decision factory

Why Invest in Personalization Now?

Today’s statistics about ecommerce show the devastating impact of the financial crisis. Ecommerce websites have been hit hard and revenue growth has ground to a halt.

Tim Walters at Forrester makes a compelling case for advancing personalization efforts in corporate and ecommerce websites, despite the current recession – and inevitable IT budget cuts – in his blogpost and recently published research report.

Delivering a personalized online experience remains particularly difficult to achieve, because it requires mastering multiple technologies - user segmentation, content targeting, recommendation, website optimization - as well as aggregating data across online marketing channels and overcoming internal resistance. Those are reasons however why personalization remains a key source of competitive advantage, as it keeps customers engaged and helps strengthen customer loyalty.

The current ecommerce slowdown will only heighten competition on acquiring new customers and retaining existing customers. Websites that don’t decisively move forward with personalization run the risk of letting the competition outrun them or let emerging third party providers – such as plista – commoditize their content and take over their customer relationship.