Online shoppers desire personalisation, but demand privacy

Online shoppers desire for personalised digital experiences is at odds with demands for privacy, according to Episerver.

The digital experience company’s fourth-annual Reimagining Commerce report was based on a survey of more than 4,000 people from the United States, United Kingdom, Australia, Germany and Sweden who shopped digitally in the past year.

While 53 per cent said they wanted brands to place a higher priority on respecting their online anonymity, 61 per cent also wanted retailers to prioritise personalisation.

A quarter of respondents, for example, said they’ve returned to a retail website to make a purchase after being retargeted with ads because the ads reminded them of what they wanted to buy.

Episerver stated that tailored recommendations, triggered messages and product search are proven to dramatically increase retail key performance indicators, but data consent is key.

“Companies are facing a digital experience paradox,” said Alex Atzberger, chief executive of Episerver. “We’ve been sold on experience, but hindsight is 20/20. Understanding what customers want, giving them control over how and where their data is used, and leading them to the next best content and action is how retailers ultimately solve for these contradictions.”

The report stated that concern among consumers around their data privacy and online security is preventing once-promising selling channels from reaching mass appeal – voice commerce, for instance, declined year over year.

Last year’s report found that 17 per cent of respondents used voice-assisted devices to complete a purchase multiple times a month, versus just seven per cent this year. Also, 22 per cent of respondents used voice-assisted devices to research a product or service multiple times a month, but that figure dropped to only eight per cent in 2020.

The future doesn’t look much brighter, with only a third of consumers reporting that lack of security features will stop them from making more purchases via voice-enabled devices like Amazon Alexa and Google Home.

Episerver’s data showed mobile-native Millennials default to smartphones when shopping online more than any other generation. In fact, no other age group broke the half mark for primary reliance on their smartphones. Nearly half (48 per cent) of daily shoppers across generations have significantly increased their reliance on their smartphones for shopping in the last year, but mobile conversion rates have still not caught up to those for desktop.

The report revealed that 53 per cent of consumers who said they shop online every day rely on their smartphones, but only 18 per cent of Baby Boomers choose to shop on their smartphones over other devices.

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