Amazon sets the standard for retailers in offering a personalised experience for its customers, according to a study launched today by personalised discovery platform company, BloomReach. The research, conducted by RedShift Research, highlights the growing technology gap between the retailing giant and the rest of the e-commerce landscape.
UK marketers greatly underestimate the importance of personalisation to UK consumers. The study was commissioned as BloomReach, a company whose big data applications adapt consumer shopping experiences to ensure businesses deliver their most relevant content to each visitor across channels, launches in the UK.
Raj De Datta, co-founder and CEO of BloomReach said: “There is clearly a gap between what UK consumers are looking for in an online experience and what UK retail brands think consumers are looking for. Amazon has raised the bar in customer experience and the challenge is for retailers across the world to try to match that.
The good news is that consumers are more open to competitor brands, placing little value in brand reputation but a lot of importance in the experience. Marketers need to recognise that brand reputation is not as important as they think it is and focus more on improving customer experience.”
The 2014 Consumer and Marketer Personalisation Study from BloomReach explores UK consumer and industry attitudes toward online personalisation features such as product recommendations, intuitive search results, relevant content and ease of navigation. The study sampled 1,000 UK consumers and 122 UK online retailers. Highlights include:
Amazon leads the way while other online retailers underestimate the importance of online experience to consumers
- 82 percent of UK consumers said that no company offers the same levels of web-personalisation as Amazon
- 34 percent of retailers said they thought that brand reputation was the most important factor when consumers choose a retailer and just 2 percent thought that personalised shopping experience was an important factor
- However, 31 percent of consumers said they would be more likely to make purchases if they were offered personalised experiences such as product recommendations or tailored content and 85 percent said brand reputation was not an important factor
- 59 percent of consumers believe that online experiences are more unique to their needs; however, 80 percent of retail marketers disagreed with this, saying that online could not offer a more personal experience.
Download the BloomReach Infographic 'The Great Divide'
Source: BloomReach
