1. What is eCommerce Personalization?
2. Clerk.io
3. Nosto
4. Qubit
5. Segmentify
6. Yieldify
7. Conclusion

‍

In today's eCommerce world, shoppers are bombarded with a dizzying array of product and service choices. The sheer volume of choice can be overwhelming for any buyer - so how do the successful eCommerce businesses stay ahead of the competition and shine through the noise?

By unleashing the power of eCommerce personalization tools.

‍

What is eCommerce Personalization?

eCommerce personalization is the practice of tailoring the experience of a customer’s shopping journey to match their unique preferences and behavior - thus better meeting their needs. These experiences are meant to serve a specific visitor or group of visitors instead of giving all visitors the same experience regardless of their preferences. It’s a critical part of building a successful online business that can help improve the overall user experience and drive higher conversion rates.

But what exactly is personalization in eCommerce, why is it important, and what are the benefits it brings to businesses?

The most common types of personalization are based on location, demographics and behavior during previous visits. eCommerce personalization can be basic, such as remembering a customer’s name or preferences on a specific product page.

It can also be as complex as matching a customer’s interest in a product to relevant content on the page so they can quickly find information about it. It ranges from simple tweaks such as showing a customer prices in their local currency, to complex algorithms that determine the front page of a search result or the content of an email.

Today, most eCommerce platforms offer some form of personalization, but the best eCommerce personalization software takes it a step further by really tailoring the experience of each page a customer visits on the platform. This allows businesses to build strong relationships with their customers and improve their bottom line.

In today’s article, we’ll take a look at our top 5 eCommerce personalization software offerings - pros, cons, and which kinds of businesses can get the most out of them.

‍

Clerk.io

Clerk.io an excellent eCommerce personalization software that helps online stores better understand and serve their customers - increasing sales, conversion rates and customer loyalty. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically analyze behaviors, trends, and transactions to give shoppers a greater degree of relevance in their search results, product recommendations, emails, and more. 

Its proprietary ClerkCore technology is specifically geared towards eCommerce for the best prediction rates, and integrates with all your favorite eCommerce platforms. You can add your own filters and rules to customize how your product recommendations or personalized categories are executed.

Clerk.io also has a generous pricing plan which includes a test account offering a certain amount of free audience segments, searches, emails, and product recommendations per month - lending it a low cost of entry.

Pros

• Proprietary AI platform (offering data efficiency and accurate personalization)
• Advanced audience segmentation
• Behavior-based internal search engine with synonym detection that automatically recognizes search intent context - in spite of misspellings or typos
• Personalized product recommendations
• Automated email marketing and personalization with strong segmenting.
• A/B testing
• Real-time analytics
• Customer support is outstanding for tool usage rampup

Cons

• The UI is not so beginner-friendly
• Personalization is limited to search, recommendations, email, segmentation - other tools offer more omnichannel features

Our key takeaways

Clerk.io is a great option for smaller brands looking to get started with personalization. It offers a feature-full behavior-based search engine, as well as segmenting ability to personalize product recommendations and integrate email marketing. Personalization options, however, can be limited for larger brands looking to invest more in omnichannel marketing.

‍

Nosto

Nosto’s software focuses on increasing customer engagement and maximizing revenue potential by way of delivering real-time relevant shopping experiences for each individual visitor. Their Ecommerce Intelligence Engine™ is trained specifically on 7 years of eCommerce data to provide laser-focused optimization. 

With Nosto you can customize your website content, product recommendations and categories, and triggered overlays or pop-ups. It will give you a true omnichannel experience, allowing you to integrate mobile apps with email marketing and in-store personalization. This is especially valuable for local brands.

They have a tiered add-on pricing structure, where businesses generating less than €2 million in annual online sales can start at just €99 per month. Pop-ups and personalized emails can then be added “a la carte” for €99 each.

Pros

• Proprietary eCommerce-focused AI engine
• Advanced audience segmentation and insights
• Website content personalization (layout, pop-ups and triggered overlays, written copy)
• Personalized product categories and recommendations using customized product filters
• Smart, automated email marketing
• A/B testing
• Mobile app personalization that integrates with in-store and email
• Customer support is responsive and reliable in helping users get started

Cons

• Setup requires support, which can be inconvenient
• Language and currency personalization are not available
• Getting the most out of the platform requires some technical knowledge

Our key takeaways

Nosto is a great well-rounded option for fast-growing eCommerce businesses that are looking to expand into omnichannel strategies. Their unique machine-learning algorithm delivers consistent integrated shopping experiences across mobile apps, in-store, and email for optimized average order value. For brands looking to expand globally, however, language and currency personalization options are lacking.

‍

Qubit

Qubit offers a special focus on mobile users - a must-have in today’s mobile-driven eCommerce world. Creating authentic individual shopping experiences that improve product discovery through personalized product recommendations, it’s a feature-rich platform which includes social proofing and product insights capabilities. 

Add in its cross-channel personalization ability to integrate not just mobile, but email as well. Its interface is easy to use, testing new ideas is snappy, and automated analytics help you understand your product performance and guide your strategic decision-making.

Getting started does require a demo with their team, followed by a direct paid commitment. 

‍Pros

• Advanced segmentation and retargeting
• A/B testing
• Interface is nimble and easy to use
• Data analytics, insights, and performance visualization
• Intelligent product recommendations
• Website content personalization
• Integration with mobile apps and email
• Social proofing features include “product badging” you can add to different products
• Interface is easy to use and offers impressive template variation
• Flexible integration with a lot of platforms, analytics tools, and email providers
• Customer success team is reliable and not just for tool usage; offers strategic help

Cons

• Tech knowhow can be necessary to use the platform to its fullest potential
• Metrics are not real-time - there’s a delay to access current campaign performance
• Not much support for getting up to speed on the most advanced capabilities 

Our key takeaways

Qubit is a good option for eCommerce businesses who want to personalize their website content, who already have their online audience integrated with their email activity, and who want to beef up their personalization in mobile. It’s not very friendly, however, to online stores looking to explore different offerings. 

‍

Segmentify

Segmentify integrates your customer shopping experience real-time across every touchpoint - even before they land on your site. Their machine-learning technology analyzes users’ online buying habits to effectively deliver the right product recommendations to the right customer - at the right time.

Their approach is comparatively minimalistic, focusing on doing a few things right. They allow personalization of product recommendations, push notifications, email marketing, and internal search. Their AI can offer real-time analytics, and due to its intentional focus, it can ensure truly optimized and accurate personalization - even for first time visitors.

Segmentify has one of the best “try before you buy” offerings we’ve seen, with 14-day or 30-day free trials for entry or professional/enterprise accounts, respectively. 

Pros

• Personalized search and behavioral targeting with machine-learning AI
• Advanced segmentation
• Personalized product recommendations
• Real-time analytics
• Individualized push-notifications
• Integrated email marketing
• Wide range of website content and personalization widget offerings
• Simple, customizable interface
• Platform integration with just one copy-paste line of code
• Interface is simple and easy to use
• Personalization setup is quick
• Customer service is fast and responsive

Cons

• Not so omnichannel - website and email capabilities only
• Full potential utilization might require CSS or graphic design knowledge
• Doesn’t offer API integrations

Our key takeaways

Segmentify is a solid choice for online stores who want to focus on fewer channels and their website personalization, and really knock them out of the park. With precision internal search, push notifications, email marketing, and product recommendations, you can do just that. For larger enterprise businesses looking to implement comprehensive omnichannel strategies, however, their offering might not be so compelling.

‍

Yieldify

Yieldify’s eCommerce personalization software is used by over 1,000 brands who are looking for an all-in-one on-site and email platform. Their machine-learning engine provides data-driven personalization, performance tracking, and actionable insights. 

They offer an impressive range of tools for those who want to improve their customer shopping experience, including A/B/n testing, social proof, promotions, and email remarketing. 

To get started with Yieldify, you need to book a demo and get set up. A paid account then gets you access to the suite of features.

Pros

• Proprietary AI and machine-learning tools
• Audience segmentation and tagging
• Smart product recommendations
• Personalized promotions and device-optimized messages
• Individualized social proof and lead generation
• Site mapping for more in-depth insights and personalization
• A/B/n testing (allows more than two variations to be tested)
• Integration with almost any tool is simple and easy
• Customer support is very knowledgeable and helpful

Cons

• For those who want more creative campaigns, the personalization options may be too narrow
• Segmentation is not as advanced compared to other solutions

Our key takeaways

Yieldify is a solution for eCommerce businesses of a range of sizes whose goal is to use automation and personalization as part of their growth strategy. With a suite of on-site personalization tools, there are almost no limitations to personalizing website content. For brands who need capability outside on-site and email personalization, however, Yieldify’s offering will fall short.

‍

Conclusion

When it comes to eCommerce, there’s no greater bottom line-contributing goal than making a customer feel like they’ve been personally cared for by a company. Over the past few years, that job has become more complicated as eCommerce has evolved from a web-based experience to a behemoth industry spanning multiple platforms and channels. 

As a result, personalization has become increasingly important! 

The goal of personalization in eCommerce is to provide a better experience for consumers, which in turn generates higher sales and boosts the overall experience of the online shopping experience.

The set of eCommerce personalization software tools that has grown with the industry now offer a wide range of features that enable businesses to meet a variety of personalization needs. This includes everything from simple text personalization with a first name to complex algorithms that can predict what product a visitor might want.

The best personalization software tool for any particular business, however, will provide the right mix of machine-learning and data-driven personalization on the desired channels - whether they be on-site, email, mobile, and more. The most successful online stores can harness this power to build a customer relationship that affords them a competitive edge. 

As an eCommerce business, the choice can be overwhelming. Reflecting on your overarching business goals will inform your personalization strategy, and thus, which eCommerce personalization tool you choose.

Are you looking to primarily strengthen your website experience? Recover abandoned carts? Build a seamless shopping experience between users’ laptops, smartphones, and social media?

Whichever tool you choose, you’ll already have taken the first step towards crafting a better experience for your visitors - treating every customer as an individual with their own needs and preferences. You’ll see the boost in your conversions, drop in abandoned cart rates, and bump in average order value. 

One of the most powerful ways to personalize your website content is through personalized product descriptions. You can show different visitors a customized set of information based on their segment - are they first-timers, have they bought from you before, are they price-comparing, etc.? 

Here at Xanevo, we specialize in helping you craft these different messages with the power of automation! If you’re interested to learn more, book a free, no-strings-attached discovery call with one of our automation specialists.

‍