Commentary

Targets Of Interest: Consumers Are Wary As Brands Adopt Advanced Personalization

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: 

  • Lack of control over your personal data — 27%
  • You notice news of security or privacy breaches and worry about being a victim — 22%
  • You see more ads that use your personal information or online behaviors — 15%
  • Lack of notification from brand/retailer using cookies to track your information — 7% 
  • The level of data collection by brands/retailers — 5% 
  • Difficulty in opting out — 4%
  • Brands/retailers not collecting your data ethically — 6% 
  • Brands/retailers not being transparent enough on their policy of collecting personal data — 3%

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:

  • Consumer personalization survey of 5,014 consumers in the U.S. and U.K. in October 2021, with a split reflecting the national populations (4:1). 
  • Retailer personalization survey of 260 brands that have an online presence and are based in the U.S. and U.K. with a national population split (4:1)., in October 2021.  
  • Consumer privacy survey of 1,002 U.S. and UK consumers, evenly split. 

 

 

 

 

 

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