Around 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from retailers that know their name, have a record of their purchase history, and offer them relevant product recommendations, according to Accenture Interactive.

Accenture Interactive’s new Personalization Pulse Check report found that 56% of the 1,500 UK and US consumers surveyed would be more likely to shop in stores or online websites if the retailer recognised them by name. Two in three (65%) would shop with a retailer that knows their purchase history, while 58% would be more likely to make a purchase if a retailer recommends products based on their personal preferences.

In addition, the survey found that 70% of consumers are generally comfortable with retailers, news sites, streaming services and service providers collecting personal data if they are transparent about how they use it. Three in four are generally comfortable with companies collecting personal data if they can control how it is used. While four in five respondents said they were comfortable with companies collecting their personal data if they know how it will be used, or can control it, many retailers are not meeting personalisation expectations.

Almost 40% of online consumers have abandoned a retailer’s website and made a purchase elsewhere because they were overwhelmed by too many options. Meanwhile, just one in two said they had made a purchase recommended to them on a retailer’s website because they often see irrelevant recommendations.

“The availability of data and digital technology today allows for a deeper level of personalisation needed to dynamically curate experiences to each individual and context, across marketing, shopping, and services interactions,” said Jeriad Zoghby, global personalisation lead at Accenture Interactive. “Yet many brands are still grappling with delivering upon customers’ desire for more personalised experiences. They create unintended barriers, for example, when onsite search delivers irrelevant results or landing pages don’t match known customer intent or profiles. In an era when your brand is the experience, it’s imperative that retailers deliver the ultimate user-friendly and tailored experiences or risk sacrificing sales and loyalty.”

According to Zoghby, the vast majority of businesses are in the first stages of their five-stage personalisation maturity model. This means they practice personalisation selectively, basing their campaigns and experiences on expert judgment, simplistic business rules, and simple testing of web page or e-mail experiences to see which one performs better.

“The next stage is managed personalisation, where companies transition to an operating model in a similar fashion to what they’ve created for content management or e-commerce operations,” Zoghby said. “It includes having dedicated teams and well defined processes and governance to ensure that personalisation is applied consistently across all customer experiences.”

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