A report released by Retail Doctor Group has revealed that personalisation is the biggest challenge facing retailers with 77% of customers expecting personalised experiences from online retailers.
The report also revealed research which shows that 50% of customers are more likely to shop with a retailer again if they were presented with relevant personalised information.
However, the report issued a damning indictment on retailers with only 23% of customers saying they had experienced a personalised experience.
In Australia, major brands have been moving to address customer demands for personalised experiences as part of a push to attract customers.
Accent Group has begun to utilise a digital hub to analyse customer behaviour and Cotton On recently partnered with Scentre Group to develop digital shopfronts for its online offerings through the Westfield website.
Accent Group CEO Daniel Agostinelli said the group's digital hub was critical to identifying customer demands.
“The digital hub continues to learn more and more about our consumer behaviour and what they want to see.
“It seems that our consumers would like same day delivery, we're about to introduce that in the next two months.”
For Cotton On marketing head Renee Smith, the opportunity to develop a new channel to engage with customers on a personal level was a critical move for the business to retain its customer base.
“We've been working closely with Scentre Group on the development of the new digital shopfront because for us, it's another channel with which we can engage directly with our customers.
“What's exciting is we have the flexibility to make it our own, hero-ing the products and services such as personalisation that we know is important to our customer.”