E-Commerce Personalization: 5 Tips for Boosting Sales and Loyalty

Kate Pauline Galagnara - Writer for Tolstoy
By Kate Pauline Galagnara
Nevena Radulović - Tolstoy Editor
Edited by Nevena Radulović

Published May 7, 2023.

Close-up of a man using a laptop and holding a card while shopping in an e-commerce store

With the e-commerce industry growing at rapid pace, personalizing your customer experience is the key to thriving in its competitive world. It can make all the difference between a successful sale and a missed opportunity.

By leveraging the power of personalization, online stores can do more to cater to their customers and encourage customer loyalty, ultimately boosting sales as well. Check out the ways you can incorporate more personalization in your e-commerce store.

1. Personalize the Homepage

Creating a personalized homepage is one of the best ways to promote your business online and make your customers feel like valued members of your brand. With the use of cookies, you can gather information about your customers' past interactions and interests and use it to create a more tailored experience on your homepage.

An easy yet effective way to achieve this is by incorporating recommendations in the form of product videos that match your customers' general interests. By customizing the user experience from the get-go, you can make sure your customers feel appreciated as soon as they visit your store and increase the possibility of conversions.

One example of a website that does this well is Netflix, which uses personalized videos on their homepage to make sure users see the content tailored to their preferences.

» Here's how to add videos to your Shopify homepage

2. Personalize Product Recommendations

Product recommendations are an important part of the e-commerce experience because they can help customers find the products they need more easily. When choosing recommendations, consider incorporating the following for the best results:

  • Different types of filtering
  • Location-specific products
  • Seasonal items

For the highest level of personalization, you can use videos to show your customers exactly how their recommended product works, what features it has, and why it may be the perfect choice for them. By creating personalized product explainer videos, you can help your customers learn more about the product before purchasing, building customer trust and leading to more sales.

» Learn more about shoppable videos in e-commerce

3. Offer Personalized Discounts and Deals

It's no secret that everyone loves a good deal, so personalizing discounts and deals for your customers is a great way to boost sales and loyalty while reducing your cart abandonment and bounce rates.

Cart abandonment occurs when visitors start the checkout process but then leave before completing the purchase. On the other hand, bounce rates are when visitors land on your website but then leave quickly without engaging with any content.

Offering personalized discounts and deals can help win back abandoning visitors and encourage them to make a purchase by incentivizing them with additional savings. You can also re-capture visitors who are about to leave by setting up a personalized discount offer to appear on their way out to get their attention.

Try Upselling & Cross-Selling

Personalized discounts and deals are especially suitable for incorporating upselling and cross-selling.

Upselling means offering an upgraded version of the product the customer has purchased in the past or is interested in. Meanwhile, cross-selling is when you suggest additional products that complement the item the customer is purchasing.

Both strategies are a great way to expand your customers' knowledge of what your business has to offer and increase the average sale size. However, make sure your offers are reasonably priced and non-intrusive to increase your chances of conversions.

» Looking for ways to drive conversions? Try these e-commerce strategies to scale your business

4. Send Personalized Emails

Email-marketing campaigns can be a powerful tool to engage with your customers, boost loyalty, and increase conversion rates. However, the key to success with email-marketing campaigns is adding personal touches to your emails.

For instance, you can include customer names or customize messages based on their preferences and past purchases to create more impactful experiences. You can use these emails to encourage customers to act on their abandoned shopping carts or to offer personalized discounts and deals.

» Need help? Learn how to create interactive email campaigns

5. Offer Personalized Customer Support

Good customer support is essential for any successful business, especially in the e-commerce space. Customers are more likely to come back and recommend your services if they had a pleasant experience with your store. That's why it's important to offer personalized customer support, allowing your customers to feel they're getting individual attention.

To up the level of personalization of your customer support, consider replacing standard chat bots with interactive video chat bots to give your customers a heightened sense of agency and familiarity. This can go a long way in building loyalty among your customer base and give them a good impression of your brand.

Make Every Customer Feel Like a VIP With Personalization

Your customers are invaluable to your e-commerce business, and providing them with a personalized experience is one of the best ways to show how much you value them. Personalization can create a more meaningful connection between your business and your customers by making each customer feel like a VIP.

By personalizing your e-commerce store's product recommendations, discounts, email content, and customer support, you can improve the customer experience and increase loyalty, ultimately boosting sales as well.