In a recent article published by the Internet Retailer, the article highlighted a red flag for many online retailers.  While sales were up on the biggest shopping days of the years, customers were narrowly focused on particular products and a specific deal. The article mentioned that page clicks were down 7.4% Y/Y. 

So what does this trend mean?  To me, it indicates that customers are savvy, smart and highly focused on certain products and are (i) unaware of similar or related products or (ii) dead set on particular items. The second issue poses a more difficult barrier, but iGoDigtial has a intelligent solution to the first issue presented.  iGoDigital offers a platform approach to product recommendations and e-commerce personalization. 

Our goal is to increase those page clicks which entice the customer to explore further, in order to discover new products and cross sell items. This provides advantages for both the consumer and the retailer. For the consumer, personalized recommendations provide a richer experience while navigating the site. It exposes the customer to new products that they might not have been previously aware of. Personalized product recommendations drive clicks, which keeps the customer more engaged with the site and increase the probability of converting. It also provides a personal experience for online shoppers. The recommendations mimic what an in-store sales associate would ideally do, by readily introducing new products and providing options that best meet the customer needs. iGoDigital’s product recommendation tools sometimes even outperforms the recommendations given by an in-store sales associates. These tools can track and utilize the customer’s behaviors, past purchases and interest without having to ask any of the probing questions. Overall, the customer experiences a more delightful site visit and is more likely to purchase multiple products and recommend your site to his or her friends and family.

For the retailer, product recommendations open the door to many exciting opportunities.  The first is keeping the customer engaged on your site by introducing highly relevant products in either a cross sell or up sell recommendation.  The second great opportunity allows merchandisers to work with iGoDigital’s team to drive higher margin items or old inventory in both website recommendations and personalized emails.  Having automated recommendations gives merchandisers the time to focus more on the strategy of merchandising and not the actual labor of arbitrarily matching one product to another.  For the retailer, you get a happier (and profitable) customer, a tool that allows your merchandisers to focus on the strategy of recommendations, and increase in both Average Order Value (AOV) & Conversions.

Breaking the habits of a customer is a must in today’s crowded market place, which can be simple when partnered with iGoDigital. The customer expects personalized recommendations to make the shopping experience easy and more enjoyable, so give the customer what they want and increase your bottom line in the process.