The key aspects in e-Commerce: Personalization & Omnichannel

Not a day goes by without coming across a news articleshighlighting how virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), the Internet of Things (IoT) have beentouching our lives. The shopping experience of customers has also seen a dramatic transformation in lieu of these trends and expected to further revolutionise.

The divergence between what's catching consumers’ attention, what's catching the media’s interest and the factors affecting these is what’s really making a difference in modern retailing. Gartner’s latest reporton “What’s Hot in Digital Commerce 2017,”looks at the hottest digital commerce topics and products sparking conversations in the context of what will realistically transform the industry as early as 2020.

The Power and Importance of Personalization

Personalisation has always been a key aspect of retail, with the constant changes in technology and consumers shopping medium the way in whichpersonalization is delivered has also been evolving.

A personalization engine acts as every customer’s favorite local shopkeeper across the multiple touchpoints of the modern shopping journey. It identifies the optimum experience for an individual, based on what is known about the customer. It can tailor the experience in real time, help anticipate consumer demands and behaviors, alter the online presentation layer or trigger a useful suggestion.

With the right knowledge in place, you can start to apply it where it matters. Multiple devices and channels are now the norms when browsing and buying. The top retailers in Southeast Asia grew mobile sales by 37 percent year-over-year to now capture 54 percent of all eCommerce transactions. More than 80 percent of mobile transactions took place on a smartphone significantly more than the US and UK, where at least 30 percent of retail mobile transactions take place on tablets. Delivering a truly personal experience requires a seamless customer’s experience across all touchpoints.

As a personalized eCommerce experience weaves its way into your customers’ expectations, it becomes more important to include it in the strategy. With the knowledge of different personalization options now accessible to smaller eCommerce businesses, there’s no reason not to begin experimenting with personalization

The Omnichannel and its Importance

Omni-channel retail is a modern approach to commerce that focuses on designing a cohesive user experience for customers at every touchpoint.The idea is to keep customers moving within the brand ecosystem, with each channel working in sync to create more sales and engagement.

The new trend that has emerged is customers tend to be looking for information in the physical store and at the same time, they are getting additional information from their mobile devices about offers and possibly better prices.Several features, like size charts, easy return policy,and same-day delivery, have boosted ecommerce and promoted omnichannel shopping.

To pull off a successful omnichannel strategy, a retail store needs to determine the key tasks or actions that customers perform throughout the shopping experience, and then let them accomplish those tasks across multiple channels.

It is notpurely about selling across many channels, it’s also about letting the customer have the freedom of customizing their shopping processin terms of devices or platforms they use.

(The Author is Siddharth Dabhade, General Manager of Criteo India)