Why Personalised Shopper Journeys Are D2C’s Secret Sauce For Success

A sleek and efficient website, a cult community of loyal shoppers and robust engagement on social media channels were the trademark qualities of a prolific D2C brand, before the pandemic. Today, with more people shopping online than ever before (2.14 Bn people are expected to buy goods & services online globally in 2021, up from 1.66 Bn in 2019), the expectations from a D2C brand have increased exponentially. 

Shoppers want nothing short of a perfect experience while shopping online. This means that when a shopper visits a brand’s website they don’t want to just see products that are relevant to them but want to tap into a highly engaging and interactive experience that is tailor-made for them. According to Hubspot, a massive 77% of customers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides a personalised customer experience. 

And the ROI of brands offering shoppers personalised experiences has been paramount: the Kibo Consumer Trends survey revealed that personalised homepage promotions influenced 85% of consumers to buy while personalised shopping cart recommendations influenced 92% of online shoppers into purchasing.

Let’s explore the three ways D2C brands can benefit from offering a personalised shopping experience:

Repeat Shoppers

44% of consumers say that they will likely become repeat buyers after a personalised shopping experience with a particular company.

Personalisation across touchpoints like push notifications, homepage, product discovery pages, emails and more creates a unique experience for every shopper. Availing personalised and joyful shopping experiences steer shoppers away from marketplaces and pushes them to shop directly from a brand’s website. 

Speaking at The D2C Summit by Inc42, Amuleek Singh Bijral, CEO at Chai Point, an Indian cafe chain that provides tea-based beverages, which recorded a revenue of around INR 1.3 Bn in 2019, said “By going native we really began understanding our customers & could personalise their journeys. And now, we have close to 69% repeat customers!”

Roadmap To The Future

79% of organisations that exceeded revenue goals have a documented personalisation strategy.

Brands like Nike have been able to exceed their expected revenue goals primarily because they created personalised experiences keeping the next generation of shoppers — Gen Z that accounts for 40% of global consumer shopping with $143 Bn in buying power – in mind. Having grown up with Netflix and Spotify, Gen Z shoppers are used to extremely individualised experiences online. 54% of Gen Z value personalised shopping experiences in growth markets, and 43% in mature markets.

Being agile and future-forward is a key requisite for every D2C brand, and the best way to check this box is to cater to Gen Z by offering them uber personalised experiences online.

The Extra Mile

81% of customers want brands to get to know them and understand when to engage with them

Think automated chatbots greeting a shopper by their first name, and guiding them through their shopper journey – or a virtual dressing room with personalised models to try clothes on online! Add-ons and interactive tools have transitioned from being mere perks to must-haves. And these tools that bring a layer of engagement give D2C brands a leg to stand on, to compete with discounts offered by marketplaces.

To get shoppers coming back for more, personalisation has to become the core of a D2C ecommerce business – however, the biggest challenges with personalisation are gaining insight quickly enough (40%), having enough data (39%), and inaccurate data (38%).

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