• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, February 28, 2017

A new survey by LIstrak of over 400 retailers, to determine what cross-channel strategies and tactics are being used to engage customers, reports on marketing digital trends and tactics. As new technology was introduced to automate message personalization, many retailers were quick to jump on board, serving up product recommendations on-site, in emails and in display ads.

Key Findings from the study include:

• Leading marketers base the recommendations on each shopper’s browse behavior across multiple devices and touchpoints. While there is a time and place to share new and popular items, marketers have moved beyond that to truly personalize every experience shoppers have with their brands
• 30% of the shopping cart abandonment messages included product recommendations based on the items browsed and carted
• The study received browse abandonment messages from nearly 15% of the retailers studied and nearly 80% of those messages included personalized product recommendations based on the category or sub-category browsed. Expect more organizations to add messages like this in 2017, says the report
• Programmatic advertising is on the rise. Display ads featuring products browsed from 70% of the retailers studied found that they also included product recommendations featuring items in the same category or sub-category of the merchandise viewed on-site

Trend 1: Customers abandon carts for many reasons

Customers do price comparisons before they’re ready to buy; they’re not satisfied with shipping rates or shipping dates; they get distracted mid-checkout; or, if websites aren’t optimized for mobile shopping, customers add items while shopping on mobile devices intending to complete the purchase later on a PC.

Cart abandonment messages are commonplace, and the goal of these messages is to persuade the customer to buy the item they abandoned in the cart.

Shopping cart abandonment findings show that 44% of retailers sent at least one cart abandonment message, and nearly 31% of cart abandonment campaigns consisted of three or more messages:

• 9.0% sent 4
• 21.6% sent 3
• 26.5% sent2
• 42.9% sent 1

Trend 2: Retailers are starting to send browse abandonment messages

Browse abandonment messages are a way to use the customer information collected, says the report. Unlike cart abandonment messages, the goal of browse abandonment campaigns is to drive customers back to your site to shop again, making personal product recommendations so powerful in these messages.

The concept behind browse abandonment messages, with the addition of personal product recommendations, has improved the messages. When done correctly, these messages are a digital version of a personal shopper as they help customers, and the merchandise they are most interested in.

Browse Abandonment Findings From the Study:

Over half of all browse abandonment campaigns only contain one message

• One message 54.8%
• Two messages 32.3%
• Three messages 12.9%

Nearly 80%of browse abandonment messages contained personal product recommendations

• Message 1: 79%
• Message 2: 79%
• Message 3: 39%

Trend 3: Display ads showing browsed products are becoming commonplace:

Programmatic advertisingaccounts for 67% of total digital display ad spending in the US, says the report. Because it does not require email addresses or mobile numbers, it allows retailers to retarget consumers in varying phases of the customer journey, including the non-subscriber and non-purchaser. These display ads are designed to drive site visitors back to your site by reminding them of things they already looked at and showing them product recommendations based on their browse history.

Concluding, the report notes that digital marketing messages that are truly personalized to each site visitor’s browse behavior has become mainstream, as more and more retailers continue to adopt the technology to automate these strategies and tactics.

Adding a browse abandonment series will boost revenue greatly, says the report, opening opportunities to reach shoppers with relevant messages in a new way since you know what products they viewed. Customers expect this level of personalization from every brand.

For additional information from Listrak, please visit here.