Online shoppers want personalization – do they achieve it?

Online shoppers don’t get the personalization they expect.

New research shows a significant gap between customer expectations and reality when it comes to personalized e-commerce.

According to “The Ultimate Guide to Product Detail Pages” study by AI product discovery platform Zoovu, although over 70% of people not only want but expect a personalized experience when shopping online, only 16% of the product pages analyzed offer a personalized experience.

Additionally, after analyzing over 2,000 data points across 125 product detail pages, Zoovu found that 49% of product detail pages had only one personalized element, and another 25% had no personalized elements at all. Nineteen percent had two personalized items, and the remaining 7% had three or more.

Key conclusions

• The average product detail page contains over 59 product information, including specifications, images, related products, product varieties, and more. According to Zoovu’s analysis, retailers are combating this trend by moving away from overly technical language in favor of more benefit- or need-oriented content, as well as elements that help customers evaluate the product.
• More than 90% of the product pages analyzed contained customer reviews, and more than half (56.8%) included at least two types of social proof, such as customer photos, “best” tags, and certification badges. The 125 pages of products assessed in the report included 13 different types of social evidence.

(Read more: Online retailers are disappointing customers – here’s how)

“It’s no secret that consumers, with instant access to almost unlimited information, feel increasingly overwhelmed, confused and frustrated when shopping online, which is why optimizing product pages at the last stage of the purchasing process is more important than ever,” said Ken Yanhs, director for marketing at Zoovu. “Supporting personalization with generative AI is the biggest opportunity for e-commerce brands to provide customers with the insights they are looking for, at the scale needed to deliver true, sustainable growth.”

In the report, Zoovu analyzed the product pages of U.S. and Canadian e-commerce brands in fashion and apparel, consumer electronics, health and beauty, furniture and home appliances, and tools and recreation.