How to leverage personalization to grow your BigCommerce store

Personalization appears to be the new buzzword in today's ecommerce space, and for good reason. An Epsilon report revealed that 80% of consumers are more likely to shop from a business that offers personalized experiences over another that doesn't.

With ecommerce being more competitive than ever, it's imperative for store owners to employ tactics that will give them an edge over the market at large, including staying on top of emerging ecommerce trends. If you operate a BigCommerce store and you're wondering how you can leverage personalization for growth, this guide is for you.

How personalization grows BigCommerce stores

There's no overemphasizing that data collection is at the heart of any successful personalization strategy. Forward-thinking store owners need to collect as much data about their shoppers as they possibly can and, in turn, leverage this data to serve customers better. Below are a few benefits you'll derive from paying more attention to data collection and personalization in your BigCommerce store.

Improved conversion rates

As already mentioned, consumers are more inclined to shop with brands that offer personalized experiences. If you have the right data about your customers, you'll be better positioned to create high-converting email marketing campaigns and continuously update your website to show personalized recommendations to customers.

Better product recommendations

Showing your users the specific products they need when they need them is an easy way to nurture customer loyalty and increase revenue. With the right personalization strategy and automation tools, you can recommend products to your customers based on their persona and purchase history. And when your customers find your suggestions helpful, they're more likely to spend more in your store and come back to make a repeat purchase.

Personalized online shopping experiences

A few decades ago, retail brands relied on traditional differentiation approaches such as strategic promotions and unique selections. However, that has become harder to replicate than ever. Ecommerce personalization is now the most effective strategy for differentiation in your store and gaining a competitive advantage. Giving customers a unique online shopping experience can drive increases in conversion rates.

Improved loyalty programs to drive repeat purchases

Loyalty programs are an excellent way to reward your repeat customers and encourage them to spend more in your BigCommerce store. However, these programs can only have the desired impact when you gather the relevant customer data and personalize your offerings for the different customer segments.

Product recommendations can boost your store's AOV by 50% and increase revenue by up to 300%.

Source

Offer Amazon-like recommendations

Statistics from Monetate reveal that product recommendations can boost your BigCommerce store's average order value by 50% and increase revenue by up to 300%. Merchants that want to get the most out of their product recommendation feature need to imitate the best in the business: Amazon. And you can only achieve this through extensive customer data gathering and recommendation automation.

Only show ads to relevant customers

In-store pop-ups and ads are another useful conversion tool ecommerce merchants can leverage to boost their sales. However, showing the wrong ads to customers can be counterproductive because it leads to a negative customer experience. With the right personalization strategy and tools, you can ensure your customers see only the relevant ads and boost your conversion rate.

Five ways to leverage personalization that drive results

There are numerous personalization platforms and tools BigCommerce merchants can leverage to get excellent results. The most popular ones include:

Email

Email provides a cheap and effective means of sending personalized messages to your customers and prospects. However, you can only get the best out of the platform if you send the right messages at the right time. Here are a few examples of high-converting email messages you can adopt for your online store:

Abandoned cart emails

Stats from the Baymark Institute reveal that the average shopping cart abandonment rate across all industries is 69.57%. While there are many strategies for recovering abandoned carts, sending targeted and automated emails has the potential to deliver the best results. Remember to customize the email based on your customers' behavioral data and provide incentives such as free shipping and purchase discounts.

Post-purchase upsells and cross-sells

Post-purchase upsell and cross-sell emails can help you increase your average order value while opening an avenue for continuous engagement with your customer. The email will introduce them to products that complement the item they just bought or similar products that offer better value. That way, customers are encouraged to spend more. Ecommerce post-purchase upsells can increase your revenue by up to 30%, and there's very little chance of scaring your customers away since they already made a purchase.

Winback campaigns

No matter the quality of your products or services or the level of personalization, it's impossible to retain 100% of your customers. Some will leave due to a bad experience, promise of a better experience, or even simply lose interest over time. A win-back campaign attempts to re-engage your 'lost' customers via email and encourage them to resume doing business with you. Offering purchase incentives increases the effectiveness of these emails.

SMS

With the dwindling open rate of emails, SMS has become a popular and effective option for delivering personalized content to your customers. BigCommerce allows for integrations with SMS and MMS marketing solutions such as Klaviyo, Attentive, and SMS Bump into your store. Remember, you can only send SMS messages to subscribers who voluntarily opted in for the service, and you should keep your messages personal, concise, and with a clear call to action for the best result.

80% of consumers are more likely to shop from a business that offers personalized experiences over those that don't.

Source

Website

With the right integrations, you can leverage your website as a traffic source for your BigCommerce Store. The right machine learning tools can monitor customer behavior on your website, gather the relevant data, and integrate it with your BigCommerce store. That way, when your customers visit your online store, you can deliver highly personalized content to them based on the data you've previously gathered.

Loyalty programs

With 90% of American businesses having some sort of loyalty program, consumers have come to expect companies to reward their loyalty with tantalizing offers and incentives. BigCommerce integrations like Yotpo, Smile.io, ReferralCandy, etc., can help you set up and manage referral programs that have the potential to increase your revenue dramatically. As usual, having the relevant customer behavioral data and personalizing the offers are central to the success of all loyalty programs.

How LimeSpot grows BigCommerce stores with personalization

LimeSpot is a data-powered product personalization platform that helps BigCommerce store owners deliver 1:1 personalized shopping experiences across all customer touchpoints. The platform promises seamless integration with your BigCommerce store, and you'll enjoy significant boosts in your revenue, ROI, and conversions. Below are some of the unique features that make up the LimeSpot advantage:

Segmented experiences

Every avid marketer knows that personalization is impossible without proper segmentation. LimeSpot helps you separate your customers into categories based on their gender, geographical location, spending habits, age, and other relevant segmentation criteria. Each customer segment then gets the relevant recommendation and offers, thereby increasing your conversion and ROI.

Personalized shopping experiences

LimeSpot helps you tailor your user experience to suit each customer and offers everyone a reason to keep coming back. Importantly, the personalization feature is not restricted to your online store or website. It also extends to your email, apps, and other customer interaction platforms.

Headless commerce functionality

LimeSpot guarantees unlimited flexibility since it's decoupled from your backend. You can rest assured that you don't have to make widespread changes to your architecture before customers across all touchpoints can enjoy the seamless 1:1 shopping experience LimeSpot promises.

Data-driven product recommendations

LimeSpot monitors all of your customers' interactions with your brand. The platform delivers top-of-the-line product recommendations for all your customer segments through the insights gathered, and they'll get intelligent upsell and cross-sell offers from day one.

Grow your BigCommerce store with personalization today

Are you ready to optimize your store's performance and increase your revenue? Then it's time to make a decisive move and start enjoying the LimeSpot advantage. On average, LimeSpot delivers a 28% revenue boost, an 18% ROI increase, and 2x-5x conversion improvement. You also get to track the performance of every product recommendation, upsell or cross-sell placement, and email campaign with the platform's advanced analytics tool.

More importantly, you'll treat your customers to the ultimate personalized experience, and they'll in turn fall in love with your brand that much more. Visit our website today to get started for free.

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