Geggamoja offers a wide range of children’s clothing, and just like any other store with physical products, the stock can vary. To make sure visitors don’t miss out on products coming back in stock, they’ve implemented the useful out-of-stock notification feature. But, why should the customers and visitors you recognize have to fill out the form with their email address? They don’t. Not if you do it like Geggamoja.
How they did it
To reduce friction and create an even smoother experience for identified visitors, Geggamoja used Triggerbee’s embedded campaign template with two variants, one for identified visitors, and another for unidentified. Through data and behavioral segmentation, they’re able to match the right variant with the right person and personalize their product page.
If you’re unidentified, you will see a message for an out-of-stock product to “Monitor product” and in the next step be asked for an email address for future communication.
However, if you are identified, it’s a single-click button that registers your interest without any extra effort of filling out a form.
This dynamic personalization using the onsite marketing platform Triggerbee helps Geggamoja improve the customer experience, keeping the content dynamic and relevant based on identification and ultimately reducing friction.
What is it?
A/B testing, also known as split testing, is a method where two versions of a webpage, ad, email, or onsite campaign are compared against eachother to see which one performs better. By showing version A to one group of users and version B to another, you can collect data based on user interaction and determine which version achieves your desired outcome more effectively.
There are two ways to run A/B tests; Client-side and Server-side.
Test type
What is it?
Pro’s
Con’s
Client-side testing
Client-side testing involves changes being made on the user’s browser. This is often quicker to implement and allows for testing visual elements like headlines, visual hierarchy, images, and offers. Ideal for testing content that is not immediately visible, but triggered based on an action since the changes of the test is applied after the page has loaded
Easy to set up, great for testing visual changes like imagery, visual hierarchy in copy, CTA texts, and offers.
Less suitable for testing deep functionality, testing visual sections of your website that should be immediately visible when the visitor lands on a page
Server-side testing
Server-side testing involves changes being made on the server before the page loads in the user’s browser. This method is more flexible and can test deeper functionality, but it requires more technical resources to implement.
More flexible, can test deep functionality, doesn’t affect page load time.
Requires more technical resources, longer setup time
Key features and components
There are hundreds of A/B-testing softwares to choose from. In some cases, A/B testing is a feature within a larger platform (i.e. Onsite marketing tools like Triggerbee or marketing automation software like Rule, Klaviyo, Voyado) because you only need to test one or two parameters. Depending on what you want to test, and how you want your test to behave, there are a lot of key features and components. However, here are the foundational features that you need in an A/B testing software:
Fast test setup: The ability to quickly launch new tests is important. Tools that allow for easy setup without extensive coding or development resources can significantly speed up the testing process.
Test duration: Determining the correct duration for a test ensures that you collect enough data to make an informed decision without running the test longer than necessary.
Test metrics: Important metrics in A/B testing include conversion rates, click-through rates, revenue per session, repeat purchase rate and other indicators of user engagement or satisfaction.
Integrations: Ability to seamlessly integrate with other marketing tools and platforms.
URL split: Splitting traffic between different URLs to test major changes.
Targeting: Tailoring tests to specific segments of your audience.
Good statistical models for analyzing results: Ensuring that the results of your tests are reliable and statistically significant.
Visual editor: Allowing marketers to create and modify tests without needing to code.
Multivariate testing: Testing multiple variables at once to see how they interact with each other.
Example tools
Triggerbee: Ideal for A/B testing onsite campaigns, surveys, promotions, and forms for email signups, membership registrations, and promotional campaigns. Its fast setup of tests, integrations, and focus on simplicity makes it a powerful tool for onsite marketing optimization.
Optimizely: Known for its robust A/B testing capabilities, including extensive targeting options, a strong statistical model, and multivariate testing.
VWO (Visual Website Optimizer): Offers a visual editor for easy test setup, along with advanced features like URL split testing and integrations with other marketing tools.
A/B Tasty: Focuses on ease of use with a visual editor and client-side testing, along with features for targeting and integration.
By leveraging these tools, businesses can refine their online presence, optimize user experiences, and ultimately achieve better conversion rates and higher customer satisfaction. A/B testing remains a cornerstone of digital marketing strategies, allowing for data-driven decisions that can significantly impact a company’s bottom line.
What is above the fold?
“Above the Fold” refers to the part of a webpage that’s visible without scrolling. The concept of “Above the Fold” originates from the early days of print journalism. Newspapers were often displayed folded in half on newsstands, with only the top half visible to people passing by. To sell magazines, they had to print the most compelling content in this visible area to grab attention. Translated to the digital realm, “Above the Fold” refers to the part of a webpage visible without scrolling. While screen sizes and resolutions vary, the foundational principle remains: the first view should capture and hold your visitor attention.
Why it’s important
Immediate engagement: Your visitors spend 2-3 seconds to decide whether a site has what they’re looking for. A well-designed above-the-fold area will help them spend time browsing your site.
Conversions: The above-the-fold area often contains the most direct calls to action, such as “Buy Now,” “Sign Up,” or “Learn More”. Just by having a CTA in your above the fold area is critical for converting visitors into customers or leads.
Clarity and direction: By clearly stating who you are, what you offer, and what you want the visitor to do next, you remove uncertainty and guide visitors to the next step.
Key Features and Components
Headline: This is your main message. Your hook. Make it concise, clear, and compelling, directly addressing the needs or interests of your target audience. For an e-commerce site, highlight current deals, product benefits, or unique selling propositions.
Visual: A standout image or video can make a huge difference. For product pages, ensure the main product image is high-quality and engaging. Consider using a carousel of images to showcase the product from different angles. For homepages, use visuals that embody your brand or highlight your best-selling products.
Call to Action (CTA): Your CTA should be impossible to miss and easy to understand. Use action-oriented language like “Buy Now,” “Learn More,” or “Sign Up.” Ensure the button stands out through contrasting colors or design elements.
Navigation: Simple and intuitive navigation is key. Your menu should guide visitors effortlessly to major areas of your site like product categories, about pages, or contact information. Consider including a search bar in the above-the-fold area for larger sites.
Page speed: Page load time directly impacts visitor retention. Optimize images, minify CSS and JavaScript, and leverage browser caching to keep your above-the-fold content loading instantly. Aim for < 2 seconds.
The importance of the above-the-fold content can vary depending on the type of visitor. For first-time visitors, it’s about making a strong first impression. However, for returning visitors, personalizing this space area can significantly enhance their experience and encourage loyalty.
Here’s how Amazon personalizes their above-the-fold section:
Optional features in the above the fold
Personalization: For e-commerce sites, showing recently viewed products, personalized recommendations, or exclusive deals based on previous interactions can make a huge difference. This not only makes the customer experience more relevant but also shows that you remember them and who they are.
Content freshness: Regularly updating above-the-fold content makes your website feel “alive”. For returning visitors, new content signals that there’s always something new to discover which drives repeat visits and engagement.
Behavior data: Use behavior segmentation to display different versions of your above the fold section to different visitors. Analyze metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and bounce rates to compare how the different versions perform, and get insight into what works best for different segments of your audience.
While the concept of “Above the Fold” is rooted in print media tradition, its digital application remains highly relevant. It’s mostly about grabbing attention, but also making that attention count through immediate engagement. By thoughtfully designing your above-the-fold section of your webpage, you can improve the user experience and your site’s overall performance
What is Click-Through Rate (CTR)?
Click-Through Rate (in short: CTR) is an important metric in digital marketing that measures the effectiveness of marketing campaigns, onsite campaigns and email marketing campaigns. It represents the ratio of users who click on a link to the number of total users who view a page, email, or ad. CTR helps you gauge how well your content captures attention and encourages viewers to take your desired action, such as visiting your website or landing page. High CTRs indicate content engaging content and effective targeting.
How to calculate Click-Through Rate
Calculating CTR is straightforward. You divide the number of clicks a link receives by the number of times the link was shown (impressions), then multiply the result by 100 to get a percentage. The formula looks like this:
CTR = (Number of Clicks / Impressions) × 100%
For instance, if your ad was shown 1,000 times and received 50 clicks, your CTR would be 5%.
Benchmarking – What is a good Click-Through Rate (CTR)?
A “good” CTR varies widely by industry, the platform being used, and the type of content displayed. For instance, an average CTR for Google AdWords across all industries is about 2%, but this can be higher for search ads and lower for display ads. Email marketing campaigns, on the other hand, might see an average CTR around 2-5%. And onsite marketing campaigns can see a CTR between 2-25% depending on the targeting and offer. Instead of comparing your CTR against universal standard, think about which type of campaign you are running, who you’re targeting, and the offer itself. For example, an onsite campaign with a birthday message targeted to people who have a birthday that same week can receive a CTR upwards of 50 – 70%, but a general message prompting visitors to “Learn more” about why your delivery times are a little longer than usual might only receive a 0.5-1% CTR.
However, here are some guidelines related to different content types:
Type
“Good” CTR
“Bad” CTR
Promotion
> 15%
< 10%
General information
> 2%
< 2%
Ad
> 2%
< 1%
Announcement
> 10%
< 5%
Tips to Improve Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Improving your CTR involves several strategies focusing on optimization and personalization:
Write better copy: Use action-oriented language and curiosity gaps in your ads or emails to intrigue and motivate your audience.
Improve targeting: Refine your targeting to reach the most relevant audience who is more likely to be interested in your offer.
Visual contrast: Ensure your content is visually appealing and stands out from the environment it’s shown in.
Test different angles: Use A/B testing to test different visual hierarchies and promotion angles. Test percentage discounts (i.e. “20% off”) vs absolute discounts (i.e. “Get $10 off”)
Use Urgency and Scarcity: Countdown timers and product stock notifications can increase the motivation to click for your target audience
Tools for Tracking Click-Through Rate (CTR)
Many tools can help you track and optimize your CTR, each offering different features tailored to specific marketing needs.
Triggerbee: Offers insights into how users interact with your website and content, allowing for targeted campaigns and improvements to drive higher CTRs. Triggerbee’s analytics tools make it easy to track CTR’s for your onsite campaigns along with conversion rates and more.
Google search console: Provides comprehensive data on your search performance and lets you track CTR for different keywords and search terms your website ranks for.
Marketing automation tools: Almost all marketing automation tools, like Rule, Klaviyo, Mailchimp and Voyado offers detailed reports on opens, clicks, and conversions to help you analyze your performance and make tweaks for improvement.
Ad platforms: CTR is one of the most important metrics when you’re running ads. Whether you’re using the Meta ads, Google ads, or TikTok’s ad platform you’ll be able to measure the performance of your ad campaigns.
By focusing on targeted content, engaging design, and continuous optimization, you will be able to significantly improve your CTR.
What is Onsite Marketing?
Onsite marketing refers to the activities and strategies that marketers use to engage, convert and monetize their existing website traffic. Here are some examples of onsite marketing activities:
E-commerce quizzes
Loyalty program sign up offers
Product page countdowns
New customer offers
“Welcome back” messages
Cart abandonment popup offers
Login nudges
Onsite marketing activities are often temporary and dynamic, meaning certain content is only shown to certain visitors who meet certain criteria. For example, a cart abandonment popup might only be triggered for visitors who have a cart value above €100. Review requests will only be shown to recent customers who return to the website, and login nudges will only be displayed to registered members. This is done by leveraging first-party data and zero-party data.
The competitive landscape has changed drastically since 2020. And running the same playbook that worked 5 years ago is not enough if you want to build a lasting brand. In the current market situation, you win by using data better than your competition.
Most successful e-commerce brands today are built on on marketing engines that premier huge discounts and broadly targeted marketing.
Here’s the old playbook for building an e-commerce brand:
Build a brand on social media
Use huge micro influencers to build trust and get “authentic” UGC
Run some ads (social, search, retargeting.)
Spend 95% of your marketing budget on acquisition
Run occasionalfrequent sales and promotions
Send 3-5 email promotions each week to your entire list to recoup acquisition costs
Run more ads announcing products are “finally” back in stock
Run more (time limited) promotions
Send more emails
When growth has plateaued in your initial market, expand and repeat.
It’s just not the most effective way to approach growth in 2024, 2025 and beyond because the activities are almost exclusively focused on external engagement.
Acquiring traffic is rarely an issue. Converting and monetizing that traffic however, is harder.
Onsite Marketing vs Traditional Online Marketing
While onsite marketing seeks to personalize the user experience on the website, traditional online marketing often spreads efforts thinly across multiple channels with broad, generic messaging. Traditional methods might capture a small fraction of the market but miss the chance to deeply engage more specific segments directly on the website. This generalized approach tends to condition customers to respond only to discounts, trapping businesses in a cycle of constant acquisition with low and unpredictable retention rates. Onsite marketing, by contrast, focuses on creating value for each visitor, leading to higher engagement, conversion, and loyalty without relying on constant discounts.
Key Features and Components of Onsite Marketing
Personalization: Crafting content and offers to meet the unique needs and preferences of each visitor. Behavioral targeting: Using real-time data on user behavior and preferences to deliver more relevant experiences. Omnichannel integrations: Seamlessly connecting with users across all channels for a unified brand experience.
Data-Driven Insights: Employing analytics to continuously refine and improve the engagement strategy based on user feedback and behaviors.
Onsite Marketing Software and Tools
Triggerbee: Triggerbee’s onsite marketing platform lets you build and publish targeted promotions, forms, surveys, and referral campaigns on your website – all in one tool. It’s the only software with both individual-level tracking and a campaign editor that lets you use CRM data from Klaviyo, Mailchimp, Emarsys, Rule, and Voyado to target your messages to individual customers.
Wisepops: An onsite marketing platform that lets you publish popups and notifications on your website to capture emails, and engage visitors with a custom notification feed.
Onsite marketing redefines how businesses interact with their website visitors. By focusing on personalized, data-driven engagement, companies can escape the acquisition loop and build a base of loyal customers.
What is first-party data?
First-party data refers to the information that companies collect from their own sources without intermediaries. This includes data from website visits, app usage, social media interactions, and direct customer feedback. It’s unique to each business and provides deep insights into customer behavior and preferences.
Advertising (mainly remarketing in this context), behavioral segmentation and personalization are three pillars of your customer experience strategy enabled by first-party data.
Here are some concrete examples of first-party data:
Web activity: Clicks, page views, time on site, frequency of visits, etc.
Email: Opened emails, clicks, unsubscribes, etc.
Social media: Likes, comments, interactions with your business page, etc.
Web analytics: heatmaps, session recordings, landing pages, exit pages, etc.
You can combine first-party data with zero-party data to get a detailed customer profile that unifies the most actionable and valuable customer data across devices and channels. Most companies have a similar basic set of technologies that collect data about their customers and audience, consisting of a CRM, an ESP (newsletter tool), a web analytics service, and perhaps a customer case management service.
The problem is that all the data collected by each tool is isolated. This makes it difficult to use the data across channels.
With a customer profile, all data is collected in a single place which allows you to use it without having to import and export data from different systems.
Here is an example of a customer profile which contains first-party customer data:
It also enables you to display personalized offers for specific users and audiences directly on your website, deliver synchronized messages across all channels, and much more.
Differences between first-party data and zero-party data
The main difference between first-party data and zero-party data is that first-party data is indirectly collected from your audience’s behaviours and interactions with your digital channels. Clicks, visited pages, actions, etc. Zero-party data is information that customers willingly provide to improve their own experiences. First-party data can offer insights based on actions, but may require interpretation. Zero-party data, however, directly reflects customer intentions and preferences without needing to guess.
How to collect first-party data
Collecting first-party data involves tracking user interactions across your digital platforms. This can be done through analytics tools, marketing automation platforms, and feedback forms. It’s important to ensure privacy compliance and transparency about data collection practices. Engaging content and trusted relationships encourage customers to interact more with your brand, providing richer data.
How first-party data is used in marketing
First-party data is used in behavioral segmentation, to personalize marketing efforts, improve product offerings, and improve customer experiences. By understanding the patterns and behaviours of your customers, you can tailor your communications, recommend products, and create more effective marketing campaigns. It’s a foundation for building customer loyalty and driving business growth.
Example tools collecting first-party data
Various tools and platforms can help businesses collect and analyze first-party data.
Triggerbee – Triggerbee is an onsite marketing platform that automatically collects first-party data from individual visitors. Triggerbee enables you to deeply understand your audience and publish personalized customer experiences on your website.
Google Analytics – This tool is indispensable for tracking website traffic, user behavior, and conversions. It offers a deep dive into how users interact with your digital presence.
Klaviyo – Specializing in email marketing and automation, Klaviyo helps businesses leverage their first-party data to create targeted, high-conversion email campaigns. It’s particularly favored for its e-commerce integration capabilities.
HubSpot – Known for its inbound marketing, sales, and service software, HubSpot assists in attracting visitors, converting leads, and nurturing customer relationships with its robust CRM and analytics features.
What is Zero-Party Data?
Zero-party data is all the data that your target audience intentionally shares with you to tailor their experience. It can be anything from communication preferences (frequency, channel), how they want to be recognized, to their favorite brands. The biggest difference between zero-party data and (almost) all other data is that the sharing is active, meaning your audience know they are sharing the data, and they do it for their own sake.
Zero-party data removes the guesswork from analyses and provides you with information directly from the source.
Here is a customer profile which contains zero-party data from a customer:
Differences between zero, first, and third-party data
Zero party data comes directly from your customers and is information about their preferences (ex. “These are my favorite brands”), interests (ex. “Hiking”) , and other types of self-submitted information (ex. “My birthday is Jan 1st”). First-party data comes from interactions with your company’s own website, app, or other digital tools. First-party data is also known as behavioral data. Third-party data, on the other hand, is bought or gotten from outside sources that don’t directly interact with the customer. Zero-party data stands out because it’s given freely by the customer, making it more direct and reliable for understanding what they really want.
How to collect Zero-Party Data
Gathering zero-party data can be done through forms, popups, quizzes, and direct questions in a way that feels natural and helpful to the customer. It’s key to explain why sharing this information is good for them, like getting more personalized promotions, services or offers. Making sure they know how their data will be used builds trust and encourages them to share.
How to use Zero-party data in marketing
Using zero-party data means taking what customers tell you and using it to improve your customer experience. This could be through behavioral segmentation, website personalization, tailored product recommendations, or offers that match their interests. It’s all about responding to their needs and preferences to make your brand more relevant and attractive to them.
Example tools collecting zero-party data
Many tools can help collect zero-party data, and Triggerbee is a standout example. Our onsite marketing solution uses forms, popups, and quizzes to gather information directly from customers. This helps your brand understand your audience better and deliver more personalized content and offers. By actively engaging customers and asking for their input, Triggerbee helps companies make the most of zero-party data.
Product pages are where first impressions are made and sales are won. While some brands stick to the basics with simple images and descriptions, others go all out with interactive features that transform browsing into an experience. Whichever path you choose, know that in the current market situation you win by using your data better than your competition.
Effective product pages convey your value proposition, make it clear to potential customers not just what the product looks like, but also what it feels like to own it. Your product page should turn interest into desire, leveraging everything from high-quality images, videos and detailed descriptions to reviews and personalization to convince visitors they need what you offer.
If you’d like to take your onsite marketing game up a notch, you can generate unique coupon codes and embed them on your product page to further enhance the experience.
I’d like to walk you through some of my favorite product page examples and highlight what makes them exceptional. The aim is to inspire you to borrow these ideas for your next product page design.
One of the BIGGEST problems with online shopping is finding the right size. Pictures often show clothes on a model who doesn’t match your actual size, but looks freakin’ awesome.
This can make it hard to know how a piece will look once you put it on.
Alo tackles this issue head-on. They let you pick a model who shares your size.
This smart move has several upsides:
First, it boosts confidence in buying. You see how the clothes fit on a body like yours. No more guesswork about the look or fit.
Second, it cuts down on returns. If you give your customers the tools they need to better understand the size and fit before buying, they’re less likely to get it wrong.
Third, using different models respects diversity. It shows that fashion is for everyone, no matter their size.
Alo’s approach to showcasing their products with models of varying sizes not only improves customer experience but also makes business sense by reducing returns, improving the customer experience.
Zalando’s product pages serve as a great example of how to use personalization well. After you’ve bought an item, they ask you to rate the fit and they will keep that in mind for your future visits.
Next time you’re browsing, they suggest sizes and pre-fill the sizes you’ve rated as “fits good” if it’s available. It’s a game-changer because it makes shopping feel like it’s tailored just for you.
This method saves time. You don’t have to enter your size every time. Also, it lowers the chance of getting the wrong size. That’s a big plus since it means fewer returns for them and less hassle for you.
Plus, their outfit generator is smart. It looks at what you view and buy, then creates full looks for you automatically. It’s like product recommendations on steroids. This personalized touch can make you feel seen, understood, and catered to.
Zalando’s approach to personalization makes the entire customer journey smoother and more intuitive than most other brands out there.
KICKS, Sweden’s leading beauty retailer, boasts an extensive membership club surpassing 2 million. With a vibrant community of over 100,000 members actively sharing their skincare routines and product favorites, KICKS has become more than a store—it’s a destination for beauty enthusiasts.
Their product page is a prime example of how to use customer data to improve the experience. It ticks every box, from offering smart recommendations—showing what others have paired with the product—to unique selling points (USPs) that vary whether you’re a logged-in member or an anonymous website visitor. They also have instructional videos which adds a layer of engagement, guiding customers on how to get the best out of their purchases.
What truly sets KICKS apart is their innovative use of community-driven data.
Beauty Talks, their in-house forum, is not just a place for discussion but also a creative space where members can curate beauty kits. Each beauty kit is a collection of products intended for specific skincare goals, like a three-item set for a complete routine. These kits aren’t just user favorites; they’re a form of crowdsourced product recommendations, adding authenticity and community validation right on the product pages.
This strategy enhances the shopping experience while also promoting their community.
Most online stores have product recommendations on their product pages that show you what others liked or bought.
This can be helpful, but it misses a key point. If it doesn’t fit, it’s not right for you. What matters most when shopping for clothes? Size. It’s the deal-breaker.
Nordstrom gets this. Their recommendations start with size.
Change the size on a product page, and the recommendations update in real time. They adapt to show clothes that match the new size you’re looking at. This is clever because it keeps the options relevant and personal to you.
Pay attention to the product recommendations on the right side of the screen.
This real-time updating is crucial. It means you’re always seeing what’s available in your size, right when you’re looking. No more disappointment from finding the perfect style, only to see it’s not in your size.
They go further, too. Stylists make videos with tips on wearing and styling items.
It’s an approach that shows Nordstrom understands shopping for clothes is as much about fit as it is about fashion.
Videos bring products to life in ways static images can’t match. They capture the nuance and motion, offering a richer experience. Kizik’s innovative use of picture-in-picture video on their product page exemplifies this beautifully.
While customers examine a static image of the shoe, a video plays simultaneously, showing the shoes in action. This dual perspective can significantly impact shopper engagement and conversion rates.
Firstly, product videos demonstrates the product in a realistic setting, offering insights into fit, flexibility, and function. It lets you see how their shoes flex with movement or how easy they are to put on. This level of detail often answers questions before they’re even asked, reducing uncertainty and propelling the shopper towards making a purchase.
Secondly, picture-in-picture technology keeps the customer on the product page. There’s no navigating away to watch a video; the experience is seamless. This convenience keeps the customer focused and can lead to a higher rate of conversion. They’re not just imagining how the shoes might look while walking; they’re witnessing it, creating a stronger, more immediate connection.
One of the biggest concerns amongst consumers globally is whether a product will fit them or not. Size can make or break an online shopping experience. If your customers don’t understand size charts or measurements it will leads to returns, exchanges, and frustrated customers.
Cider addresses this issue head-on by offering localized sizing options on their product page.
Whether you’re accustomed to EU, US, or other sizing standards, they’ve got you covered. This tailored approach enhances clarity for Cider’s customers, showing them exactly what they’ll get. No more conversion charts or guesswork.
This customization is key to boosting conversion rates. The size is one of the most important aspects of any fashion brand, so your customers are more likely to buy if they easily understand the size.
Think about the last time you got a new thing. Even if it’s as simple as a hair clip, there’s always that moment of hesitation: Does this work like I think it should work?
If you’re selling products where the use isn’t obvious at the mention of the name… You. Need. VIDEO!
Lelet republishes select TikTok clips on their product pages to show how their product works, and how it looks when you put it on.
In my opinion, it’s a smart choice for repurposing your most popular content but also for subtly showing your website visitors what type of content you’re posting on social media.
Once you click on a video, Lelet show you the ‘how-to’ in a way pictures alone never could. Just make sure that you’re tailoring the length and format of your video to fit the preferences of your audience.
For example, Nordstrom likely has an older audience than Lelet. That’s why Nordstrom uses a slow-paced video featuring a personal stylist talking. Lelet on the other hand reposts their TikTok videos that are fast-paced, more visually appealing, and looks like a live shopping videos with the products being linked at the bottom.
LastObject is a Danish brand that manufactures reusable household items like ear swabs, make up pads, and laundry bags.
The product marketing challenge here is positioning an improved version of an already known product (like ear swabs) as the superior option. To do this, you need to focus on convincing the end-user and giving them all the information they need in order to make an informed decision.
First off, LastObject’s product pages follows all the new best practices for eCommerce product pages.
They are leading with visual appeal, they are using a lot of gifs and videos to show how to use their product, and they have a balanced ratio between features and benefits.
As you scroll down the page, LastObject is making it clear that these cotton swabs are not your average cotton swabs. They have sections that cover:
Why it’s better than a regular cotton swab
How it’s manufactured
How to use it
The environmental aspects of production
Media outlets that have featured their reusable swabs
Comparisons against the usage of regular cotton swabs
Frequently asked questions
The page is clearly organized and contains all the necessary sections they need in order to convince a conscious shopper into a believer.
Dossier was founded out of a desire to make premium fragrances accessible to everyone. Their concept is to make perfumes inspired by the most famous (and expensive) ones and sell them for a cheaper price.
While it’s easy to see why they’ve managed to reach the level of success they are at now, the challenge with products like perfumes is how to sell a scent digitally.
First off, Dossier makes sure to tell you which perfume their scents are inspired by, in case you have owned the original perfume before or know how it smells. But what I really love is that they show pictures of the notes used in their scebts. This helps you “visualize” the smell better than a regular description.
Amazon is one of the most visited shopping sites in the world. They don’t have the prettiest product page design, but hey, they work. Amazons product pages are complete with detailed information, informative titles, recommendations and reviews.
But Amazon’s product pages did not end up on this list because of their descriptions and reviews. We added them to this list because of how personalized their product pages are.
There are two personalized areas on the product page that I want to highlight:
The first one at the top shows a notification that you’ve previously bought this product, and the date of which you purchased it. This is awesome because in a store like Amazon that has millions of products, it can be hard to know exactly which product you bought if you ever need to send a link to a friend, or look it up for some other reason.
The second highlight is less important, but your address is displayed right above the buy button. At first glance it might seem like an unimportant detail, but it increases your confidence in Amazon’s delivery estimate and it decreases any doubts that you might have that the product will be delivered to the wrong address. Most product pages leave a lot of questions that you won’t be answered until you’ve reached the checkout. Amazon makes sure to eliminate all the questions that might pop into your head as you navigate through their products.
Dr. Squatch has carved a niche in the personal care market with a rugged charm that’s hard to miss. This American brand, established in 2013, is all about natural hygiene products designed for men. They started out selling bar soaps, but they soon expanded to offering a range of items like deodorants, skin care, and hair care.
Dr. Squatch’s product pages are standing out for several reasons.
The visual layout is straightforward which makes it super simple for shoppers to find what they need. Instead of using dropdown menus or input fields for quantity and product variations they use clickable buttons. This isn’t just about looks; it’s about making the shopping experience smooth and hassle-free.
The description of the soap’s scent is detailed and inviting, suggesting the fresh experience you’ll get when using the product. That’s smart because it helps you visualize the scent.
They also include a video on the page. Videos can capture attention in ways text just can’t. Plus, they’re great for explaining stuff about the product that might take too long to read.
In all, Dr. Squatch’s approach is effective because it’s clean, direct, and engaging, which is exactly what you want.
Behavioral segmentation is a form of data-driven marketing, and it means grouping customers based on their online (and offline) behaviour. Your customer’s behaviour is an important criteria to consider when creating audience segments for email marketing, advertising, and onsite marketing. Your customers behavior is highly correlated to intent (i.e. their likelihood to buy).
Here are a few examples of behavioral signals used when creating behavior-based segments:
Website activity
Visited pages
Traffic source
Purchase frequency
Discount usage
Geographic location
Data points like the ones above are combined with static data like geographic location, customer status, and demographics like gender and age in order to create customer segments.
Why is behavioural segmentation important?
Focused marketing efforts: By leveraging behavioral segmentation you can exclude uninterested prospects and email subscribers who have never opened an email from you, or haven’t visited your website in months. By using behavioral data in your segmentation you can make sure that your marketing resources are allocated to your most engaged prospects. Instead of casting a wide net and hoping someone will convert, you can tailor your efforts to those individuals who you know have shown a genuine interest in your products. This not only saves money but also increases the likelihood of communicating with someone who wants communication from you.
Enhanced relevance and messaging accuracy: Behavioral segmentation empowers you to create relevant messaging angles that makes your content stand out. Even if you only tailor a small part of the message, you can create marketing campaigns that speak directly to the unique motivations of each segment The result? An overall better customer experience, more effective promotions, and content that makes an impact.
Proactive marketing: One of the standout advantages of behavioral segmentation is its capacity to make your marketing efforts proactive rather than reactive. Traditional marketing often relies on reacting to generic customer needs or trends. However, with behavioral segmentation, you can anticipate customer actions and schedule campaigns to be triggered in advance, based on past and future behavior. Imagine a scenario where you can identify a potential buyer before they even express their intent to purchase. This level of proactive marketing not only boosts conversion rates but you will also create a better customer experience. Several of our customers are using a strategy called “Buying intent”, which is a simple but effective email or SMS automation that is triggered when an existing customer has visited a certain product or product category 2-3 times within a fixed time frame (usually 7 days). It has a very high open rate (over 50% on average) and conversion rate (up to 30% purchase rate in some cases).
The 4 ways to segment customers
There are four main types of behavioral segmentation:
Behavioral segmentation uses digital behavior data focused on how customers interact with a brand’s website or email campaigns. All trackable interactions like website visits, pages visited, email link clicks, and even visitor intent can be used to create behavioral segments.
Demographic segmentation divides customers into groups based on age, gender, income, education, and occupation.
Psychographic segmentation uses data about lifestyle choices, opinions and beliefs. This data is collected using quizzes or in membership profiles and is also called “Zero party data”. In other words, the user is self-submitting this data in exchange for a better experience or other benefits.
Geographic segmentation is data based on a customer’s location or where they live, and regional factors which may influence their purchasing behavior. This data is collected from purchases, delivery settings, membership profiles, and so on.
The main difference between these segmentation strategies is that behavioural data is highly dynamic and changes frequently.
Demographic, psychographic, and geographic data are mostly static and remain unchanged for longer periods of time. These types of segmentation strategies lets you target very broad groups of people.
Marketing automation tools needs behavioral data from customers browsing your website in order to trigger automated email flows. But the data they collect is often limited to certain events such as completed purchases or add to carts. Meaning, if you want to use behavioral segmentation effectively you need to collect minor events from your website as well. Otherwise you can’t accurately target your customers with relevant messages.
For example, in order for an email marketing software to be able to send abandoned cart emails, it needs both an email address (the recipient) AND behavioral data that can correctly identify customers on the website who has 1) added a product to their cart, 2) has not yet made a purchase, and 3) has abandoned the website.
This is a screenshot of a customer profile in onsite marketing platform Triggerbee. A customer profile is basically a visitors browsing history and a summary of important events from each visit.
The first box (top) named “Onsite campaign activity” refers to all the campaigns this user has interacted with. You can see that this visitor has clicked on the campaign “Membership offer #14124” and have seen at least 3 more campaigns.
The box in the middle named “Goals” highlights important events that was triggered during a certain visit, along with a datestamp.
And at the bottom, you can see each visit with data about their traffic source and how many pages were viewed. This box is a summary of the most recent visits, and if you were to click on a visit you will see the specific activity from that particular session.
All of this data is automatically connected to a person and an email address. Triggerbee remembers this visitor, so whenever they visit the website in the future, Triggerbee knows their browsing history and can target them with new offers and promotions.
This data is also synced to the marketing automation platform this company is using, so they can behavioral data to segment their email campaigns.
The main benefit of behavioral data is that it is collected individually. Because this allows for individual targeting and is the foundation of personalization on the website, in emails, and more.
Example of how behavioral data is collected and used
Behavioral data is collected from every interaction throughout the complete customer journey.
Let’s say you’re shopping for a new bicycle. You already know which type of bike you want, so you go to Google and search:
You take a look at the results and click on one of the shopping ads. This is the first point of behavioral data that you leave to the business whose ad you clicked on.
On the website, you see that the bicycle you clicked on can only be picked up in-store. So you attempt to leave the website…
Suddenly a popup appears that says “15% OFF ON MTB – VISIT OUR STOCKHOLM STORE TO USE YOUR COUPON”.
Awesome. You sign up to get the coupon code, and the business can notify you about upcoming promotions via text messages.
Behavioral data was both collected and used in this example.
The first data point is your traffic source. In the example above, performed a search on google and clicked on one of the ads in the search results. This means the traffic source will be recorded as “Search ad”.
Once you land on the website, the onsite marketing software will check if it can match you with one of the customer profiles that already exists.
If you cannot be identified, the onsite marketing platform could trigger a spin the wheel popup to capture your information and identify you.
However, this popup might not be the same popup as another visitor gets. In this example, the popup appeared only when you attempted to leave the website. This is called “Exit intent” and is a behavioral-based trigger. Geotargeting was also used in this example, to make sure that only visitors living in Stockholm received the message “Visit our Stockholm Store to use your coupon”.
Once you sign up in the form, you will be become identified and assigned a “customer profile” where your website activity will be recorded and saved. All of the data in the customer profile is synced to a marketing automation system where the segmentation takes place.
The next time you return to this website, the company’s on-site marketing software will remember you and your behavior. Instead of showing you the same popup again, you might see a message like “Welcome back” or a unique coupon code.
And if you had bought that bicycle in the store, you might have seen a message asking you to leave a review of your latest purchase.
For future emails, the company can create segments of people with similar behavior to yours. Let’s say that the above popup gets 5000 signups per month. Only a fraction of those will use the discount code.
The company can then create a segment based on their visitors behavior and target people who:
Purchase data (Address, name, location, product categories, coupons used, etc)
Indirect tracking (Visited pages, time on page, traffic source, etc)
These sources are all connected to some type of behavior, whether it’s a customer who visited a certain page or bought a certain product during a promotion. Every important online interaction is correlated with behavioral data, digital footprints.
When a customer buys something in a store, the cashier might ask for their membership ID. And when the cashier scans your membership card, the customer’s receipt is synced and stored in your membership and customer profile that is usually in the marketing automation software and on-site personalization software.
The same thing happens online. If you are logged in on a website and make a purchase, your purchase is synced and stored on your membership and customer profile.
And when you’re not logged in, the receipt is still stored on your customer profile because it’s connected to your email in the marketing automation software.
Memberships are the main data source, because every purchase creates new data. For example, purchase frequency (how long was it since last time you made a purchase), where you shop (online or in-store), how many of your purchases are made with discount codes or during promotions, what type of products you buy, and how much you spend, are all important behavioral data points.
All of this data is then combined, filtered, and used to create behavioral segments that are used for targeting ads, email campaigns, or controlling dynamic content on the website.
Here are the most common variables used in behavioral segmentation sorted by channel type:
Email:
Open rate
Click-through rate
Conversion rate
Time of day opened/clicked
Website:
Identification rate
Logged in / out status
Returning visits
Pages visited
Time spent on site
Product categories viewed
Search terms used
Items added to cart
Abandoned cart items
Location
Device used
Traffic source
Buttons clicked
Purchase
Time since last purchase
Purchase frequency
Average order value
Discount usage
Date and time
Location of the purchase (in-store, online)
Device used
Support:
Type of support request (e.g., technical, billing, product)
Frequency of support requests
Channel used for support (e.g., phone, email, chat)
Ticket resolution time
In-store:
Store location
Purchase history (per store)
Product purchased
Time since last purchase
Mobile app:
App usage frequency
Time spent on app
Features used
In-app purchases
Push notification interaction
Location data
Social media:
Location of followers (aggregate)
Age of followers (aggregate)
Content engagement
Real examples of behavioral segmentation
Behavioral segments are created to target certain individuals with certain content. A common example of behavioral segmentation in action is retargeting ads. Retargeting ads are ads shown to people who have visited a website and then left. Sometimes the retargeting ads are only shown to people with a certain cart value or who have spent X amount of time browsing key pages. This ensures that a business only spends money showing ads to visitors which they deem have a high intent of buying.
But behavioral segmentation can also be used to create segments for onsite promotions, email campaigns, and dynamic website content. Here are three real-life examples:
Zalando uses behavioral segmentation to display size recommendations on product pages
Zalando, one of the largest fashion retailers in Europe, takes shopping online to a new level. They use behavioral segmentation on their website to create a personalized customer experience for every visitor. If you’ve bought from them before, they remember what you bought and how you rated the fit. Next time you’re visiting their website and if you are logged in, they suggest the right size for you. But if you’re logged out or an anonymous visitor, they keep it simple without size recommendations until you’ve made some choices. This way, Zalando’s site changes based on who’s shopping.
Amazon uses behavioral segmentation to send out browse abandonment emails
Amazon is the king of website personalization and delivering a great customer experience. Their website might not win any design awards, but they have a superior customer experience strategy that few can compete with. They use behavioral segmentation for a lot of things, and one of those things are sending out browse abandonment emails. Amazon tracks your behavior and which products you have visited. If you haven’t bought any of the products you visited, they will send you a browse abandonment email to win you back and get you back into shopping mode.
CLN Athletics uses behavioral segmentation to recover abandoned carts
CLN Athletics is a small athletics apparel brand in Sweden. They use behavioral segmentation to recover abandoned carts. By tracking important events on their website such as the “Add to cart”-event, allows them to trigger email automations and onsite campaigns based on their visitors activity. If you add a product to your cart, visit the checkout, and attempt to leave the website before purchasing… they trigger an exit intent popup with a 20% offer to recover the potentially lost cart.
Use cases for behavioral segmentation:
Creating email segments
Behavior segmentation is very useful for creating email segments, both for individual campaigns and when setting up triggers for automated email flows. You can target people who have recently been active on your website or has performed a specific action on your website. For example, if you have a loyalty program you want to have an audience segment that consists of “all members” which have a bunch of sub-segments like “Gold members”, “Inactive members”, “Recently purchased”, “Discount buyers”, etc. Some of these segments should definitely be based on behavior since it will help you uncover new profitable segments.
In our experience having some of the largest retailers in the Nordics as our customers, one of the most profitable segments is Existing members who have visited a product or product category several times within 7 days. A high frequency of visits to one or two products usually indicates a strong interest and intent to buy.
Creating audiences for ads
There are two main approaches to advertising within ecom and retail. 1) Segment based, which means you build an audience in your advertising tool whether it be Meta ads or TikTok ads, and then run ads to a specific segment. Ads running to these audiences will most likely be retargeting ads. 2) Creative segmentation. As the algorithms get better, a lot of brands that rely heavily on Meta ads use their creative to segment their audience. The idea is that a person interested in a certain topic wants to see relevant content for these topics – which your ad is in.
Creating segments for onsite personalization
On-site personalization needs behavioral audience segments to work. Each individual person who visits a website has their own customer profile, and a retailer can show certain types of promotions or dynamic content to visitors within a specific audience.
This is an extremely effective way to promote any type of campaign for a high-intent audience, or make returning visitors pick up where they left off the last time.
It means that the top section of a website can show different content for different visitors. If visitor A is a member in your rewards program, they might see a promotion for the latest membership offers. And if visitor B is a first time visitor they might be offered 10% off for signing up as a new member.
Behavioral Segmentation and privacy
Do not forget that all the data you collect about your customers and visitors needs to be specified in your privacy policy and cookie policy.
GDPR, established in 2018, sets strict guidelines for collecting and processing personal information from individuals in the EU and dictates how customer data should be handled.
Behavioral segmentation often collects sensitive data so ensure that you are complying with local laws and regulations.
Here are some general guidelines, however these could change at any time and should not be considered legal advice.
Consent and Clarity: GDPR mandates that explicit consent must be obtained from individuals before their personal data is used for behavioral segmentation. This consent should be informed, meaning that individuals must be clearly aware of what data is being collected and its intended use. Companies must provide clear, understandable privacy notices.
Limiting Data Collection: The regulation emphasizes collecting only the data that is necessary for a specified purpose. For behavioral segmentation, this means gathering only the essential data needed for creating customer segments and not using it for other unrelated purposes.
Rights of Individuals: Individuals have more control over their data, including rights to access, amend, and delete their data. In behavioral segmentation, this means customers can see the collected data on them and can choose to opt-out or request its deletion, impacting the data available for segmentation.
Securing Data: GDPR requires companies to implement suitable measures to secure personal data. For behavioral segmentation, this means robust security measures must be in place to protect the data used in creating customer segments.
Data Transfer Restrictions: The regulation restricts transferring data outside the EU to maintain the protection level set by GDPR. For companies practicing behavioral segmentation, compliance is crucial when transferring data internationally.
Caution with US-Based Software Companies: When transferring data to US-based software companies, it’s essential to ensure they have the necessary permissions under GDPR. The Data Privacy Framework website (https://www.dataprivacyframework.gov/s/participant-search) offers a search tool to check if a company is compliant.
Demonstrating Compliance: Companies must show their adherence to GDPR, which includes maintaining detailed records of data processing activities, like those for behavioral segmentation, and conducting impact assessments where necessary.
Impact on Marketing Practices:
Strategy Adjustment: You need to align your behavioral segmentation strategies with GDPR. This involves securing clear consent, being transparent about data usage, and respecting user choices and rights.
Emphasis on Data Quality: The focus shifts from the quantity to the quality of data due to pretty harsh consent requirements. A smaller, GDPR-compliant dataset can lead to more precise and effective segmentation.
Building Trust and Customer Relations: Adhering to GDPR can strengthen trust between companies and customers. Ethical data handling can enhance customer loyalty and improve the company’s reputation.
Aligning behavioral segmentation with GDPR regulations is not only about avoiding fines but also about cultivating a trusting and engaged customer base.
Summary
Behavioral segmentation offers marketers a dynamic and data-driven approach to understand customer behavior and tailor marketing efforts effectively, resulting in more personalized and engaging customer experiences. Unlike demographic or geographic segmentation, behavioral segmentation is dynamic and frequently changing. Data for behavioral segmentation is collected through web analytics and marketing automation software, allowing businesses to target the right audience with personalized messages.
First-party data, such as web activity and email interactions, plays a crucial role in this process. So make sure you are collecting first-party data rather than just looking at analytics. Because that is what will let you target your audience when the Google’s and Meta’s of the world will keep this information from you.
Sources:
Our own experience working with 400+ of the largest online retailers in Scandinavia (KICKS, Bubbleroom, Jula, K-Rauta, iDeal of Sweden, Caia, etc.).
And in this article you’re going to learn what it takes to create a good customer experience strategy and how to execute it.
Everything in this article is based on our multi-year experience working with the most customer centric retailers and e-commerce brands in Scandinavia. We are developers of a software called Triggerbee which is an onsite marketing platform for e-commerce brands. KICKS, Cervera, Jula, K-Rauta, Apohem, and Bonnier are just a few brands using our onsite marketing software. These brands have very high standards for their customer experiences, and we have learned a lot from catering to their needs and helping them achieve their customer experience goals.
And every year we manually analyze the customer journeys of over 200+ of the largest e-commerce brands in Scandinavia. Each brand is scored based on a list of 47 criteria covering data collection, email marketing, omnichannel activities, personalization, and more. The findings are published once a year in a report we call PINDEX (Personalization Index).
Note: Start by downloading the customer experience strategy template. It’s a slide deck containing all the pieces you need to present or define your customer experience strategy. It covers your goals, which segments to focus on, tech stack planning, and personas.
What is a customer experience strategy?
A customer experience strategy should includes details about what should happen during each stage of the customer journey in order to turn a new customer into a loyal fan and how to make loyal fans stick around. Your strategy needs to have defined goals, key audience segments, customer journey phases, technical implementation, and how to measure success.
But keep in mind that the main goal(s) of a customer experience strategy are always one or more of the following:
Acquiring new customers at a lower cost (lower your CAC)
Make existing customers purchase more often (increase repeat purchase rate)
Increase the lifetime value of your existing customers
You’re likely not creating a customer experience strategy just for fun.
Businesses can say anything they want about building customer relationships, delivering value, and being relatable… but the end result of a better customer experience and everything it entails, is a more profitable business with happier customers.
Good customer experiences are based on the 80/20 rule. 80% is knowing the basic principles of UX design and communication, and 20% targeting, personalization, measurement and implementation.
If you’re an e-commerce brand, the basics of a good customer experience are:
Fast (and nice) support responses from support agents
Accessibility settings (High-contrast mode and font sizes)
Communication that resonates (i.e. NOT only promotions)
A huge part of the customer experience is having a very user friendly website that encourages usage. If your customers intuitively know exactly how to use your website and find what they’re looking for, you’ve won half of the battle. Simplicity always wins.
Think of it this way: You’re not just selling products; you’re delivering a feeling that makes people want to come back. It’s about building long-term relationships. One interaction at a time. Do it right and sales will naturally follow.
What a GREAT customer experience strategy looks like
Let me tell you a quick story about our CEO Olof and how a small bicycle shop in Girona, Spain saved his holiday.
Olof loves bicycling. On a recent trip to Girona in Spain, he was looking forward to enjoy the scenic views of Catalonia’s countryside from the road. But he ran into a big problem right away: his bike’s brakes broke during his first ride.
He visited a few local bicycle shops to see if they had the parts he needed to fix his bike. But after getting turned down and rejected by several repair shops too busy to help a random tourist, he stumbled into a TREK store. And that’s where things took a turn for the better.
The staff at the TREK store didn’t just help him out; they went above and beyond to ensure that Olof could get back out on the road.
They didn’t have the parts he needed to fix his bike either. But, they offered to borrow him one of their rental bikes for free just to keep his vacation rolling.
This act of kindness was just the start. Olof kept going back to the store and they kept impressing him. The TREK staff eventually recognized him on sight, and when he brought his family they gave him a huge discount on the price of a premium rental bike for his son.
Olof asked if this was just them being nice or a part of their business strategy. Turns out, it’s deeply rooted in TREK’s values and culture to “surprise and delight” customers. Eduoardo, the store manager in Girona, even showed him TREK’s customer service book, making it clear that this was all part of their motto: “making the planet better by getting more people on bikes”.
This whole experience not only made Olof a TREK fan for life but also showed him what a great customer experience means. Then and there, he decided his next bike was going to be a TREK.
Creating a customer experience strategy is not just about fixing a problem; it’s about finding a way to turn a customer into a loyal advocate.
The result of a world-class customer experience…
Sephora is one of the world’s larges beauty brands, and they have a loyalty program with more than 30+ million members worldwide. In 2018, LVMH (the owner of Sephora), reported that 80% of their sales came from their existing loyalty members. And they had such a strong focus on customer experience that they felt it was important enough to include it in their annual financial results (See page 18 “Outlook”).
If that’s not proof that the customer experience is important, I don’t know what is.
Why is having a Customer Experience strategy important?
Having a good customer experience is important because it will help you differentiate your brand in a very crowded marketplace.
Look: most online brands are trying to catch the same fish as everyone else. The standard e-commerce playbook is made up of email- and influencer marketing, affiliate programs, and Facebook, Instagram, and Google ads.
Literally everyone uses the same playbook.
In the current market, you win by using your data better than your competition.
Times are changing. There are more loyalty programs than ever, and consumers have more choices than ever. Having a customer experience strategy means that you’re adapting to these changes.
The difference between customer experience and customer support
The customer experience refers to how you make your customers feel after visiting a store or making a purchase online. From the first visit on your website, to returning a product, or filing a complaint. All of these things should be covered (at least briefly) in your customer experience strategy.
Customer Support is a specific part of the customer experience. Support is focused on assisting customers with questions, issues, or challenges they may encounter throughout their journey.
The quality of your customer support has a significant impact on the overall customer experience, but it’s just one element of a broader CX strategy.
User Experience vs. Customer Experience
User experience is how people interact with your digital platforms. How easy it is to find what your customers are looking for. UX is focused on informational hierarchy, visual hierarchy, and design elements.
Your UX is an important part of the overall customer experience. But it is a specific part focused on how the customer experience is delivered.
Customer experience is broader than user experience (UX). It’s the perception of your brand across all touchpoints.
Customer satisfaction vs. Customer experience
Customer satisfaction is a momentary measure of your customers happiness, and is measured with a CSAT survey.
CSAT stands for Customer Satisfaction Score, and it’s a survey that usually contains a simple question with a response on a scale of 1-5. The standard CSAT survey question is: “How satisfied are you with your shopping experience?”
If you want to know more about measuring your customer satisfaction, read this blog post about CSAT surveys.
The role of personalization in the customer experience
Personalization is one of the most effective ways to enhance the customer experience. In our experience personalization is best used when it:
increases the clarity of an interaction
decreases friction and confusion
reduces anxiety
minimizes distractions
Take a look at Amazon’s homepage. Can you spot the similarity to Netflix’s start page?
Amazon personalizes five sections of their homepage:
They display the name of the account owner (right of search bar)
Delivery address (left of search bar)
Felix’s Amazon (in the sub-navigation menu)
“Keep shopping for” where they showcase my latest visited products.
“Buy again” where they show my last 4 purchases.
Amazon is a marketplace, which means you buy products from third-party sellers and not directly from Amazon. Imagine if I experienced issues with the thermometer shown in my “Buy again”-section. The first place I’d look is in a cabinet to see if I still have the box it came in.
But I’m the kind of person who throws boxes away immediately. So I would go to Amazon and navigate to the product page…
Luckily for me, Amazon have personalized product pages with notifications on the products. Not only do they tell me the purchase date, but I can review it AND get product support.
This is an incredibly simple but powerful way of using personalization strategically.
In other words, personalization is MUCH MORE than simply adding product recommendations and tailoring on-page search results. It’s about using the data you have about your customers to give them what they need, at the time they need it.
The second reason why personalization is important is because the apps we use on a daily basis are setting the bar for digital expectations.
TikTok, Netflix, Instagram, Spotify, Google, Youtube, Linkedin. Everything is personalized to you and your interests.
Your customers’ are already comparing the simplicity and accessibility on your site to the services and other brands they interact with.
Personalization makes every interaction less confusing and relevant which should be the main purpose of any personalization.
To create a customer experience strategy you should start by measuring your current customer experience, create a customer journey map, evaluate all the parts that go into your customer experience, and continually measure the most important CX metrics such as repeat purchase rate and customer satisfaction score.
Step 1: Understand your customers and current customer experience.
The first thing you need to do when creating a customer experience strategy is to understand what your customers think about your current experience.
The fastest way to measure the performance of your overall customer experience is by running a CSAT survey. This lets your customers rate their experience on a scale of 1-5 and leave a comment about potential improvements.
Here are some other ways to know what your customers think about your current experience:
Scrape reviews and use pivot tables to find repeating words and phrases.
Customer satisfaction is a critical metric for Cervera as it directly impacts customer loyalty, repeat sales, and overall brand reputation.
Cervera built and published a CSAT survey using Triggerbee’s survey functionality. They used a Callout template which appears in one of the corners of the screen.
The callout used a two-step form with the first step asking the customer to give a CSAT rating. The second step featured an optional comment field.
Cervera used page targeting and published it on the Thank you/receipt page. The CSAT survey was triggered immediately after a customer completed their purchase. In addition to collecting a rating of their customer experience, Cervera also collected valuable zero-party data by asking their customers to provide a comment which allowed Cervera to pinpoint aspects of the online shopping experience that required improvement.
”Thanks to the survey function in Triggerbee, we were able to measure the customers’ shopping experience in a simple and fun way. We are very pleased with the results of the survey. The comments gave us insight into how the buying journey can be improved and we will take action on it right away.” – Carolina Hejde, Online E-commerce Coordinator at Cervera
Step 2: Develop a Customer Journey Map
Next you need some kind of customer journey map that illustrates the most important parts of the customer journey. This map should visually represent the lifecycle from initial awareness to post-purchase experiences. Below is a slide from the free customer experience strategy template included in this post.
Start with customer research: Gather first- and zero-party data about your customers’ behaviors, preferences, and pain points. Use surveys, session recordings, and behavior analytics to collect as much information as possible about your customers. The data you gather here will be the foundation of your journey map.
Identify important interactions: Pinpoint all the potential points of interaction between the customer and your business. These touchpoints can range from visiting your website, speaking to customer service, making a purchase, to receiving marketing emails. Understanding these touchpoints is crucial in mapping the customer journey accurately, and will help you figure out when to personalize, and when to simply trigger a helpful message.
Pinpoint blockers and anxiety triggers: You want to do a customer journey walkthrough. Go through each step of your most important customer journey(s), from seeing the first ad, to visiting the website, to completing a purchase. Look for these 4 things: 1) Clarity – Is every step as clear as it could be? 2) Friction – What’s causing doubts and hesitation? 3) Anxiety – What makes me cringe? 4) Distraction – Are there multiple distractions? Do I know what I want to do on the page?
Highlight moments of enlightenment: There are always a few key moments in the journey that are more important than others. These moments have a major impact on your customer’s perception of your brand. And these moments are opportunities to win over the customer or risk losing them. These are the interactions that you want to start with when implementing any CX changes.
Incorporate customer feedback: You want to use reviews, survey comments, and other feedback received from customers directly into your journey map. The reason is because your customer journey map should not be created with an internal point of view.
Continuously update the map: Review your customer journey map once every quarter or six months. Your customers’ behavior and expectations will change over time, so make sure to regularly update your map to reflect any changes or trends that might affect your customer experience.
Step 3: Evaluate your current customer service strategy
Your customer support and service have a huge impact on the overall customer experience. A bad experience with a support rep can turn away a customer for life.
Start by identifying strengths, weaknesses, and areas for potential improvement. This means diving into both solved and unsolved support tickets, reviewing support feedback, analyze response times, and compare your NPS scores with industry benchmarks.
You are looking for improvement opportunities and ways to boost customer satisfaction.
For example, implementing a chatbot solution like Intercom or Zendesk can help customers resolve the most common questions faster without needing a person to respond.
And keep in mind, frequently asked questions are often a great area to start with. If a lot of customers are opening support tickets asking similar questions, you might want to consider answering that question (and its variants) in a FAQ.
Step 4: Create a customer feedback loop
Most retailers and e-commerce brands are notoriously bad at collecting customer feedback. At best, they’ll have an NPS survey on the thank you page.
To create a customer feedback loop you need to proactively ask for feedback during interactions that you know impact the customer experience.
Running micro-surveys like Zalando does on their product pages, allows you to collect feedback without disturbing the browsing experience. Plus, the responses will give you a never-ending stream of insight and feedback.
Step 5: Empower customers with self-service options
Tools like stylist videos, FAQs, chatbots, and knowledge bases give customers the opportunity to help make decisions independently.
Nordstroms have a video for most items in their online store where a stylist gives out tips on how to use a garment, how to style it, and things to think about regarding that specific item.
This can be a huge time saver. Self-service resources helps customers to solve problems on their own, reducing the load on your customer service teams.
Step 6: Measure customer experience KPI’s
No customer experience strategy is complete without metrics to follow. However, there’s not one single KPI that can measure the overall performance of your customer experience. You need different KPI’s that measure the performance of specific parts of the customer journey. Common KPI’s used for measuring the customer experience include:
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT):CSAT surveys lets your customer’s rate your customer experience on a scale of 1-5. It is a powerful survey type to understand short-term satisfaction and how your customers feel when interacting with your brand.
Net Promoter Score (NPS):NPS surveys are foundational for most large brands. is a metric that measures the likelihood of your customers recommending your brand to their friends. It’s a very good gauge to see how good you are at creating loyal customers.
Identification rate: Measures how effectively you can identify individual customers visiting your website. A higher identification rate means you can deliver more personalized customer experiences.
Churn Rate: This metric monitors how many of your customers are one-time buyers. A high churn rate can mean that your customers prefer to buy from another brand. Use CSAT surveys to find potential reasons why customers might churn.
Repeat Purchase Rate: Measures how often customers come back and make repeat purchases. A high repeat purchase rate suggests a great customer experience and strong loyalty.
Average Resolution Time: A measurement of the average time it takes to resolve customer issues and tickets. Quick resolution times are generally associated with improved customer experiences.
Participation/Redemption Rate: This metric is especially relevant in loyalty programs. It measures how many customers or members are redeeming offers, which is often a good indicator of engagement and value.
Revenue per Session: Calculates the average revenue generated per customer session. It provides insights into how your customer experiences impact revenue. In contrast to conversion rate, the revenue per session can increase even if the conversion rate decreases. It is especially important to keep track of RPS after a major change to the website.
Step 7: Deliver personalized experiences
Most people talk about personalization like it’s a random tactic you can apply on any site, in any situation. But the truth is that personalization success depends on the quality of your data, who you can target, and when you’re adding personalized content.
Zalando is a personalization leader in the fashion industry. They automatically generate complete outfits based on your browsing and purchase history. And they also pre-select sizes based on your self-reported fit feedback.
Onsite personalization is enabled by a mix of contact information, individual website activity, and traffic attribution. Because in the end, personalization needs to deliver value for your customers.
With that in mind, a good onsite personalization should (from your customer’s point of view):
“Give me relevant recommendations I wouldn’t have thought of myself”
“Communicate with me when I’m in the mood to buy, or learn something new“
“Remind me of things I want to remember”
“Recognize me, no matter how I interact with your brand“
Focus on activities that capture first- and zero-party data
First-party data is all data that your collect from its own channels and sources.
In other words, any information about your target audience that comes from both online and offline sources such as your website, CRM, point of sales-system, app usage, in-store visits, etc.
Nudient wanted to make it easier for their website visitors to find the right case for their device.
They created a device-selection popup in Triggerbee with a dropdown that contained all phone models available. The popup appears as soon as you visit their category page and when you select your preferred device, it filters and sorts the products after the model you selected.
We helped them customize the dropdown field to function as a filter selector. This means that when you select an option in the dropdown, the corresponding option in Nudient’s original filtering system will also be selected. This customization is achieved through custom JavaScript.
More than 100,000+ visitors have selected a device, and Nudient now knows their device model even if they don’t make a purchase.
Segment your customers
Customer segmentation is a powerful tool. And you should include your most important customer segments when setting your customer experience strategy. Not only does this help with finding ways to improve your experience, but it helps your team and other stakeholders to see which customers you find are most important.
You probably have 4-5 highly valuable customer segments. But that doesn’t mean each segment won’t have slightly different filters when you’re sending an email campaign or publishing a personalized promotion on your website.
It’s about knowing who you’re (broadly) targeting and then allowing for nuances depending on the situation and campaign content.
Here are some common customer segments that are generally considered “Valuable”:
Customers / non-customers
Customers who haven’t purchased in the last 60 days
Subscribers who have visited the website in the last 7 days (without purchase)
Customers who have received and interacted with a discount code, but haven’t purchased
Registered loyalty members
VIP customers (customers with $X total spend)
Simplify interactions
When in doubt, simplify. Remove stuff.
After 5 years of working with e-commerce brands, there is one thing both the big and small ones have in common:
They love complex stuff.
“If a visitor clicks on this button, we want to show message A or B, but only if they have previously…”.
Tailoring interactions is a great way to confuse both your co-workers and customers. It makes it hard for your visitors to understand what’s happening next. So if you’re ever asking yourself how to “improve” a specific interaction… Opt for removing any unnecessary elements or steps.
For example, do you really need a shopping cart step? What is it used for, and why can’t everything be managed on the checkout step?
If you are planning an interactive campaign, does it need to be more complicated than a spin the wheel popup or a brand-focused memory game? Simple gamification works wonders.
Or why should the instructions on how to return a product be hidden deep within a knowledge base? Why not link to it directly on the product page?
Removing clicks and adding contextual information often results in increased clarity and in the end… A better customer experience.
Use AI and automation
Since ChatGPT was released in 2023, AI has been all the rage. While AI offers incredible ways to improve the customer experience, it’s important to use it as a tool to complement human interaction, not replace it.
Using AI to enhance the customer experience
AI is great for providing quick answers to common questions, but the human touch is irreplaceable for any question more complex than “What’s your return policy?”.
With that said, here are some ways AI can improve the customer experience:
Customer segmentation and targeting: Our partner Sift Lab have a platform that uses AI to create new customer segments based on your customer’s purchase history. This data can be used to display product recommendations, forecasting, customer analysis, and ad targeting. AI is perfect for things like this.
Translating text: Translation services are usually quite expensive. If you’re launching your brand in a new country, you need to localize your store and translate a ton of text. AI can translate huge amounts of text in very little time and deliver a good enough result for a fraction of the price of a human translator.
Ad optimization: If you have thousands of SKU’s, price optimization is a full-time job. AI-enabled dynamic pricing is a strategy of changing your product price based on supply and demand. With access to the right data, today’s tools can predict when and what to discount.
Automate communications
Automations are necessary if you want to deliver a great omnichannel customer experience. In most cases, this means automated email flows triggered by website behavior, activity or time delay.
One of the biggest mistakes we see both our customers and other retailers make with automations is that they’re only sending out promotions which doesn’t build loyalty or trust in the same way as entertainment and behind-the-scenes content.
Sure, welcome discounts are a great way to initiate a customer relationship. But a great customer experience means delivering content with other purposes than making a sale.
Here are some of the best performing email flows that you should include in your customer experience strategy:
Welcome flow: Triggered when a person has signed up for a newsletter or after a first-time purchase. It consists of a series of 3-5 emails sent out over 7 days to introduce a new subscriber or customer to your brand and products.
Browse abandonment flow: Triggered after a “browse and bounce” session. Usually 1 email with 2-3 reminders sent out to identified customers who have recently visited or viewed a product on your website.
Cart abandonment flow: Triggered after a visitor has added a product to their cart and then left the website. Usually 1 email with 2-3 reminders sent out a few hours after the session ended.
Win-back flow: Time-based trigger. A win-back flow is usually sent out to customers who have made only 1 purchase in the last 12 months, and comes with a “come back”-offer to make them come back.
Restock flow: Time-based trigger. If you’re selling consumables, i.e. deodorant or makeup, you know your customers need to buy them again. The restock flow is sent out after 30 or 60 days reminding the customer to restock on their favorite product.
Free gift flow: Sent out to non-customers to incentivize them to become customers, or loyal customers to keep them around. Usually 1-2 emails presenting the free gift with content explaining it’s theirs if they buy something within a limited time frame.
VIP or Early-access flows: Seasonal trigger. Invite loyal customers to get access before everyone else on major campaigns and sales like Black Friday.
Post-purchase flow: Activity trigger. Sent out to customers who have purchased specific products. The content of this email is often educational and contains upsells to a related service. If you’ve bought a knife, you might get 3-5 videos showing how to keep it sharp, how to store it, and a special offer on a knife sharpening service.
Remind customers of things that are valuable for them
Proactively reminding customers about products, benefits, or promotions that are relevant to them can have a huge impact on the customer experience. Whether it’s a reminder about an item a customer viewed but didn’t purchase, a nudge about an expiring loyalty voucher, or a simple time-delayed reminder to refill i.e. their shampoo can be a very impactful driver of revenue.
Here are some situations where reminders are valuable:
Abandoned carts
Products out of stock
Expiring offers
Reminders of unused loyalty vouchers
Event registrations
Data Collection and Audience Targeting in Owned Channels
Almost all data is important, but not all data will be important to you or your brand.
When it comes to the customer experience, you want to collect first-party data and zero-party data. First and zero-party data is what will allow you to run a data-driven marketing strategy.
Your goals will help you decide exactly what type of data you need to collect, what KPI’s to measure and how you use it to improve the customer experience.
In other words:
Make sure you actually use the data you collect. Not only will this save you from a lot of headaches down the road, but it will also save a lot of disk space as well.
Below you have the most common types of data used in marketing, ranked by their usefulness and how much data is available in that area.
Web behavior and interests offer the most opportunities for relevant communication and enhancement of the customer experience.
For example: If a customer adds a product to the cart in size M, your product recommendations could say “Available in size M” (or whatever size the customer selects on their next product). It’s a small enhancement with a big impact as it increases the visibility of the available sizes.
Most of the data you use to create customer experiences will come from your website, your CRM, marketing automation platform, point-of-sales software, and customer data platform.
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