Want to make it big in retail? Get personal, and get mobile in 2015.

Want to make it big in retail? Get personal, and get mobile in 2015.

Things are looking good for online retailers as we head into the summer. Thanks to ongoing investments in technology and data, retailers are seeing significant growth in traffic and conversions on their e-commerce platforms, and are reporting improvements across four key digital performance indicators, including site traffic, conversion rates, average order value and repeat customer visits.

A new Criteo-sponsored report from eTail analyzed interviews from nearly 100 retail professionals to see how retailers will continue to grow and build relationships with consumers online.

According to the data, the greatest retail marketing opportunities in 2015 lie in delivering highly relevant messages for consumers and creating a seamless, personalized experience on any device or channel.

Here are a few of the dominant trends our study revealed:

• Personalized emails are the most common means of communication between brands and consumers, and they form the core of customer retention initiatives for 82% of retailers
• 36% of retailers will invest in a unified customer view in 2015
• 92% of retailers rated the ability to target users across different devices as “important”

Retailers are implementing fully dynamic experiences, complete with personalized messaging, product and content recommendations, CTAs and discounts in order to optimize customer lifetime value. And they are also focusing on mobile capabilities as the “glue” for seamless, omni-channel shopping experiences.

However, these sophisticated forms of personalization require a holistic view of customers, which can only come from rigorous data collection and analysis. Many marketers still struggle to follow their customers across channels and capture the entire purchase path in their measurement and attribution.

Other challenges retailers report includecart abandonment and website performance issues. Based on past e-tail research, cart abandonment results in a significant loss of revenue, and retailers rank abandonment as the biggest factor impacting conversions, especially on mobile, where conversion rates are already lower than on desktop or tablet.

Three key recommendations for digital retailers:

• Consumers expect personalized, media-rich online shopping experiences. In order to keep up with those expectations, retail brands should continue to invest in cutting edge technologies to enhance their marketing campaigns, data analytics, and web experiences.

• Retailers can activate better marketing personalization by combining first- and third-party data with automation tools.

•  Brands must build up mobile offerings that create smooth omni-channel experiences and allow them to better understand how their customers are interacting with them.

Download the full report here: “Trends in Digital Retail: Engaging & Converting Through Personalization & Omni-channel Excellence.”

The article was written by, Gilles Giudicelli, Head of Research, Criteo

< Back to blog

Categories: Performance Marketing