Consumers Are Open to Suggestive Selling Online
Needing more qualitative data on what consumers are looking for online? Well MyBuys has released the results of their e-tailing survey, which queried 1,345 consumers about online shopping preferences and their propensity to buy. Many of the questions surrounded behavioural targeting and suggestive selling and the results, no doubt, were very interesting:
- 77% of consumers report that they have made additional purchases when they have encountered personalized product recommendations online.
- 75% of consumers are willing to provide some meaningful amount of personal information in exchange for a more personalized, relevant shopping experience.
- Personalization is only an upcoming initiative for 41% of merchants.
- More than a third of merchants say they simply lack the resources to make personalization a higher priority.
The last point above is further highlighted when profiling local merchants who do a notable amount of advertising online. Local merchants often times do not have the bandwidth or financial capital to appropriately roll out behavioural ads or suggestive selling, through recommendations formed from a consumers online shopping habits. However, media publishers have both the capital and the wherewithal to consult industry leaders and apply tried and tested applications that they can in turn broker to local merchants.
Considering some element of behavioural advertising on an ad publishing network not only provides another revenue stream, but it also enables a publisher to further connect buyers and sellers in a pointed way.
Publishers should take a page out of the rule books of many of the online shopping sites out there – ebags.com, amazon.com, apple.com and their iTunes store, all do a great job at recommending items “you may like” based on what you have recently browsed or purchased.
