Are you delivering the right message in the right place at the right time? A new survey finds marketers in the UK, U.S. and Singapore have a long way to go.
Consumer sentiment toward the digital shopping experience continues to shift rapidly in the (post-)pandemic world. With these changing attitudes, new marketing trends are emerging that hold exciting opportunities for brands. But where should the priority lie for marketers looking to improve customer experience in 2022?
3radical’s 2022 Consumer Survey Report captures consumer sentiment toward the digital shopping experience to reveal how effectively brands provide tailored experiences, and its findings are stark. Many brands have yet to master the baseline criteria for effective personalization: delivering the right message at the right time and place to the right person.
Here are five key findings from the report that may help marketers improve their digital shopping experiences in 2022.
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Only 18% of people strongly believe they receive customized product or service recommendations based on their first-party data.
To turn this statistic on its head, over three-quarters of consumers think that most brands could deliver a more personalized service. There are two significant implications to this — firstly, if a brand is not using first-party consumer data to provide a better experience, what are they doing with it? Asking for information but not doing anything visible with it shows mistrust, leading to loss of loyalty and repeat customers.
Secondly, the lack of personalization reveals the opportunity for brands to increase order value and revenue within their existing customer base: 51% of consumers are comfortable sharing their personal information for better product or service recommendations. It’s time to leverage this shifting sentiment.
Nearly half of consumers (42%) are less inclined to shop with brands that do not extend tailored communications.
Historically, personalization was a bonus, an added perk that many brands considered a ‘nice to have.’ This is no longer the case: 65% of consumers believe that they receive poorly targeted communications, and 42% indicated that this would affect their purchasing decisions.
Brands unwilling to personalize their communications will be hit where it hurts; their bottom line. Expectation levels are highest in Singapore, where three-quarters of consumers expect tailored communications and 55% let this impact their purchasing decisions. Therefore, brands need to highlight and prove their value in exchange for their customer’s data.
Consumers see the value in their data — but are still willing to share it if they get something in return.
So what would incentivize consumers to share their personal information with a brand? The top result, which 54% of respondents selected, would be in exchange for tailored offers and promotions.
However, what is most telling is that only 8% of consumers would not be willing to exchange their information at all: 92% are willing to share information on their own terms and for the right reward. Presenting a mutually beneficial value exchange is essential for brands, but what other factors incentivize consumers?
Interest in cash rewards has fallen by 12%, while personalized promotions increased by 20%.
While cash rewards remain the most desired prize, savvy consumers and loyal customers are increasingly incentivized by experiential personalization. The increased relevancy of tailored content shrinks the digital shopping aisle and converts consumers with fewer clicks. As a result, the percentage of consumers willing to exchange data for ‘a more personalized shopping experience’ and ‘more personalized promotions’ have seen the most significant year-on-year growth.
But what information are consumers willing to part with for those rewards? Nearly three-quarters (74%) are comfortable sharing their demographic data, such as age or gender. On the other end of the scale, consumers were least comfortable sharing their contact information (54%). So how do brands match the level of reward to the data they are looking to capture?
84% of consumers want brands to be more transparent about their data collection practices.
Consumers increasingly want to know the terms of the value exchange and not be tricked into unwanted communications. In this way, brands need to show and prove the value they can provide in exchange for that data.
As the above findings show, having transparent data practices doesn’t stop consumers from sharing data. Instead, it helps build trusted relationships with customers. This should be a key priority for marketers in 2022.
Michael D. Fisher, Ed.D., CEO of 3radical, brings over 25 years of experience in organizational transformation through research, education and revenue growth. He specialized in helping companies build collaborative, connected, cohesive cultures, with a commitment to personal and professional development and success. Disciplines include: progressive leadership and decision making, responsive data and analytics, nimble sales effectiveness, and agile customer data and business intelligence technology assessments. Additionally, Fisher is on the board of directors of TheCustomer.net.
