MyBuys in December 2012.
