According to a McKinsey report, 80% of customers expect personalized experiences online.
Tailored experiences such as personalized product recommendations, discounts and deals on products of customers’ liking have transformed the online shopping experience for customers.
Ecommerce brands are leveraging personalization for all aspects of their business, including membership programs. Considering eCommerce memberships create a long-term engagement opportunity with customers, personalization becomes more relevant and effective as a strategy.
In this blog, we explore personalization techniques specifically for eCommerce membership programs.
Recap: What are eCommerce membership models?
Ecommerce membership models enable customers to become members of a program to access exclusive benefits, offers, services, discounts, and perks. For example, Amazon Prime is one of the most common references to understand eCommerce memberships. Some of the common perks offered via memberships are gift vouchers, birthday gifts, special member discounts, property access to new collections, members-only savings, member community experiences, etc.
Different ways to personalize eCommerce memberships
Today’s eCommerce customers are more aware and savvy, and have high expectations from brands. Typically, customers stop engaging with brands that do not offer personalized experience across their buying journey. In this section, we look at how to offer personalized eCommerce membership experiences on your Shopify site.
Personalized onboarding
Your first impression is the last impression, so why not set the tone for your brand from the moment new members sign up? eCommerce membership businesses are following some simple and powerful techniques to personalize onboarding experiences. Here’s how:
- Tailored welcome messages: When you address customers with their first name, you instantly build a friendly connection with them. However, eCommerce personalization is more than just adding first names to welcome messages. Along with it, look for ways to say more in the welcome message. For example, based on customers’ data, send them a product recommendation, or content they’d like to explore.
- Customized onboarding pathways: When onboarding customers, ensure you don’t make the mistake of sending one standard message to all members. Segment your customers based on data, and create multiple pathways based on their past activities on your site, purchase behavior, and preferences and interests.
Personalized product recommendations
Recommend products, share suggestions, and entice customers by introducing new products, but narrow down your approach based on customers’ preferences and likes. Here’s what to do:
- Behavior-based recommendations: Customers engage in many different ways on your eCommerce membership website. And all their actions are useful information for you. For instance, if customers tend to shop more during sales, you know how to target them the next time you have a sale. Similarly, look for cues from customers’ behavior patterns to recommend products.
- Collaborative filtering: One of the best examples of personalized product recommendations is Amazon. The website uses customers’ past data to share different types of recommendations. For instance, ‘Customers who bought this also bought’, ‘Recently viewed’, ‘What other customers are looking at now’, etc. For your Shopify memberships, you can use customers’ past purchase and browsing history to recommend products.
Customized content and offers
You might think content cannot be personalized to meet each individual customer. True. But what you can do is share only relevant content with different customer segments. Let’s look at how to do that:
- Personalized discounts and promotions: To make your eCommerce membership customers feel special, keep track of their special days such as birthdays and anniversaries, and offer them a discount code or deals on these days. Another way to offer personalized discounts is to create offers on products in their wishlists or shopping carts.
- Exclusive content: A brand is only as good as its content. Content is one of the aspects that attracts and retains customers. And when it comes to your Shopify membership program, there’s a lot more you can do to leverage content. For instance, provide members access to exclusive content such as articles, videos, webinars, etc.
Dynamic website content
Use your website to create personalized experiences by way of creating dynamic pages. This means different customer segments get to see a different version of your website. Here’s how to do it:
- Personalized homepage: Dynamic personalized homepage means the content on your homepage is tailored to individual customers, and is not static and the same for all customers. For instance, some ways to personalize homepage content is to show product comparisons based on customers’ browsing history, show products based on the member’s delivery zip code, show a discount code pop up to new members, etc.
- Personalized search results: Another way you can create dynamic content for your eCommerce membership customers’ experience is by personalizing search results. When customers search for a product on your website, show them a selection of tailored products based on their likes, interests, past purchases, and preference.
Tailored communication
Factors such as how you communicate with your customers, at what time, and on which channel, play a key role in customer experience. Try these personalized communication tactics:
- Segmented email campaigns: Another eCommerce personalization technique that’s effective is sending personalized emails. 72% of consumers say they only reply to messages that are aimed directly at them. So, what can you do to personalize emails? Start with segmenting customers into different categories. Create email drip campaigns for each segment to drive them through their respective funnels. Add a personal touch, and share the right message, at the right time.
- Customized push notifications: Another channel to apply personalization tactics to is push notifications or pop up messages that customers can click. Send personalized messages based on your members’ recent activities and preferences. Share relevant offers and discounts to make the message enticing.
Personalized loyalty programs
Loyalty programs help build a personal and stronger connection with customers, which can be further personalized by applying these strategies:
- Custom rewards: Consider customized rewards for your Shopify membership personalization. Understand customers’ preferences and interests, and offer rewards that matter to members on a personal level. Bring in diversity when you offer custom rewards, meaning, different types of rewards – experiential, monetary, points, gifts, events, etc. Another aspect of eCommerce personalization through rewards is the flexibility to redeem rewards. Allow members to choose when and how to use their rewards.
- Tiered memberships: One of the best methods to personalize loyalty programs for your eCommerce memberships is to create tiered membership programs. In tiered plans, members belong to different tiers and enjoy specific perks and benefits of that tier. Rewards can be personalized to members’ engagement levels, activities, and preferences. Exclusivity adds to the personalization experience of customers.
Personalized customer support
Think beyond the standard customer support experience, make customers’ interaction with your brand meaningful, and add value to customers when they reach out to you. Here’s how:
- AI-powered chatbots: Offering personalized customer support goes beyond simply addressing customers by their first name. Instead, it’s all about providing personalized solutions to unique problems at the individual level. 80% of customers who receive valuable service tend to repurchase from the same brand. Utilize the power of AI to understand members’ past data and offer real-time AI-powered responses via chats. Customers who receive personalized and timely resolutions tend to be more trustworthy of brands and loyal.
- Dedicated support: Imagine having to share your query multiple times every time you reach out to customer support. Your Shopify membership program customers are special and deserve premium treatment. Consider offering them dedicated support —personal, one-on-one, human-to-human customer support. Moreover, ensure omnichannel customer support. This will not only enhance their membership personalization experience, but also boost their loyalty towards your brand.
Also read: How To Measure The Success Of Your Ecommerce Membership Program
Data-driven personalization
In today’s complex eCommerce membership world, data is the aspect that can help you gain a deeper understanding of customers to offer tailored experiences. Here’s how to go about it:
- Behavioral analytics: Your Shopify memberships program can give you data about customers’ behavior, activities, interests, and motivations. Ensure you continuously collect this data, analyze it, and expand your understanding of your customers. Use Shopify membership apps and tools that enable you to collect and analyze data in real time.
- Feedback integration: Another way to enhance eCommerce personalization is to involve customers at a deeper level. For instance, ask them for feedback to improve your membership model. This way, you can track their evolving needs and preferences, and stay abreast with membership market trends.
Personalized eCommerce membership renewal offers
How you ask members to renew their eCommerce membership plans can make or break the deal. That’s why you need to personalize this critical activity. Do this:
- Customized renewal incentives: Keep your members at the center when crafting incentives. Make membership renewal incentives personalized and relevant to members. Ensure it’s more than just transactional discounts. Offer them exclusive products, additional perks, and something new to keep them interested in your program.
- Reminders and updates: When you send reminders and regular updates to your eCommerce membership customers, send them personalized messages. Add in incentives and highlight features that are more relevant to your members.
Also read: Understanding Value-Adds That Would Make Your Ecommerce Membership Worth It
Community building
Today, eCommerce brands are all about their communities. However, your community should exist around helping your customers and facilitating connections between them. Here’s what you can do:
- Personalized community engagement: Create online and offline communities, spaces for your eCommerce membership customers to engage, meet, and discuss topics of their interest. For example, each tier of your membership program can be an exclusive community.
- Exclusive events: Host online and offline events, webinars, and engagement opportunities that cater to the interests of different segments of your members. For instance, these could be a workshop or learning experience related to your products or something completely non-related, for instance, volunteering for a social cause.
Why choose Appstle Memberships App for your Shopify membership program?
To set up robust Shopify membership personalization, and to manage it seamlessly, you will require an intuitive and smart app that provides all the necessary features.
Appstle Memberships App is the preferred app for thousands of Shopify and Shopify Plus merchants. The app has capabilities to set up multiple types of membership plans, innovative members benefits, customization features, data analytics, API access and automation, among others.
Explore and install Appstle Memberships on your Shopify store today!
