Personalisation in the eCommerce sector is still “poorly done” but large players including the likes of Amazon have made huge strides in that area and are reaping the rewards.
That is according former ASOS Ventures co-founder and investment director Daniel Bobroff, who is now the CEO of creative technology advisory firm Coded Futures, which is focused on the future of retail.
The company was established by Bobroff to identify new and disruptive digital protects and solutions within the global fashion and retail technology ecosystem.
Bobroff is also widely acknowledged as having pioneered in-game advertising and developing chart-topping video games. He established one of the first digital advertising agencies and used gaming to create interactive campaigns for numerous global brands.
Bobroff told BusinessCloud that personalisation is very high on the wish list of most online retailers – and consumers – and that efforts are being undertaken to get it right.
“I think personalisation as a whole is still poorly done but the good news is that there is evidence out there for its success,” he said.
“Amazon enjoys an uplift in sales of anywhere between 10 and 30 per cent thanks to personalised offers, which is a substantial figure and proves that the effort to get it right is worth it.
“I think we’re going to make huge strides in that area, right the way through ultimately serving online shoppers through a website or app experience that is tailored only around the products they like.
“There are quite a large number of statistics that not only show that customers like personalised offers, but that they’re willing to hand over their data to receive something personal. They expect value in return for their data.”
Bobroff also outlined the importance of ensuring that the customer journey is as speedy and frictionless as possible.
“The customer today is expecting instantaneous results from the point of making a purchase to the point of receiving an item.
“There is no loyalty and the bar is now incredibly high. If you don’t make the experience an easy one for them they’re going to look for it somewhere else.
“The costs involved in acquiring a new customer are so significant that to lose them before or after the first sale is really quite disappointing and certainly not a model for success.”
Speaking about the ‘next big thing’, Bobroff said creating an immersive user experience using a combination of artificial intelligence, machine learning and augmented reality could transform the industry.
“Artificial intelligence and AR technology, which are equally significant go hand in hand, have the potential to radically change the game in terms of how we think of and experience eCommerce.
“A standard eCommerce experience today mainly consists of browsing (hopefully with ease) through a catalogue of different products, with a little bit of attention paid to how frictionless the customer journey is.
“That’s very, very different to an immersive or augmented experience where there’s that juxtaposition of real life and a virtual reality. It’s also different from the tremendously strong social element that these particular technologies can offer.”