Websites that morph – that is, literally change their look, feel and content to cater to an individual user’s preferences – can increase purchase intentions by as much as 21%, according to a study by John Hauser of the business school at MIT. But before that can happen, retailers need to figure out the more basic practice of website personalization, or making offers based on what the site knows about a user. Specifically, retailers need to figure out how to make personalization less creepy.
The idea behind personalization is, as former Urban Outfitters marketing executive Dmitri Siegel told The New York Times, to “stop marketing dresses to men.” As we share more and more information on the Web, websites are getting very good at figuring out what we want – often before we know we want it. The problem is, sometimes websites get it wrong. And other times, customers are unnerved when a website knows something about them that they had not consciously shared.
“We saw customer frustration at being targeted outweigh any benefit,” said Siegel, who now works for Patagonia. “If you got it wrong once, it outweighed getting it right 10 times.”
Implicit vs. Explicit Personalization
The problem facing retailers trying to personalize a website comes down to how the company collects its information, Bruce Kasanoff, co-author of
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