Sailthru, the leading cross-channel experience management platform for the world's top retail and media companies, today announces the debut of its first annual Retail Personalization Index, a ranking of 100 top retail brands according to how well they personalize the customer experience.
The Retail Personalization Index was created to quantify how leading retailers are personalizing their customer experience; to determine gaps in the approach to personalization used by top retailers; and to examine the relationship between a personalized experience, customer satisfaction, and retention to drive revenue, reduce customer churn, and optimize engagement.
"The vast majority of the top 25 brands are growing revenues year on year, reinforcing the value of a personalized digital experience for customers as a prudent business strategy," said Neil Lustig, CEO, Sailthru. "What's even more telling about the value of personalization is that brands in the midst of executing turnaround strategies are rapidly evolving their customer experience to once again gain traction in the market."
Three key takeaways for retailers from the Personalization Index
Customer experience and personalization are inseparable; a high quality customer experience is one that is personalized, and a personalized experience likely to be high quality.
Size and scale are not necessary to execute and produce results; retailers should focus their personalization strategy on what makes them – and their buyers – unique.
Even the top brands in the study failed to score over 79 out of a possible 100; to provide a better customer experience, brands should focus on strengthening their experience across all of their customer touch points, not just on one channel.
Sailthru created the Retail Personalization Index in response to market feedback from retailers seeking a better understanding of what personalization is and which brands are taking innovative approaches. Scores were awarded on a scale of 0-100. Sephora earned highest honors on the index with a score of 79, followed by the top five brands JustFab, scoring 72, Walmart, scoring 69, Net-a-Porter, scoring 64, and Ebay, Nordstrom, and REI, all scoring 62.
Data for the Retail Personalization Index
"For a brand to achieve the highest possible score, a customer would have to find its omnichannel experience seamless - meaning no matter how they interacted with a brand, be it on mobile, desktop, email, in store, the experience would need to be fluid and comprehensive," said Jason Grunberg, Vice President of Marketing, Sailthru. "While many retailers tout omnichannel initiatives, our research proves that very few are close to meeting consumer expectations."
Research on the Personalization Index was conducted between April and August 2017 and scored 100 retail brands, as selected by Sailthru, on how they personalize the customer experience. Additionally, Sailthru fielded a survey of over 13,000 US and UK customers for each retailer (having shopped at one or more of the 100 retailers in the past 12 months) to quantify how those customers felt about the brand and their experience.
