In order for ecommerce companies to maximize revenues, it's imperative to personalize the experience for each customer. Maia Haag provides strategies and tips for segmenting your customers and providing timely and relevant content.

1. 11
Personalizing the eRetail Experience

2. 22

3. Why personalize the experience for each customer?
33
Fewer
bounces
Increase
engagement
Higher
conversion
Satisfied
customer
s Increase
revenues

4. 4
What are the key elements?
Segment your
audience
Develop relevant
and timely content

5. How to segment your customers?
5
Use 3rd parties for
demographic data
• Google Analytics,
Quantcast, Facebook
Insights
Analyze your
customer database
• What segments exist
within your
database?
Dynamically
segment
• Geo-segment by IP
address
• In real-time, using
software that tracks
what they view
and click on
• According to what
they put into their
cart Focus groups for
psychographic data
• What motivates them?
• What do they value about your
brand & products?

6. 6
Examples of segments you might develop
6
Lemon drops oat cake oat
cake sugar plum sweet
gingerbread chocolate
cake gingerbread.
Portfolio Five
Relationship
of
purchaser
to recipient
New vs Repeat
Visitors
Where they
live
Which products
they buy
Time of Year
when they buy
Use coupon
codes or
not
Purchasing
occasion or
purpose
Frequent or
occasional
purchasers

7. How I See Me! is analyzing our customers
77
Do they have a
higher frequency
or higher AOV than
other groups?
• We’re dividing our customer base into 5 bands, according to the revenues they generated in prior
• Analyzing the top group relative to the other groups, to find out...
Do they tend to
come from one
part of the
country? More
urban?
Are they
grandparents? Or
businesses buying
for clients?
both/ neither?
Are they more or
less likely to
respond to
promotions than
other groups?
Are they more
likely to buy our
new products than
others? Or certain
product lines?

8. Where should you deliver timely and relevant content?
88
Website
• Landing pages
• Dynamic
content
• Wishlists
• Product
recommendatio
ns
• Customer
feedback
Emails
• Transactional
• Automated
• Promotional
campaigns
Phone and chat
• Personal
greeting
• Order history
Social Media
• Right channel
• Right language
• Right imagery
Ad Networks
• Remarketing—
remind them of
the products
they’ve viewed
or put into their
cart

9. How I See Me! is doing this on our website
99
We display a “Welcome Modal” for new visitors…
Previously, we sent the same series of
“Welcome” emails to all new visitors

10. Ask for:
• First name
• Email
• Relationship to recipient:
• Parent
• Grandparent
• Other relative
• Family Friend
Parent welcome email
Grandparent welcome email
Aunt & Uncle welcome email
Generic email if we don’t
know the relationship
Family friend welcome email
10
Now we are segmenting our welcome emails
Pop-up
Modal

11. Gifts for babies
Gifts for girls
Generic email if we don’t know
Gifts for boys
11
Second welcome email is tailored to what they viewed after first email
What they
clicked
Second welcome email focuses on:

12. Gifts for babies
Gifts for girls
Home page if we don’t knowGifts for boys
12
…and the emails go to the respective landing pages

13. I See Me! provides a personalized shopping experience
1313
Customers can preview their book online
with the child’s own information before
ordering

14. My Account feature captures order history, shipping addresses
1414

15. What’s next for our website? Geo-targeting
1515
• We’ll use the visitor’s IP address to identify the visitor’s location,
and default to our US or UK website
• Visitor will also be able to switch manually to the other language/currency

16. What else is next? Dynamic content on home page
1616
Home page will look different for different visitors...different visuals, messaging, prod
• Evaluating various software providers
evergage
Reflektion
Baynote

17. Also in our plans: Dynamically updating product images
1717
Once you give us the child’s first name, all the book covers will automatically update
On category pages, shopping cart page, and order confirmation page to encourage another order

18. Transactional emails: Order confirmation, shipping
confirmation
1818
Where we are going
• Add product recommendations,
already personalized with child’s
name
• When customer clicks on the
product, part of the order form will
already be completed
Today
• Friendly emails
from an individual
in customer service

19. Automated emails triggered by an event
1919
Where we are going
• Add product recommendations,
already personalized with child’s
name
Today
• Birthday reminder emails
• Reward emails after first purchase
• Requests to review us after 2nd
purchase
• If you buy one title in our “My Very
Own” series, we’ll promote the
whole series
• Shopping cart abandonment emails

20. Promotional campaign emails
2020
Where we are going
• Add product recommendations
already personalized with child’s
name
• Send VIP emails to our best
customers
• Send coupons only to those
who respond to coupons
• Send customers to landing
pages based on what they click
Today
• Segmented our list into
active users, lapsed users
• Segmented our list for
“Grandparents Day”
• Segmented our list for
“National Aunts/Uncles
Day”

21. Social media: We encourage feedback right after the purchase
2121
My Very Own Pirate Tale
StorybookWhat do you love about your
purchase?

22. Shopper writes a comment and she can share it on Facebook
2222
My Very Own Pirate Tale
Storybook
A personalized book just for
mister cutie pie! It’s sooooo cute!

23. Shoppers’ comments show up on Product Description pages
2323Genuine social testimonials add a human element and increase
conversion

24. Social media
2424
Where we are going
• Use our knowledge of our
customers’ psychographics to
tailor our language and images
• Use video live streaming to
interact directly with Facebook
fans
• Make it easy for customers to
post photos on our site
• Involve our customers in certain
aspects of our new product
development
Today
• Personal response from a
company representative
to each post
• Focused on engagement

25. Ad Networks
2525
Where we are going
• Facebook: Create custom
audiences for prospecting based
on email list
• Search: Use geotargeting to
reach UK customers
• Once we know more about the
top 20% of our customers,
evaluate which social media
channels they use and whether
we should shift our spending
Today
• Retargeting with display ads
• Retargeting in search ads: Tailor
keyword bids and ad text for
people who have been browsing
our site
• Facebook ads: Segment audiences
based on demographics,

26. In summary, what can you do without expensive software?
2626
Analyze your customer base
Who are the top 20% of your customers? What distinguishes
them?
Conduct focus groups
What do your customers value about your brand? What
motivates them?
Segment your
audience
Use free 3rd party data
Use Google Analytics, Quantcast, Facebook Insights to learn
about your customers
From this, develop customer persona(s) representing your customer types

27. What can you do without expensive software?
2727
Develop landing pages for each customer
persona
Develop relevant
content
Create separate email campaigns for each persona
Tailor product recommendations and messaging based on the
needs of each persona; use rules if not software
Define trigger points for sending automated emails to each
persona
Identify which social media channel is frequented the most by
each persona

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