E-commerce: Must-have Web Personalization Features

Customizable Promotions: This functionality will enable catalogers to tailor promotions to specific customer profiles. Such customization will be instrumental in building brand loyalty and repeat visits.

Robust Content Management: This functionality will enable merchants to quickly deploy specialty shops and gift finders for specific market segments and then revise marketing initiatives to drive traffic to these entry pages. Segmented offers will help convert site traffic into sales.

Product Comparison: This functionality will enable side-by-side product comparisons, thus assisting customers in making the best selections. Customers who can compare products on a site are less likely to feel the need to visit competitors’ sites.

In addition to these must haves, another set of even more advanced features is also available -- although the need for them is less immediate. But with consumers becoming more and more sophisticated every day, these features are fast becoming must haves as well. They are:

Guided Search and Navigation functionality, which will help shoppers quickly locate the products they seek (as well as related products), and allow catalogers to manage merchandise and quickly change product relationships. Cross-sell/up-sell functionality will help catalogers increase basket size by enabling them to update their sites with low-priced impulse items. A/B testing capabilities will enable two or more versions of a product offering, ad, design or promotion to be randomly presented and measured for response. A/B Testing can be tied into site analytics to determine the pricing thresholds that drive the best conversion and site profitability.

Voice (or “Click-to-Talk”) features also are likely to become a part of the online shopping experience. By enabling customers to get live answers to simple questions, click-to-talk will help prevent shoppers from becoming frustrated and abandoning shopping carts.

With the ever increasing use of -- and comfort with -- ecommerce, one thing is certain. Customers are becoming more discerning, and their online shopping expectations are rapidly evolving. To succeed, catalogers will have to stay ahead of the curve by having flexible systems in place to enable the cutting edge, must-have applications that can quickly and proactively provide the most advanced shopping experience possible.