How Can Companies Use Ecommerce Personalization to Improve their Sales on Valentine's Day?

Valentine’s Day is a holiday that means a lot of different things to different people. There’s the primary divide between those in relationships and those who aren’t, but there are also other factors affecting how people respond to this holiday, and these are often overlooked by most retailers who tend to focus only on giant red hearts and rose petals. People are not the same, and they don’t respond the same to offers. Which is why it’s important to make personalized offers to your consumers that take into consideration things like:
• Where they are shopping
• If they are shopping well before the holidays or at the last minute
• What device they are shopping on
• How important triggers like free delivery are to them, and many more.

Why Personalization is The Key to Ecommerce Success

Ecommerce personalization is driven by the desire for relevance and results in ongoing individual interactions with consumers. Your knowledge and ability to create a more personalized experience for your customer grows as those interactions grow, which ultimately paves the way for more engaging conversations with individual customers, and an opportunity to build long-term relationships.
Among the millions of marketing campaigns we see every year, the personalized ones always stand out the most. 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from retailers who create personalized shopping experiences for them, and ecommerce personalization is considered by over 90% of retailers as having been one of their top 3 business priorities for 2017.

It’s time to Get Personal! – Different Types of Ecommerce Personalization

There are quite a few ways in which you can personalize your customer experience. Some examples are:
• Navigational
This type of personalization is based on browsing behavior and purchase history. This information is useful in customizing how the customer navigates an ecommerce site.
• Predictive Recommendations
In this type of ecommerce personalization, predictions are made based on the buying behavior of other users. Think “If you like this…”
• Third-Party Data
This is where you purchase data about a particular audience from an outside vendor. It works great for serving ads to the right people.
The list goes on an on with Database Segmentation, Subject Line Personalization, Personalized Content, Real-Time offers, Contextual Messaging, and more.
To tailor that kind of personalized experience, you need to accumulate and analyze up-to-date information about your customers and their preferences as they engage with various brands across different channels and devices. For this you will need to make use of tools and techniques for data management and analytics, as well as market optimization solutions. These days there are new cross-channel, cross-platform tools that give you integrated views of consumer behavior at every touch point – for instance, where individual consumers research for products or services (price comparisons, reviews and so on).

Ecommerce Personalization: Do I really need to bother?

Although discounts and promotions on Valentine’s day inspired products are great, it’s what everyone else is doing, and you want to position yourself as being different from the rest. This helps to increase brand loyalty (without which you have non-brand loyal customers who shop around for the site with the best discount and just buy from there.)
When you personalize the experience for your customer, you leverage the power of the Valentine’s Day campaign by not only targeting customers who are already looking to spend on Valentine’s day related products, but also the ones who may not be in the market for traditional purchases, as well as those in need of a little more persuasion.

How Personalization Can Be Used For Better Conversions

If you have felt business slow down after the Christmas season, then Valentine’s Day may be your chance to boost your sales. Draw on the data available to personalize your campaigns, and use this holiday to find revenue opportunities among the hoards of romantics looking to impress their loved ones.
Remember, besides engagement campaigns, ecommerce personalization can also be applied to page designs and product recommendations, so get creative and stand out from your competitors with relatable promotions.
Below is a list of ways to entice visitors to your site into engaging with your ecommerce campaigns and to help you get that competitive edge so you can maximize your sales this Valentine’s Day!

10 Personalized Market Tips to Increase Your Ecommerce Sales This Valentine’s Day

1. The Perfect Match

Use this campaign to showcase products that go well together. Sometimes people have no idea what to buy for their loved ones on Valentine’s Day and they need a bit of inspiration. By putting together merchandise that goes well with each other, you cross-promote product categories, which in turn increases the average order values. An example of this would be to feature beautiful pendants with matching rings.

By putting together merchandise that goes well with each other, you cross-promote product categories, which in turn increases the average order values.

2. Her Gifts

Showcase your most popular Valentine’s Day products for women to anyone looking for a gift for ‘her’. These can be based on high ratings, positive reviews, bestsellers and so on. A lot of people like to give popular things, so you can guide them by telling them exactly what women want based on this year’s trends. Also, when shopping for Valentine’s Day gifts, a lot of people worry about getting it wrong, and this will definitely help. Remember to use effective lifestyle images to help the buyers visualize how it’s going to look on her.

When shopping for Valentine’s Day gifts, a lot of people worry about getting it wrong, so, product recommendations will definitely help.

3. For Him

Showcase some of the gifts that men might want for Valentine’s Day. After all, this holiday isn’t just for women, is it? Use ecommerce personalization to your advantage by giving women some gift ideas for the special man in their life. Again, images of a man with the product will help them to imagine how it would look on their man.

Use ecommerce personalization to your advantage by giving women some gift ideas for the special man in their life.

4. Set The Mood

Help your shoppers plan the perfect Date Night on February 14th by showing them what they can buy to set the mood for a romantic evening. For example, you could showcase romantic scents, candles and so on. For those couples who will opt to go out instead – whether for a meal, to a movie, or for a weekend away – why not show them things like ‘date’ outfits, jewelry, matching robes, weekend away luggage and such? You could even offer free express delivery for purchases over a certain amount. This is ecommerce personalization at its best!

For those couples who will opt to go out for a weekend getaway, show them things like ‘date’ outfits, luggage and such?

5. Treat Yourself

Don’t shut out those potential customers who don’t have someone to celebrate Valentine’s Day with. Give them ideas on how to treat themselves to something special. You could launch a campaign which features items that people would buy for themselves like pampering products, books or bathrobes.

Let your customers know that Valentine’s Day can also be a day to treat themselves.

6. Ditch the cliches

Not everyone will be celebrating Valentine’s Day. Adapt your message to meet the unconventional demands that this holiday brings about. It’s time to think outside the heart-shaped box.
For example, if those who are shunning Valentine’s Day celebrations are staying home instead, showcase ‘night in’ products to them like board games, console games, popcorn bowls… See where we’re going with this? This is another great example of how ecommerce personalization can get you better results in your campaigns.

Adapt your message to meet the unconventional demands that this holiday brings about. It’s time to think outside the heart-shaped box.

7. For The Procrastinators: Last-minute Gifts

An astounding number of people put off or forget to get gifts until the last minute due to the busy lives they live. Use this to your advantage by creating a campaign targeting these procrastinators. You could offer either free shipping or reduced rates for express shipping to entice them to buy from your site.

Promoting last minute gifts and discounts will always be to your advantage.

8. Create a Valentine’s Day Gift Shop

People shouldn’t have to work hard to find the things they want on your site. If you have a lot of products to promote for Valentine’s Day, make it easy for them to get to the right products by creating a dedicated page for all the Valentine’s Day related merchandise that you have for sale. Just be careful – sometimes too many choices can prove to be overwhelming for some, resulting in complete abandonment of your site.

Make it easy for customers to get to the right products that you have for sale.

9. For Your Pet

Valentine’s Day doesn’t refer only to romantic love! These days people are publicly expressing their love for their family, friends, themselves, and even their pets! Not everyone might have a special someone to share their love on Valentine’s day, but they might have a beloved pet to dote on. This is a great opportunity for those who sell pet products to encourage those pet owners to spend on their site.

These days people are publicly expressing their love for their family, friends, themselves, and even their pets!

10. Giveaway

A giveaway is another wonderfully effective way to support your Valentine’s Day campaigns. That
way, even if some people don’t buy your stuff, they can at least take part in your giveaway – which means you acquire new emails as well as generate buzz on social media.

A giveaway is another wonderfully effective way to support your Valentine’s Day campaigns.

These are just a few ecommerce personalization tips that you can use in your Valentine’s Day campaigns. The list is endless, and limited only by your creativity.