E-tailers hard-pressed to personalise

Data can help them adjust as experiential shoppers are lured back to physical stores.

Experiential shopping is on the rise as consumers demand immersive engagement over just convenience, proof of how online retail is as ripe for reinvention as brick-and-mortar stores.

This lust for shopping excitement has led to softer demand online, with more people lured back to physical stores, Matej Urban, regional director of B2B Partnerships and Solutions at Zalora, said at the Retail Asia Forum in Kuala Lumpur in June.

“Customers are looking to go back into physical stores or retail spaces and get in touch with the brands directly,” he said.

Urban said inventory management has become more complex, and keeping a balanced assortment of products that provide just the right depth and breadth is a challenge.

The online fashion retailer cited the need for engagement and personalisation strategies to achieve this balance. And as buying patterns evolve, retailers should harness data analytics to know what customers really want.

“Beyond Malaysia, as a regional platform, we gather information from various markets to create detailed customer profiles and segments,” Urban said. “This enables us to focus on personalisation, which is supported by investments in data and machine learning technologies.”

Prawn Cheng, chief merchandising and marketing officer at Presto, compared effective data use to romance, where one must have clear goals from the start to achieve meaningful results.

“The fundamental [requirement is to define from the beginning what you want to get out of this whole journey,” she said.

In both situations, hard work and genuine interest are crucial, she said, adding that effective analytics requires time so insights could improve strategies.

Cheng said digital avatars have the potential to provide personalised interactions, citing the online food and grocery delivery company’s own character as a rabbit. “We are exploring the development of a digital avatar using our IT to enhance customer engagement and loyalty.”

But Yau Chuan Ng, chief marketing officer at tech-enabled beverage brand Tealive, expressed reservations about the value of personalisation, which he said might not always be needed.

Too much focus on personalisation could overcomplicate the customer experience, he said, adding that companies should weigh its costs and benefits.

“How much will it improve my operations and how significant will it be?” he asked. Companies should decide whether there are more benefits and whether these are aligned with their goals, he added.

This would let organisations balance and tailor personalisation to their own targets, apart from looking at the overall impact on operations.

“Personalisation for its own sake can be a bit overrated,” Ng said. You can do it to a certain extent, but then you need to assess whether it makes sense for your organisation to continue or start it.”