Going Beyond Email: Take Personalization to the Next Level with Openbravo

Most retailers will say that making the customer happy is the most important thing in their business. Nonetheless, a recent survey for RedPoint Global shows the wide gap between a consumer’s expectations and the experience being delivered is magnified by the inability of brands to execute their strategies.

The growing expectations for an experience tailored to consumers’ personal preferences at every stage of the customer journey adds pressure on retailers to improve their personalization strategies.

So how can retailers ensure their personalization strategy is actually driving sales?

For consumers, personalization goes far beyond addressing someone by name in an email. In fact, impersonal or irrelevant interactions can be counterproductive. About a third of consumers said it was “very frustrating” when a company sends an offer for a product they just bought or one that wasn’t relevant to them.

However, NOT reaching out can be equally damaging — a third of consumers indicated that they would no longer do business with a company that failed to offer a personalized experience. So, retailers face a conundrum: they risk annoying customers if they send them irrelevant offers, but they risk losing customers if they don’t personalize the experience.

Personalization is real-time interaction

Having an effective customer experience is critical to the bottom line. Consumers expect a brand to be able to consistently keep pace with them at every stage of their purchase journey. According to the survey,  43 percent of consumers surveyed said this means that a brand recognizes them as the same customer across all touchpoints.

To strike the right balance, the retailer must be able to determine what stage each customer is in their purchase journey based on the interactions they’ve had online, on their phone, and in the store.

Real-time responsiveness is a crucial capability for the delivery of a personalized experience at every stage of a customer journey. Knowing where a customer has been and what they have bought, a retailer can personalize interactions in way that is relevant to an individual customer online or in the store.

Personalization is anticipating your customer’s need

A good example of real-time personalization is cross-selling complementary products in the store at the point of engagement with the customer.

Openbravo makes it easy to group complementary merchandise in the back end so that cross-selling opportunities appear as the item is searched for at the point of sale.  For store associates, this enables them to make relevant and informed suggestions at the most appropriate moment, which is when they are helping and engaging with a customer before the transaction has been completed.

Retailers who can effectively reach the customer, wherever they are in their purchase journey, and make relevant (and helpful) recommendations in real time will be more likely to provide the kind of personalized experience that keeps customers coming back to the store and builds loyalty.

Want to know more? Watch our webinar, “How to choose your next POS for omnichannel success” to see how easy it is to make personalized recommendations with Openbravo Commerce Cloud.