Free E-commerce Personalization Tools That You Can’t Help But Use!
Table of Contents
It’s not just about shifting stock online and setting up a payment gateway. By its very nature, e-commerce is a constantly evolving beast wanting to stay on top of customer’s needs and minds. Surprisingly, 77.24% of users abandon their carts before completing a purchase. This clearly reflects that e-commerce players need to do a lot more to convince customers. So, to tackle this challenge for our fellow marketers, we have discovered some amazing free e-commerce personalization tools that focus on driving brand loyalty and lead generation, assuring future sales.
1. Brooklyn Bicycle Co – Bike Finder
Brooklyn Bicycle designed an interactive quiz to help people pick the right-fitting bicycle for themselves by going through just a few fun questions. This is an excellent strategy for customer engagement and conversion. After implementing this, the brand saw a 36% growth in its conversion rate.
Takeaway: Quizzes and surveys can be a game-changing move. You may smartly use it for lead generation by placing a lead gen form before giving users their personalized solutions. You may go on to use targeted offers to nurture your leads.
2. Nike – Custom Shoes
Nike came up with a brilliant idea of literally giving customers what they want. It invented a platform where users can create their custom shoes by modifying the color schemes and text of any gear from Nike. Have a look at how we created this custom pair of shoes in just a few minutes.
Takeaway: Offering personalization to customers is a smart e-commerce strategy that brands should follow. By becoming a customer-oriented brand like Nike, e-commerce companies can not only achieve customer loyalty but also a strong competitive advantage. This can also act as a lead generation tool for you.
Recommended Read: E-commerce personalization trends after COVID-19
3. Tesla – Design Your Model
Wherever Tesla goes, innovation follows. Tesla took the automotive industry to the next level by offering customers to design their own Tesla. You can personalize the exterior, interior, and a few other features to make it suit your taste.
Takeaway: Buyer’s journey in the automotive sector is usually long. So, it is essential to engage your customers right from the start. When customers actually see the final product, it increases your chances of conversion.
4. IKEA – Place AR & Planning Tools
IKEA is a hub for creative ideas for all your furnishing needs. To add to this creativity, IKEA deployed a virtual planner that lets users design the whole bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, or office space with a variety of furniture. Simply add items and you will be able to visualize what is the best-suiting furniture you want.
Well, to enhance customer engagement, IKEA came up with Place AR app that lets users virtually place true-to-scale 3D models of IKEA items in your very own space. It’s like buying the product after bringing it home.
Takeaway: By combining the latest AR technology with your solutions, you can give your audience an experience like never before. In fact, 73% of AR users say that they are highly satisfied with the AR experiences and 71% of shoppers prefer stores that offer virtual try-on.
Consequently, improved customer satisfaction leads to conversions.
5. Sumaris – Jewelry Try-on
Who wouldn’t want to see how good a pair of earrings look before buying it? Online jewelry stores have tackled this issue with 3D virtual try-on. Moreover, users can share their looks with their friends and family.
Takeaway: The fashion industry is all about the look and feel. And, brick & mortar stores often have a competitive advantage in this. So, if you happen to fall in this category, 3D try-on can help you engage your customers by offering personalization. This can also help with customer segmentation.
6. Sephora – Makeup Artist
Bringing AR and AI technology to the beauty industry, Sephora’s virtual makeup artist uses facial recognition to empower customers to try on thousands of products anywhere. Moreover, the app gives users the option to share the unique looks created by Sephora.
Takeaway: While other cosmetic companies rely heavily on department store sales, you can take this idea to understand customers’ pain points and personalize their shopping experience. It further helps in customer segmentation and gives the opportunity for targeting relevant offers to the leads.
7. Fitters – Virtual Eyewear
With the virtual try-on glasses feature, Fitters allows users to discover how their favorite frames look on them in real-time without going to the store. All you need to do is upload a short video or photo and see the magic!
Takeaway: Virtual reality is one of the most widely used free e-commerce personalization tools. It provides instant value to the users and hence increases the chances of conversions.
8. Adidas – Workout Fitness App
Adidas as a brand is often associated with fitness. Hence, it came out with an app Runtastic that lets users track their runs, bodyweight training sessions, and other fitness & sports activities. They can also record their workouts and review the statistics. Adidas gives the option to share your success with a global community as well.
Takeaway: Now, this is clearly not about sales. Adidas through this initiative wants to inculcate a sense of fitness needs in users. However, this will increase their brand awareness and ultimately lead to conversions.
9. Shopify – 3D Warehouse
Another early AR adopter is Shopify. With its 3D warehouse management app, Shopify lets users visualize products in their own space without having to buy anything or go anywhere. This AR experience gives them a better sense of the size, scale, and detail of the products. Just tap on a vase, and you would feel it projected on your study table.
Takeaway: Top e-commerce players are exploring AR avenues to give a touch of personalization to the customers and increase engagement. By letting shoppers see 3D visualizations of products, brands can better manage consumer expectations and boost customer-satisfaction rates.
10. Gucci – AR Shoes Try-On
It may be daunting to walk into a showroom like Gucci when you are not really sure if you want to splurge that much. Thankfully, with Gucci AR, one can try on outrageously expensive shoes for free. You can simply use your phone’s camera to see how you look in a pair of Gucci’s Ace GG terry cloth sneakers, which—by the way—cost $650. Moreover, you can take snapshots and share them on social media.
Takeaway: By now, you are well aware of the benefits of AR technology. However, it just doesn’t increase your ultimate profits, but it also decreases losses. Making customers satisfied in the first place helps eliminate the costs of handling product returns from disappointed shoppers.
Conclusion
Ecommerce is not just about sales. The objective is not just to increase conversions, but also to build a brand image where you are on the top of your audience’s mind no matter where they are in their buyer’s journey.
These free e-commerce personalization tools are very powerful instruments that have made the brands using them as one of the industry leaders. All of us may not be innovators. But, it is still smart to take some inspiration and implement these brilliant interactive ideas in your e-commerce strategy.
Shreya Sinha is the Content Manager at Outgrow, an interactive content marketing platform. With years of experience in lead generation and customer engagement topics, she aims to create content that clicks and converts.