[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/05\/03\/personalization-done-right\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/05\/03\/personalization-done-right\/","headline":"Don’t creep on your customers: Personalization done right","name":"Don’t creep on your customers: Personalization done right","description":"We all love a great shopping experience but when targeted offers invade our personal space, a once cool shopping experience can suddenly turn creepy:\u00a0How did they know that about me? Blame it on the challenges of finding a balance in today\u2019s digital economy. In 2016, a staggering 49 percent of all U.S. retail sales will […]","datePublished":"2016-05-03","dateModified":"2024-10-30","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/tim-clark\/#Person","name":"Tim Clark","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/contributor\/tim-clark\/","identifier":163,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b6d2feb9089a1f4f5d1d487aed92857c1fe6a89802a1faac715204973c5511b7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b6d2feb9089a1f4f5d1d487aed92857c1fe6a89802a1faac715204973c5511b7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Future of Commerce","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/logo-foc-schema-app-1.png","width":172,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/thumbnail-4d2f18c2506f605502a1362199ffccb6.png","url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/thumbnail-4d2f18c2506f605502a1362199ffccb6.png","height":370,"width":1200},"url":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/05\/03\/personalization-done-right\/","about":[{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/customer-engagement-marketing\/","name":"Customer Engagement","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Customer_engagement","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q5196451"]},{"@type":"Thing","@id":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/marketing\/","name":"Marketing","sameAs":["https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Marketing","http:\/\/www.wikidata.org\/entity\/Q39809"]}],"wordCount":679,"keywords":["Customer Engagement","Personalization","Retail","Shopping"],"articleBody":"We all love a great shopping experience but when targeted offers invade our personal space, a once cool shopping experience can suddenly turn creepy:\u00a0How did they know that about me?Blame it on the challenges of finding a balance in today\u2019s digital economy. In 2016, a staggering 49 percent of all U.S. retail sales will occur online, and 38 percent of in-store sales will be web-influenced, which makes it harder to create meaningful interactions to well-informed consumers. Thankfully, there are ways to use technology and data more effectively to create the \u201cmagical moments\u201d that creates brand loyalty.To remain competitive in this era of the empowered consumer, brands should make personalization the number one digital priority, according to\u00a0Brendan Witcher, an analyst with Forrester Research, who presented the session \u201cHow Data and Technology are Re-defining Personalization\u201d at the\u00a0SAP Hybris Summit\u00a0in Munich.\u201cMost companies mistakenly believe they are delivering personalization,\u201d said Witcher. \u201cMost consumers, however, feel the opposite way.\u201d Witcher said 40 percent of consumers feel most promotions don\u2019t deliver anything of interest to them. The problem?\u201cPersonalization today is often driven by single data point segmentation,\u201d said Witcher. \u201cThe transaction with the customer must be their information, in exchange for value. The more you know about a customer, the better the personalization will be.\u201dImportance of individualizationWhile personalized interactions with customers is great, an individualization strategy ensures brands can move away from using siloed data which doesn\u2019t always provide an accurate view of the customer.\u201cWith individualization, the idea is to help the customer,\u201d said Witcher. \u201cA personalized message saying \u2018happy birthday\u2019 doesn\u2019t help the customer.\u201dUnder an Individualization strategy, customers are treated as a segment of one using rich profiles. Instead of a data set 300 columns long, for instance, it\u2019s 3,000 long with specific preferences.\u201cWhen you put all those data points together, you get a much better understanding of the customer,\u201d said Witcher. \u201cThen you can make really smart decisions about how to engage them. Individualization is about creating personal experiences across your ecosystem.\u201dAvoid the creep factorWitcher says brands need to be careful when embarking on personalization and individualization strategies by understanding and respecting personal boundaries. It\u2019s not necessary to show the customer everything, for instance, when an airline might reach out with an offer because they \u201cnoticed \u201cyou haven\u2019t traveled in awhile.\u201d\u201cAs you build these personalized experiences you need to create some rigor in your system to avoid being too creepy,\u201d said Witcher.Here are four brands that know how to avoid the creep factor:North Face\u00a0\u2013 The North Face website asks \u201cWhy are you shopping?\u201d which means North Face can deliver a better experience because they understand what you are trying to find. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to understand why when you only look at a customer based on all the products they\u2019ve bought,\u201d said Witcher.Sephora\u00a0\u2013 does a great job of taking off the e-commerce blinders to consider every part of the customer journey. By capturing in-store engagement through digital and personal experiences, they prioritize personalization to create opportunities.Starbucks \u2013\u00a0has a great mobile app and to the surprise of many of its users, it\u2019s not used to make payments. \u201cIt\u2019s a customer data capturing machine,\u201d said Witcher. How, when and where Starbucks customers buy coffee determines promotion levels. So instead of blanket e-mails and text messages, Starbucks will instead send 5% off a favorite drink, for instance.Nordstrom\u00a0\u2013 expedited their digital transformation by partnering with Shoes of Prey. \u201cIt always makes sense to leverage partnerships with digital experts,\u201d said Witcher.Hudson Bay\u00a0\u2013 is laser focused on creating great customer experiences. The company captures personal information in exchange for value, without being creepy, according to Witcher.\u201cPersonalization done right doesn\u2019t look like personalization, it looks like a great customer experience,\u201d said Witcher.  Every digital moment matters.Are you making the most of them?1,000 business leaders dish on how to stand out from the crowd with a great CX. Get the details\u00a0HERE.\u00a0This story\u00a0originally appeared in the SAP Business Trends community."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"2016","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"05","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/05\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"03","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/\/05\/\/03\/#breadcrumbitem"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":4,"name":"Don’t creep on your customers: Personalization done right","item":"https:\/\/www.the-future-of-commerce.com\/2016\/05\/03\/personalization-done-right\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]