120 Shopping unique to you Sherwen Studios has identified a five-point checklist for how craft retailers can implement personalised shopping experiences online Retailers should look carefully at their online shopping platforms to see if they are offering a personalised shopping experience for customers. That’s the message from digital retail specialists, Sherwen Studios, who are seeking to transform the retail status quo and are encouraging retail brands to think differently about how they manage their online platforms. Sherwen Studios, who has worked with national retail brands such as ScS, Booker, Londis and Premier, are urging retail brands in the craft sector to think about how they can facilitate personalised experiences into their shopping channels. Today’s customers want to feel individual. They want to benefit from bespoke shopping experiences that are targeted towards their personal wants and needs. Sherwen Studios believe that incorporating personalised shopping experiences into online platforms should be a priority for all retailers, as the results could have a significant impact on your bottom line. Through their own research (conducted by Censuswide), the firm has identified that simply adjusting your website homepage to enable changing imagery for individual customers, responding to their particular preferences could increase sales by almost 40 per cent. Five-point checklist As we head into another challenging retail period for craft retailers, Sherwen Studios have created a five-point checklist which will help brands to think about how they can integrate personalised experiences into their online platforms. 1. Make the most of bespoke website imagery. Once a customer has logged into their personal account, changing imagery can be an effective way to highlight any relevant products that match the customers personal likes or relate to any previous purchases. This not only allows the customer to see relevant items that they are likely to want to buy, but it can help retailers to maximise any upselling opportunities. For example, you could refine your images according to that customer’s preferred colour palettes or suggest patterns that complement previous purchases. Card retailers could set up automated changes to allow specific designs focusing on key birthday or anniversary reminders, in line with submitted customer data. 2. Focus on offering accessible customer service. Automated chatbots have their place, but Sherwen Studio’s research has identified that a third of shoppers believe that online shopping misses the ability to talk to a human. The challenge for retailers is to find a variety of ways to facilitate customer service that match an individual’s personal preferences. Some shoppers will prefer emails or customer feedback forms, while others may actively want to use apps such as Messenger or WhatsApp. Taking an omnichannel approach to customer service will ensure that customers have a way of making contact that suits their preferences. 3. Use your data analytics to understand customer demographics. Sherwen Studios want to encourage brands to move away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach to retail. Different customer demographics will have their own preferences and being able to respond to specific groups will help you to personalise your shopping experience. Thanks to targeted data analytics, retailers can identify distinct patterns and trends relating to different audience groups. This use of data can be used to adapt your online platforms to meet the individual wants and needs of different groups. 4. Self-service can be integrated into online platforms. We’re used to seeing self-service checkouts in physical stores, but the notion of self-service can also be integrated into online platforms. By anticipating what a customer may want to know, you can create ways to integrate that information into your wider eCommerce and digital marketing strategies. From video tutorials showing the crafting techniques and written FAQs, to detailed product descriptions, retailers can help customers to find the information that they’re looking for quickly and easily. 5. Tailored messaging via your email marketing can be successful. Tailored
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