Extreme personalization is a big challenge to any online merchant and at the same time it is the essential marketing differentiator that can bring big bucks to the table. Personalization is often envisioned as a static concept, e.g. cosmetic personalization of a web page. In reality, though personalization is a concept that touches every aspect of ecommerce and could be the real gap between success and failure.

I would like to think of personalization in terms of a narrative that starts with the customer visiting the site.  The personalization paradigm then follows the customer through his travails and does not leave him/her, even when she/he leaves and visits another site – much like the ultra-persistent sales man, who leaves no stone unturned to convert a prospect to a sale.

Customer visits site…

The customer could come through a social network site or through a partner site. Can we conceive of a personalized user experience that could best fit a visitor from such a source? Maybe the retail merchant has a special offering for teens and would like to encourage young customers from social sites, which can serve as the medium for spreading the word. So right when the customer lands on the site, we start our personalization story.

Customer lands…

Let us assume that the e-retailer carries multiple brands and he would like to provide a custom look and feel for some of the more popular or better known brands. Alternatively, the retailer could offer separate suite of products, based on gender and would like to offer a look and feel consistent with the gender, maybe creating a second home page or a sub-home page.

Or the customer lands from clicking on the banner of one of the partner sites. Such a customer has obviously expressed special interest and you would want to provide a experience that allows you to close in quickly and complete the sale. Landing creates the first impression and you would like to put your best foot forward, by ensuring that the landing page speaks to the interest of the user.

Customer browses…   

The user visits different pages and expresses interest in different products and services. Can we understand the user’s behavior at the site and fashion a set of recommendations that speaks to his interests as assessed from his/her current behavior, past behavior and profile. Besides browsing, the user could also search for items and this provides an opportunity to tailor the results of the search based on his/her profile and behavior in a manner that best promotes sale.

Customer targets a product…

Now the user has zeroed in on a product. If the retailer offers personalized products, then there is potential for the website to provide options to the customer, so that the customer can take personalization into his/her own hands and build his/her own customized product. Taking it further, retail merchants could provide for bundled offerings at the product level and the customer can mix and match different product parameters to arrive at his/her own custom bundle. This is a real window of opportunity to let the customer feel that he/she is in control of the total shopping experience and promote a sense of ownership that may encourage repeat visits.

Customer’s shopping cart is ready…

The customer has identified the items he/she would like to purchase, but is still away from final commitment and may be amenable to suggestions. So far our personalization story has been reactive, in the sense that we have advantageously reacted to the customer’s implicitly or explicitly expressed interest. But now that the customer has completed his/her exploration, this could be the time for some proactive cross sell, based on what is in the shopping cart.

Customer checks out…

This is one stage, where personalization is at a minimum, primarily because you do not want to confuse issues, when the customer is about to close sale. Some merchants do consider cross-sell at this stage also, but it may not be a good idea to create uncertainties at this stage when the customer has made up his mind. There could be a hint of personalization with the payment mode, but that may not buy much in terms of selling propensity.

Customer visits Partner site

Now is when we show a high level of persistence and stalk the customer with our personalization agenda. During his session at the merchant’s website, he/she has expressed specific inclinations and we now communicate these inclinations to our partners, who have been pre-advised on what to display, based on these inclinations. So when the customer visits these partner sites, the personalization story continues and he/she is shown again what the merchant feels would gain traction.

Personalization is not a one-off exercise but a continuum that exists through the lifecycle of a web session and even thereafter. Most e-commerce platforms have some pretensions to personalization and no doubt there is some address of the subject. But in our experience, merchants require much more than what these platforms can offer out-of-the-box. Again the platform by itself cannot do the trick, it has to be accompanied with savvy initiatives for business enablement.

Object Edge has a total rollout capability to implement ecommerce platforms, and is an implementation partner for ATG. Our offerings including a number of accelerators that provides the bridge between the normal ecommerce platform and what the merchant requires. OE also offers a number of plug-in’s that enable easy integration with service providers, such as Paypal, Gigya, and ExactTarget etc. OE combines this technology offering with Ecommerce Advisory Services that support business enablement ideation and initiatives.

For further details, please contact bizdev@objectedge.com or contact us here.