Where Everybody Knows Your Name: AgilOne Survey Shows Consumers Want Personalized Customer Experiences

online shopping customer engagementJust because online shoppers make purchases in front of a screen doesn’t mean they don’t want a personalized customer experience.

According to AgilOne’s survey that examined the kinds of personalization customers in the U.S. and U.K. expect and appreciate, most shoppers on both sides of the Atlantic want brands to connect with them on personal levels. But they differ on is whether that’s a refill reminder or an alert about a new product.

AgilOne, the predictive marketing cloud company based in Mountain View, CA, hired retail research agency Conlumino to conduct the study that measured the behaviors of more than 3,000 adult online shoppers. It sought to understand what shoppers believe brands should know about them and what types of personalized customer experiences they prefer.

While almost three quarters of those surveyed wanted personalized messaging, there was great variance from the shoppers when it came to the types of engagement and personalized experience they wanted. Besides customer loyalty programs and personalized discounts, popular with almost all participants, most differed on other areas of personalization they expect. Age, location, and gender played a part in the differentiation.

Dominique Levin, CMO of AgilOne, agrees and said the time is right for online retailers, especially, to look more closely at customer segmentation to develop long term relationships.

“Retailers historically have focused more on acquisition of more customers through a drug called discounts and that’s a hard habit to break,” she told Loyalty360. “Now they’re asking, ‘Who are our best customers?’ and then setting out to acquire more customers like that. There’s now a strong paradigm shift to focus on delivering better customer experiences and developing long term relationships.” 

Survey Takeaway: Hyper-targeting Is Crucial 

Results of the survey show that customization is paramount to customer engagement and brand loyalty.

  • Millennials are the largest demographic that want a customized brand experience. In fact, 52% of Millennials surveyed said brands should remember their birthday.
  • More than half of shoppers in the U.S. and U.K. think ecommerce sites should remember their past purchases.
  • U.S. online shoppers are most likely to prefer emails for discounts on items they previously viewed, alerts about sales, and VIP customer appreciation rewards.
  • Email retargeting works better than web-based retargeting. 66% of U.S. customers and 57% of U.K. customers prefer email retargeting. Only 24% of customers in the U.S. and 17% in the U.K. welcome display advertising.
  • U.S. shoppers expect brands to offer personalized experiences more than U.K. shoppers. In the U.S., about half of the consumers surveyed expect a new customer welcome.

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