75+ ecommerce personalization stats you need to know for 2022

Ecommerce and personalization are being talked about these days like they're peanut butter and jelly. In short, they go together - and one without the other isn't really worth your time.

The amazing thing about personalization is how well it aligns with some of the most pressing concerns retailers say they're facing today. According to Deloitte, a study of retail investment priorities for 2021 had digital acceleration as the top priority, with 88% of respondents stating they were making moderate to major investments in the past year. The good news is the digital space is where personalization thrives. Wondering what is the definition of ecommerce personalization? It can vary, but typical aspects include:

• Data-driven recommendations
• Content or image customization
• Tailored pop-up offers
• Loyalty program offers
• Email personalization
• Omni-channel synchronization

Keep reading to check out our collection of over 75+ personalization stats. Where possible, we've curated as many of these insights and stats as possible to be linked to post-pandemic studies and results (2020 and more recent), giving you the most current picture of why personalization matters.

Personalization is being actively asked for by consumers

If you think personalization is a 'nice to have' or something only big brands are splurging on, think again. In reality, consumers are well aware that personalization exists, and they value brands that are delivering a tailored experience.

More and more, consumers are stating they not only want a tailored experience, but they expect one. You can start as small as simply integrating product recommendations. But there are many other approaches to personalization that can further customize the shopping experience and meet customer demands.

84% of consumers say being treated like a person, rather than a number, is very important to earning their business. - Salesforce

72% of consumers say they'll only engage with marketing messages tailored to their interests. - SmarterHQ

77% of shoppers want a more personalized customer experience. - Netcore

79% of consumers say they're only likely to engage with an offer if it has been personalized to reflect previous interactions they've had with the brand. - Instapage

52% of customers expect offers to always be personalized - up from 49% in 2019. - Salesforce

65% of consumers say personalized offers and promotions are most important to them in their shopping experience. - Oracle

66% of customers expect companies to understand their unique needs and expectations. But only 32% of retail executives say they have the ability to turn data into personalized prices, offers, and products in real time. - Salesforce

42% of consumers say seeing personalized content is of high importance to them. - Adobe

74% of Gen Zers are interested in personalized products compared to 67% Millennials, 61% Gen Xers and 57% Baby Boomers. - Salesforce

52% of global consumers want personalized offers based on personal data from their store loyalty account. - Oracle

67% of shoppers are willing to exchange personal information such as their birthday for tailored rewards. - Salesforce

Only 16% of consumers say they 'never' view additional recommendations provided by a store. - Adobe

38% of consumers intend to do more shopping online and visit stores that provide great experiences. - Harvard Business Review

91% of shoppers would abandon an online retailer over a poor shopping experience. - Netcore

2 out of 3 consumers are willing to share their location with an app to be informed about events or deals, or when near a store. - Adobe

50% of shoppers want real-time offers online depending on what they're browsing at that moment. - Oracle

31% of consumers say they wish their shopping experience was far more personalized than it currently is. - Instapage

Personalization helps build stronger customer relationships

One of the biggest positive outcomes of having a personalized shopping experience is boosting customer retention. Ask any marketer and they'll tell you retention is a metric that's becoming increasingly important in the face of steep acquisition costs. Acquisition is further challenged by moves made by tech giants such as Google and Apple, that are making it harder to find and target the right audiences to shop with your brand.  

As these stats show, demonstrating you know a bit about who a customer is and speeding up the time to value on both initial and subsequent visits can make all the difference in how long and how often that person shops with you.

98% of marketers say having personalization advances their customer relationships. - Evergage

55% of consumers say having products that are relevant to me is the #1 thing they like about receiving email marketing offers. - LiveClicker

80% of shoppers say they're more likely to buy from a company that offers personalized experiences. - Instapage

31% of consumers find great value in services that automatically learn about their needs to personalize recommendations. - Accenture

77% of consumers have chosen, recommended, or paid more for a brand that provides a personalized service or experience. - Instapage

44% of shoppers say they become more loyal to a retailer that provides personalization. - Netcore

Shoppers who believe companies are doing very well on offering personalized experiences shop more than 3x more frequently. - Epsilon

43% of organizations with extensive personalization see significantly greater retention improvements from personalization. - Adobe

75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, OR knows their purchase history. - Instapage

28% of shoppers say personalization makes them more likely to purchase a product they didn't intend to buy, while 26% say it may lead them to buy something more expensive than originally planned. - Netcore

44% of consumers say that they will likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience with a company. - Instapage

52% of brands believe their best bet at competing with Amazon is delivering a more relevant and enriching customer experience. - LiveClicker

Personalization has a measurable impact on your bottom line

Retention isn't always the most straightforward performance metric to keep track of, but revenue certainly is. Personalization has been proven time and again to drive more revenue, whether it's by boosting conversion rates, increasing AOV (average order value), or encouraging repeat purchases. As you might expect, the more effort put into personalization, the greater results you see - at least that's the pattern presented in these riveting revenue-driven stats.

79% of organizations that exceeded revenue goals have a documented personalization strategy. - Instapage

88% of companies see a measurable lift in business results from personalization. - Aberdeen

8x ROI on marketing spend + a sales lift of 10% is reported by brands with well-executed hyper-personalization. - Deloitte

98% of retailers with personalization see an increase of AOV and 97% see an increase in revenue per user. - Netcore

9 out of 10 marketers report returns of at least $1-2 for every dollar spent on personalization, with 43% receiving at least $6 in return per dollar spent. - Adobe

30% uplift is possible for those who invest in effective personalization. - Gartner

7 out of 10 retailers who have invested in personalizing their CX have seen an ROI of at least 4x. - Netcore

92% of shoppers have been influenced to buy from personalized shopping cart recommendations. - Instapage

$756 billion in lost revenue each year can be attributed to a lack of trust and poor personalization. - Accenture

17% more revenue is achieved by brands who adopt advanced personalization techniques. - LiveClicker

49% of organizations with extensive personalization see significantly greater revenue improvements from personalization. - Adobe

A 6% to 10% growth rate is what companies who master personalization can expect to see. - BCG

45% conversion rate reported by brands who have invested in personalization, along with a cart abandonment rate of 46%. Meanwhile, 63% of retailers could not bring cart abandonment rates to below 50% pre-personalization. - Netcore

3 in 5 retailers are seeing an AOV jump by 10% or more post-personalization. - Netcore

94% of organizations with extensive personalization believe their personalization distinguishes them from competitors. - Adobe

80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalized experiences. - Epsilon

Moving from basic to advanced personalization tactics could generate an extra $20 for every $1 spent. - LiveClicker

Personalization is still a growing area for businesses to focus on and improve

So far we've spotlighted how personalization is in high demand by consumers, and can drive better retention rates while boosting sales, ultimately growing your business. But personalization is far from perfected in ecommerce. See how you stack up against the rest of the industry by reviewing these stats. If you're lagging, use this as an opportunity to play catch up. Feel like you're on par? Why not push things even further to stay ahead of what's about to become status quo.

27% of companies are fully satisfied with their ability to deliver truly personalized customer experiences using data collected across digital channels. - Aberdeen

96% of retailers have encountered some challenges to their personalization efforts, including IT bandwidth, identifying the right partner, and difficulties aligning internal teams. -Netcore

Only 3 in 10 retail executives rated themselves as having mature capabilities within digital. - Deloitte

Only 6 in 10 organizations feel they have extensive personalization. - Adobe

Only 39% of retailers send personalized product recommendations via email.

41% of retail executives say their ecommerce platform is somewhat personalized at best, while 13% say they provide a completely personalized experience. - Netcore

86% of retail marketers use personalization, but most have not adopted sophisticated personalization. - LiveClicker

Only 3% of brands are spending more than $5M per year on personalization, with most spending between $250,000 and $700,000. - LiveClicker

95% of organizations are maintaining or increasing their personalization budgets over the next five years. - Adobe

74% of marketers think personalization should be a bigger priority in their organization. - Evergage

62% of retailers claim to have improved their personalized shopping experience, but 45% of shoppers have not seen any improvements. - Netcore

33% of organizations are spending more than half of their digital marketing budget on personalization. - Adobe

1/3rd of marketers answered 'personalization' when asked to prioritize one capability that will be most important to marketing in the future. - Instapage

Personalization is being leveraged at scale with AI and machine learning

If personalization has proven results, why isn't everyone doing it? Some of the most frequently cited reasons include budgets, lack of internal coordination, or lack of resources to implement. But personalization doesn't have to require a ton of heavy lifting. In fact, to function properly at scale, it can't. Enter AI (artificial intelligence). AI has the power to interpret the signals each shopper is sending to provide a tailored experience; one you can have a little, or a lot of control over.

Here are some helpful insights on how marketers and ecommerce digital managers are implementing AI to improve their personalization.

46% of marketers use machine learning for personalization, a 186% increase from 2018. - Salesforce

59% of organizations worldwide have already deployed AI, and they expect to double the amount of projects in place in the next year. - Gartner

Smart personalization engines used to recognize customer intent will enable digital businesses to increase their profits by up to 15%. - Instapage

Only 51% of all retailers are using customers' real-time behavioral data for personalization. - Netcore

77% of marketers believe they've had a somewhat significant increase to useful data over the past year but only 49% of respondents reported being somewhat or very effective at using data-informed insights to drive future strategy. - Invesp

$348B expected to be saved annually by retailers' use of AI in 2022. - Retail Dive

1 in 4 shoppers are more likely to abandon their cart if offers are not relevant to them. - Netcore

2.7 zettabytes of data exists in our digital universe, but only 0.5% of available data is being analyzed. - NodeGraph

80% of marketers who have invested in personalization might abandon their efforts by 2025 due to failing to manage customer data properly. - Medium

60% of customers are open to the use of AI to improve experiences. - Salesforce

25% of marketing departments will have a dedicated behavioral scientist by the end of 2022. - Medium

Personalization is desired, but privacy is still a concern

We all know you can't have it all, but what do you do when fickle consumers demand as much? That's exactly the case when it comes to the privacy and personalization conundrum. Shoppers love the idea of spending less time browsing aimlessly and more time being shown things they love, but a heartbeat later they may tell you they find it 'creepy' to be served up an ad, email, or offer for cat food after buying cat products from a store.

So what is a brand to do? The short answer is, as it often is, to drive significant value. Your promotions, pricing, and recommendations need to be spot on and noticeably enhance the customer experience for a shopper to be willing to flip the script on their privacy concerns. If you make good use of their data, a shopper will quite simply be more willing to part with their data.

Just 43% of consumers have said they're willing to share personal information with their favorite retailer, with 31% saying they'll share it for personalized recommendations. - Retail Dive

61% of consumers fell like they've lost control over how their personal information is used, up from 46% in 2019. - Salesforce

22% of customers are happy to share some data in return for a more personalized product. - Deloitte

86% of consumers are concerned about their data privacy, and 79% of consumers believe companies know too much about them. - SmarterHQ

Only 5% of consumers ranked the retail industry as a top-three industry for data privacy, compared with 63% for banks. - Deloitte

40% of consumers say it can feel 'slightly creepy' when technology starts to correctly interpret and anticipate their needs. - Accenture

37.5% of customers are more likely to stop doing with a business upon receipt of 'creepy' communications versus 'irrelevant' ones. - Gartner

Some consumers tend to trust big-box retailers (40%) with their personal data more than etailers (36%) and local small businesses (22%).  - Generali Global Assistance

49% of consumers only fill in what's required when sharing personal information. - Adobe

47% of consumers agree that most companies don't use personal information for theLouis Vitton customer's benefit - down from 54% in 2019. - Salesforce

92% of consumers say it is extremely important that companies protect the privacy of their personal information. - Adobe

86% of consumers want more transparency over how their personal information is used. - Salesforce

50% of people would be attracted to personalized offers based on loyalty data, purchase data, or real-time browsing data, whereas 29% would find offers based on social media data 'creepy'. - Oracle

Step up your personalization strategy in 2022

When is a buzzword no longer a buzzword? When it becomes a requirement, not a request - at least in our books. That's increasingly becoming the case with personalization, as demonstrated in this roundup of ecommerce personalization stats. If you're ready to advance your personalization approach in 2022, LimeSpot can help. Our personalization suite combines recommendations, custom site content, email, and more to turn shoppers into buyers. Contact us to book a demo or get started for free on your own.

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