Retailers are using advanced forms of personalization even as consumers fret about their privacy, according to Balancing Trust, Data Collection and Privacy, a two-part study from CM Group brands Sailthru and Liveclicker, conducted by Coresight Research.
Of the companies polled, 50% deploy predictive personalization, 47% use email send-time optimization and 44% buyer journey based personalization.
This is occurring as 64% of consumers are worried about privacy, and 28% are extremely worried. Another 26% are moderately concerned with the issue, with 6% who are slightly worried and 4% not concerned at all.
Marketers and consumers disagree on some points. For instance, email is preferred as a channel by 32% of consumers -- tied with websites for first place. But 46% of marketers believe websites are in the top slot, and only 8% believe consumers like email.
U.S. brands with $500 million or more in revenue are “quicker to embrace more advanced forms of personalization and predictive analytics,” than smaller companies.
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For instance, larger U.S. firms utilize these forms of personalization: predictive (59%), device-based (56%), channel-based personalization (53%).buyer journey-based (50%) and click-based (49%).
But 39% of firms in the lower bracket use predictive personalization. The leading tactic is preferred by the smaller companies is targeted discounts/offers (49%).
Meanwhile, 28% of the larger firms send segmented emails, versus 23% of the smaller ones.
For their part, consumers seem aware that brands are using advanced means of targeting then, but not all are troubled by it, Their top issues are:
Consumers are willing to share basic information with trusted retailers, including gender (85%), name (82%), email address (81%), birth date (69%) and product preferences (68%).
In contrast, 47% will provide their home address and 42% their phone number.
Shoppers are slightly less willing to share details with new brands or retailers, including gender (77%), name (75%), email address (74%) and birth date (59%).
Here’s one more stat: 53% of consumers have joined a loyalty program.
Coresight Research conducted three surveys: