The health and beauty sector in the UK is estimated to grow 21.1% over the next five years, and is currently the fastest rising retail industry in e-commerce (Retailtouchpoints.com). These insights have made personalisation be at the top of marketing priorities for beauty companies in order to exploit revenue opportunities. Yet, many retailers still do not offer personalisation services, missing on a powerful opportunity to leverage their marketing efforts and increase revenue. Therefore, this blog will provide an outline of the main 4 advantages that implementing personalisation brings.
1) Increased customer loyalty
The benefits of personalisation go beyond the increase in sales and revenue. Machine Learning and AI allow retailers to transform consumer into brand advocates. By using smart insights to target every individual with their specific needs, customer’s engagement and satisfaction increases. For instance, being able to collect and analyse data about the customer’s purchases, product needs and skin concerns, gives opportunities for retailers to re-target through personalised emails. Optimising their customer journey ensures the trust from consumers, who seek a customised and individual experience rather than mass-targeted marketing efforts (Forbes.com) This strategy increases the likelihood of positive word of mouth, reviews and returning customers.
2) Powerful customised Omni-channel Strategy
By implementing a customised omni-channel strategy, adapting to various means of personalisation, retailers not only gain access to insightful business analytics, they also achieve an improved brand recognition, as the customer’s personalised experience is translated across all channels. For instance, the technology of Beauty Matching Engine, a personalisation software built specifically for the beauty industry, can be implemented online and offline to provide an overall enhanced shopping experience for customers. Retailers have the option to implement BME’s powerful quiz tool on their website, in a touch screen or IPad in-store. This will save time for customers and show them which products are most suitable for them, avoiding queues for consultation and biased recommendations.
3) Continuous new data set creation
Machine learning and a/b testing for personalisation, generate and combine constantly new data series which provide a rich and ‘real time’ assessment of customers' profiles and their products requirements, which enable to increase product conversions and AOV. It can also help improve the efficiency of certain business areas such as forecasting demand for the season to stock the appropriate goods, or signalling the need to expand the product range for a specific skin concern.
4) Opportunity for Up-selling and Cross-selling
Personalisation throughout the customer journey is not limited to email marketing or product recommendations. Retailers can increase their basket size, and overall sales by personalising their up-selling and cross-selling as well. If customer A, has added to the basket a moisturising cream for dry skin, the retailer can make use of this information to cross-sell a face serum for dry skin which complements the moisturiser. This strategy will offer the customer a skincare journey specific to their concerns and demands, while increasing the order value.
Due to the reasons above, retailers who have not implemented yet personalisation in their marketing strategy, should consider investing on personalisation to gain market share and achieve competitive advantage against competitors. We, at BME, are helping already retailers to deliver greater value and customer experiences to each of their customers. We hope this blog post serves as an inspiration for many other retailers to set and move forward a Personalisation strategy for their customers.