Herb Sorensen, Ph.D.

Retail TouchPoints: New Research Shows Online Shoppers Expect Personalized Merchandising

July 6, 2010

FROM RETAILWIRE:
According to new research, more than 50 percent of consumers expect personalized merchandising, starting with a personalized home page, while one in four look for these tailored experiences at the search results, product, and category pages. When, where and how should personalized merchandising become part of the online shopping experience?      [more...]

Ben Sprecher used the term "recommendation marketing." Another way of saying that is "telling the shopper what to buy." Or make it softer and say "suggest what the shopper should buy." In every case it fixes the #1 sin of self service retailers, which is failing to TELL THE SHOPPER WHAT TO BUY!

Online retail is of course self service retailing, with electronic assistance because it is "online." But the very same electronic assistance is already creeping into bricks-and-mortar stores through the use of the shopper's own PDA or cell phone. It's a trickle today, but will become a flood as "recommendation marketing" becomes the norm for ALL self service retailing, online and offline.

Seeing this coming, I have spent the past few years figuring out how self service retailers, WITHOUT electronic assistance, can implement "recommendation marketing" in current bricks-and-mortar self service stores. It is the doorway to astounding increases in sales and profits. But very counter-intuitive to the passive "pile it high, and let it fly" crowd.