The Ultimate Guide to Ecommerce Personalization

Imagine visiting a new athletic apparel website. As the fall weather cools, you’re hunting for the perfect running jacket. When you type the term in the search bar, the retailer shows you tank tops and shorts. You’ll likely never return to the site, right? 

Today, consumers expect brands to anticipate their needs—especially younger generations. A recent survey found that 75% of Gen Z shoppers would abandon a brand if they did not receive personalized service. 

In this article, we’ll discuss the benefits of ecommerce personalization and provide real-world examples. We’ll also review the top ecommerce automation platforms and share best practices to get started. 

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What is ecommerce personalization? 

Ecommerce personalization customizes the online shopping experience based on customers’ demographics, preferences, shopping behavior, and purchasing history. It helps brands deliver a more relevant and engaging shopping experience. 

Generative AI and machine learning software have made it easier for companies to deliver tailored shopping experiences. These algorithms analyze vast amounts of personal data to predict customer preferences and behaviors. From customized product offerings to custom content recommendations, AI empowers brands to create experiences that resonate.

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What are the benefits of ecommerce personalization?

Ecommerce personalization helps brands meet evolving consumer expectations while driving revenue. McKinsey found that high-performing ecommerce brands generate 40% more revenue from personalization than their lower-performing competitors.

The benefits of ecommerce personalization include:

• Boost customer loyalty: Personalization makes shopping more convenient. Ecommerce businesses create loyal customers by making it easier for site visitors to find the products they need. Brands can also use their personalization efforts to streamline the experience for returning customers.

• Increase average order value (AOV): Companies drive cross-selling and upselling by suggesting products that complement a customer’s shopping basket. Targeted offers—like “add $10 for free shipping”—can also increase AOV.

• Drive conversions: Personalized landing pages, promotions, and retargeting campaigns can persuade customers to purchase—increasing revenue.  

• Better understand your customers: Ecommerce personalization requires extensive data collection and analysis. Online retailers can use these insights to understand customer trends, informing product development, merchandising, and marketing. 

• Improve the customer experience: Personalization makes the shopping experience more engaging. By curating a journey that matches their customers’ interests and needs, brands boost customer satisfaction.

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It's no secret that personalization has become a buzzword in the last few years. Many brands have invested in software and tools to customize the shopping experience. But brands must ensure their personalization strategy provides customers with value and drives sales. Brands should engage in ongoing testing to track the performance of their personalization tools. 

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5 examples of ecommerce personalization 

Personalization strategies create more efficient and engaging customer experiences. But, these strategies vary based on the target audience, industry, and channel. Here are some real-world applications of ecommerce personalization.  

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Product recommendations 

With ecommerce personalization tools, brands analyze a customer’s browsing history and past purchases. Companies use this data to showcase products that meet customers’ preferences and needs—creating opportunities for cross-selling and upselling. 

Furniture brand Article breaks down its recommendations into three categories. When a customer views an item, Article will show similar products, items from the same collection, and complementary pieces that fit the customer’s aesthetic. The brand also has bundles where customers can shop complementary products based on the specific room (e.g., kitchen, bedroom, or living room). 

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Dynamic pricing 

Dynamic pricing adjusts the cost of a product based on customer demographics and purchasing behavior. For example, a retailer may offer a flash sale to a customer who has viewed a product multiple times but has yet to buy it. 

At the same time, customers may be more price-sensitive depending on their preferred social media platform. For example, shoppers on Facebook may be more price-sensitive than those on Instagram or TikTok. Brands can adjust their pricing to increase engagement and conversions on digital ads. 

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Personalized content

Companies create more personalized marketing campaigns with customer segmentation. By tracking a customer’s preferences and interactions on a website, brands can optimize their marketing messages. 

For example, a customer may view drinkware on a home brand’s website but not purchase it. The retailer can use this interaction to create a retargeting campaign showcasing its drinkware collections on a social media ad.

Activewear brand Vuori uses customer-preferred activities (e.g., running, yoga, or crossfit) to create personalized email marketing campaigns. Their emails showcase products specific to that activity. The brand will also send invitations to nearby events based on the customer’s location.

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Enhanced search 

Ecommerce personalization creates a better search experience. Brands use customers’ interests, locations, and past purchases to suggest more relevant products. 

When searching for a product on Sephora, the brand will highlight products customers have “favorited.” The company also includes banners next to each product highlighting relevant categories—such as Clean Skincare, Vegan Skincare, or Black-owned brands. And Sephora uses your location to show products in stock or available for same-day delivery. 

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Pop-ups 

Ecommerce personalization enhances the effectiveness of pop-ups. Personalized pop-ups can offer content and offers that are relevant to the user’s interests. Brands can also better control timing, such as displaying pop-ups before customers leave.

For example, furniture company Joybird uses the following pop-up when customers abandon their shopping cart. The brand can use the customer’s answer to customize its messaging on future social media or email marketing campaigns.  

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6 ecommerce personalization platforms 

Ecommerce personalization software enables brands to tailor the online shopping experience better. These tools use data analytics, machine learning, and customer segmentation to automate your ecommerce personalization strategy. 

With 92% of companies using AI-driven personalization software, many options are available. Here, we’ll review the top six platforms to help get you started. 

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1. Rebuy

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Rebuy is a personalization platform helping Shopify stores optimize the customer experience. 

Top features: 

• Smart Cart: Use one-click widgets (e.g., discount widgets or tiered pricing) to reduce cart abandonments
• Post-Purchase: Improve the post-purchase experience with AI-powered offers and limited-time discounts.
• Dynamic Bundles: Use data to pair products or suggest bundles to drive AOV. 

Pros:

• The platform integrates with Shopify Plus, Shopify, Recharge, and Hydrogen. 
• A comprehensive reporting and analytics dashboard makes tracking each widget's performance easy. 
• Rebuy's all-in-one platform reduces the need for multiple apps, improving site speed. 

Pricing: Free. The Scale plan is $99 per month. The Pro plan is $249 per month. The Grow plan is $499 per month. The Advanced plan is $749 per month. The Enterprise plan is $999 per month.

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2. Bloomreach

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Bloomreach is an ecommerce personalization platform that uses AI to customize the online shopping experience. 

Top features: 

• Marketing automation: Bloomreach helps brands segment customers to create more personalized email and SMS marketing campaigns. 
• Ecommerce search: Bloomreach drives more intelligent search results by analyzing customer browsing behavior. 
• Content management: Automated customer segmentation makes every webpage more personalized.

Pros: 

• Brands have access to real-time marketing data to inform campaigns and personalization tactics.
• Companies can assign a “loyalty tier” based on customer behavior. 
• A reporting and analytics template library makes sharing results easy.

Cons:

• The platform is less user-friendly than other tools. It can be harder to navigate and have a higher learning curve when starting. 

Pricing: Contact their team for a customized quote. 

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3. Edrone

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Edrone is an ecommerce customer relationship management (CRM) and marketing automation platform.

Top features: 

• Marketing automation: Brands can access over 20 marketing automation scenarios to target customers. 
• Live chat: Edrone powers live chat with welcome messages, auto-replies, and customer feedback options. 
• Voice search: Customers can search for products using their voice. Edrone can ask for additional criteria if needed and display relevant products. 

Pros: 

• The platform is easy to use.
• Customers have access to unlimited segmentation opportunities.
• Brands can monitor performance in real-time with Edrone’s comprehensive analytics dashboard.

Cons: 

• Users cannot customize templates or reports. 

Pricing: Not available.

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4. Yieldify

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Yieldify is an ecommerce personalization platform with tools to customize the entire customer journey. 

Top features: 

• Lead capture: Use targeting rules to personalize your lead capture messages.
• Customer profiles: Build rich customer profiles by asking for customers’ names, birthdays, locations, interests, product preferences, and other custom fields at sign-up. 
• Promotional experience: Custom target rules enable brands to personalize pop-ups and other overlays.

Pros: 

• The platform makes A/B testing easy. 
• There is little to no coding required.
• Users report excellent customer service.

Cons: 

• Reporting is limited. 
• There are limited customization options available for pop-ups and banners. 

Pricing: Not available

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5. AfterShip

AfterShip has a suite of automation tools to power ecommerce. Powered by AI, its ecommerce personalization software helps brands create a more customized experience. 

Top features: 

• Marketing automation tools: Companies can deliver more targeted offers across email, SMS messaging, and advertising campaigns. 
• Product tags: AI-powered product tags enhance the customer search experience.
• Upsell widgets: Smart upsell widgets enable brands to recommend relevant products at the right time. 

Pros: 

• AfterShip offers extensive integrations to boost your ecommerce personalization strategy.
• Its automation tools bring personalization to your entire business, including shipping and returns. 
• Brands can create email templates in any language. 

Cons: 

• The platform requires a minimum of 1,200 shipments to get started. This may be difficult for small businesses. 

Pricing: Billed annually, the Essentials plan starts at $9 per month, the Pro plan starts at $99 per month, and the Premium plan starts at $199 per month. Custom Enterprise plans are available. Pricing varies by number of shipments. 

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6. Segmentify

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Segmentify is a customer engagement platform that powers omnichannel personalization. 

Top features: 

• Dynamic bundles: Companies can increase upselling and cross-selling with personalized product bundle recommendations. 
• Customer data management: Segmentation tools make it easy to collect and group customer data according to interests and needs.
• Cross-channel marketing: AI-powered segmentation makes retargeting campaigns easy. 

Pros: 

• Segmentify makes it easy to monitor website performance in real time. 
• Segmentify helps improve customer search with AI-powered product recommendations. 
• Users report a responsive customer support team. 

Cons:

• Limited integrations are available. 

Pricing: Not available. 

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How to get started with ecommerce personalization

Today, personalization can be a buzzword, but with the right data and strategy, ecommerce personalization generates tangible and sustainable results. 

Whether you’re new to ecommerce personalization or looking to refine your strategy, here are some best practices to help get you started. 

• Set clear metrics: Analyze current data to understand performance—including conversion rate, average order value, cart abandonment, and customer loyalty. Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) that you’d like to target. 

• Understand your audience: Develop detailed customer personas based on demographic information, customer preferences, shopping behavior, and purchasing history. These personas will better inform your customer segmentation strategy. 

• Select the right personalization tools: Choose the right software solutions for your business and KPIs. Ensure the platform integrates with your existing data sources. And personalization platforms should offer tools to improve every customer touchpoint.

• Segment customers: Categorize customers by common characteristics and behavior. Use these segmentation categories to create personalized experiences, content, and product recommendations. 

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Testing and optimization

When it comes to ecommerce personalization, A/B testing is critical. Also known as split testing, A/B testing helps companies assess the effectiveness of their personalization efforts. It allows you to compare two or more variations of a webpage, email campaign, or other relevant content to determine which will drive results. 

Some examples of A/B testing include: 

• Testing different headlines on your homepage or landing page
• Testing designs of your ecommerce website, landing page, or email campaigns
• Testing calls to action, including the text, button shape, and button color
• Testing images on your product pages or marketing graphics 
• Testing email subject lines
• Analyzing pricing strategies and promotions

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Enhance your ecommerce personalization strategy with SplitBase. 

Personalized experiences are critical. Today, customers are busier than ever and have shortened attention spans. At the same time, the retail landscape is crowded. Across categories, there are more options than ever before. To remain competitive, brands must anticipate customer needs. That’s where SplitBase comes in. 

SplitBase is an ecommerce conversion optimization agency. We help ecommerce brands optimize and personalize their online stores and landing pages. And our full-suite optimization program uses A/B testing to ensure brands meet their sales goals and increase conversion. 

Get started today to see how SplitBase helps world-class brands like Frank And Oak, L’Oreal, Amika, and Manduka create personalized shopping experiences.