E-commerce Personalization: 5 Tips to Sell More

eCommerce personalization uses customer data to create tailored shopping experiences. It’s an effective strategy for increasing sales and growing your customer base.

More importantly, it has become the new standard in B2B eCommerce: 90% of B2B buyers now expect a B2C-like experience, with all the customization that comes with it. Organizations that meet these new expectations are far more likely to thrive, while those that don’t risk falling well behind.

To succeed with personalization, though, you need to collect and analyze large amounts of customer data. That data must then be used to generate personalized pages, search results, catalogs, promotions, messages, and more. Using the right eCommerce platform makes this much easier, but you still need to think carefully about your customization strategy throughout the sales process.

Enough talk — let’s look at five high-impact ways to master personalization.

The benefits of B2B eCommerce personalization

There are several advantages to putting personalization at the center of your B2B sales strategy.

Higher conversion rates

According to Adobe’s 2023 B2B Commerce Growth Strategies Survey, more than 60% of companies that implemented personalization strategies such as product recommendations (66%), in-stock product notifications (68%), and enhanced analytics (67%) saw higher conversion rates.

That’s because customization helps you target the right customers with the right products at the right time, making them more likely to buy.

Let’s use an example to illustrate the point.

Company X is a mid-sized construction supplier serving independent contractors. It notices that a large share of its customer base in Northern Europe buys reflective safety gear every winter because the sun sets earlier in the day.

For customers who (a) live in northern regions; (b) have a purchase history that suggests a seasonal need for winter safety gear; or (c) whose current cart indicates they’re at the start of a new project, Company X offers bundled savings on safety gear through product recommendations and on-page bundle offers.

Customers are more likely to convert because it’s convenient to get their safety gear from a single source, they save money by buying bundled items, and they’re reminded at the right moment of the unique safety challenges of winter.

Better customer experience and loyalty

According to a recent Navattic report, 90% of B2B buyers expect a B2C experience, which includes a high degree of personalization.

Personalization helps customers find the products they want faster and makes it easier to discover new products and solutions. It simplifies ordering, payment, and shipping, and gives customers access to tailored offers, promotions, and on-site experiences.

Let’s look at an example:

Company Y is a large office supplies provider launching a new online B2B experience. It has introduced a new search function that places items customers have ordered before at the top of search results, using a semantic engine to surface results even when different search terms are used (such as “office desk” instead of “desk”).

In addition, Company Y preserves historical purchasing and shipping options for both small and large orders; users can click a “Click to order now” button to skip most of the checkout section.

Finally, the search engine and on-page product recommendations are tailored to the user’s industry, as shown in their profile. Call centers are more likely to see headsets and ergonomic chairs, while architecture firms may find drafting tables and high-quality printing paper.

As a result, customers spend less time searching for products and are less frustrated.

Higher average order value

Personalization is one of the most effective ways to increase cross-sells and upsells and, in turn, average order value.

You can use what you know about customers to suggest complementary items, remind them of products they’ve ordered in the past, show them what other companies bought together, and offer tailored savings on bulk purchases or bundles.

Here’s an example of this in action:

Company Z, a medical equipment supplier, increases average order value by adding personalized recommendations focused on complementary single-use items: probe covers for ultrasound machines, replacement cuffs for blood pressure monitors, sheaths for endoscopes, and more. These single-use items are essential for sterility and are always in high demand in hospitals.

By making it easy to add the right single-use items to any new core purchase, Company Z can increase revenue across a large share of these transactions.

5 practical ways to implement eCommerce personalization

DJUST works with some of the biggest B2B players in the market. As a result, we’ve seen firsthand how customization can significantly improve results.

Here are six of our best tips for simple, effective personalized shopping experiences.

1. Personalized search results and catalogs

Personalized search results top our list of personalization strategies with the biggest business impact. It’s simple to implement and requires no UI changes or additional front-end assets.

Here’s how to do it:

• History-based: Place recently or frequently viewed or purchased items at the top of the search results page or dropdown list. This helps users quickly find items they regularly buy or may have considered and forgotten about.
• Industry, role, and segment: Adjust products in search results based on the customer’s job role, industry (if you serve multiple industries), and segment. This helps customers see the items most relevant to their searches and lets you intelligently surface bestsellers based on segment behavior.
• User-driven personalization: Of course, offering filters in your search results also lets users personalize their own results. Over time, you can learn from this behavior and start suggesting filters based on the search query and past interactions.

Catalogs also deserve personalization. For example, at DJUST, we gave our partner Monoprix (one of France’s largest food distributors) a simple, effective way to display different catalogs based on customer location. Users in the Middle East see fewer alcoholic products, while dry pasta options are prioritized in Italy and across the rest of Europe. In this way, regional users are shown the products most likely to appeal to their own customers.

2. Personalized checkout and shipping elements

We know that B2B payments tend to be especially complex. They’re larger and more complicated from both a technical and accounting standpoint. Wire transfers and ACH payments are common, while credit card payments may be less frequent. In addition, it’s common for multiple stakeholders to be involved in the buying process.

However, clunky, broken checkout experiences are one of the main causes of cart abandonment in both B2C and B2B eCommerce.

Customers expect payment options tailored to their industry and shipping options tailored to their cart and location.

That’s why it’s essential to prioritize payment and shipping options based on past interactions and make it easy for customers to use the same payment and shipping setup as before.

Expert tip:

There are three main reasons B2B users abandon their carts:

1. They aren’t used to digital shopping experiences and prefer to complete their order with a sales rep or call center.
2. Payment options are more flexible elsewhere (for example, through “Buy now, pay later”).
3. They’re comparing prices with other sites.

3. Personalized product page recommendations

Product recommendations are one of the most profitable ways to use customer data.

Placing recommendations directly on product pages is an effective way to do this. The trick is to cross-reference the product currently being viewed with what you know about the buyer and other customers in the same segment or segments.

For example, a “More like this” recommendation shows items in similar categories or items that often go together, such as napkins with disposable plates or safety glasses with protective helmets.

Refine these recommendations over time as you learn which products perform well and for which segments, and balance price with purchase likelihood to drive as many orders as possible.

4. Seamless shopping experiences for returning customers

Seamless shopping means your eCommerce platform recognizes users when they return to your site or app, allowing them to pick up their order where they left off.

Not only is this convenient for customers, it also helps you better target hesitant buyers and recover abandoned carts — a key metric to track and reduce at all costs.

There are three main ways to encourage seamless shopping:

1. You can pair seamless shopping with product recommendations (see above). As soon as they log in, customers are greeted with their existing orders and product recommendations to complete them.

2. “Recently viewed” recommendations show users a list of items they’ve looked at recently. This makes it easier for customers to find items they searched for earlier in the day or week, or opened in another tab or on another device. It nudges customers toward a purchase they may have considered but not completed.

3. “Recently purchased” recommendations show returning users the items they bought during previous visits. You can prioritize items likely to be purchased frequently, such as single-use items, disposable products, consumables, and replenishable supplies.

5. Personalized “most viewed” and “most purchased” bestsellers

Bestseller lists rely on the concept of “social proof” to make a compelling case for cross-selling and upselling.

Expert tip: The concept of “social proof” refers to our tendency to follow other people’s actions when making decisions. In sales, that means customers are more likely to buy a product if they see that others have already done so. It’s a form of validation that reinforces their purchase decision.

You can tap into the power of social proof through “Most viewed” and “Most purchased” lists.

You can personalize them for users based on:

• Their industry, location, or role
• The product page currently being viewed
• Their current cart
• Their past purchases

In B2B eCommerce, you also get an additional segmentation factor: the user’s title or role.

That makes it especially easy to dynamically create targeted bestseller lists for customers. Social proof reaches a whole new level, while also giving customers recommendations they’re likely to genuinely appreciate.

Headless commerce and simple customization

Headless commerce is the key to fast, simple personalization.

A headless architecture separates, or “decouples,” the front end (what your customer sees) from the back end (where your data is stored).

There are four main reasons headless architecture enables high-impact personalization:

1. It’s much more flexible and agile. With DJUST’s headless architecture, for example, you can customize the user interface and experience endlessly. And because the front end runs independently from the back end, you can roll out new updates in minutes.

2. Integration with customer relationship management (CRM) and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems is simple. By connecting directly to customer and company data, you’ll make your customizations more targeted, more dynamic, and more effective.

Likewise, it’s easy to integrate third-party advanced analytics tools and AI and machine learning tools. That lets you analyze customer behavior and automate the personalization process.

3. It’s easy to create effective omnichannel experiences, which more and more B2B customers want. Easily build different user interfaces for different devices, industries, roles, and segments.

4. It tends to be much faster. Because the front end is separate, it can be optimized for performance, resulting in faster load times and a smoother user experience, which is essential for effective customization.

Making personalization sustainable

As we’ve seen, there are many ways to personalize the customer experience.

Companies that start using customization should begin small and focus on high-impact personalization, such as personalized search results, product page recommendations, and seamless shopping.

Use the analytics offered by eCommerce platforms to start building customer profiles based on browsing history, purchase history, role, and industry. Over time, you can use these insights to make data-driven decisions about the types of customization most likely to increase sales and customer satisfaction.

Personalization also requires a fair amount of experimentation. Try new customizations and see how customers respond. You can use A/B testing to refine these experiences and determine what works best for your audience.

In conclusion

Companies can use personalization to increase sales and build customer loyalty. Start by collecting customer data to build user profiles, then use that data to influence customer behavior.

Leverage these five simple approaches to increase average order value, boost purchase frequency, and retain customers: (1) personalized search results and catalogs; (2) personalized checkout and shipping options; (3) personalized product page recommendations; (4) seamless shopping experiences; and (5) personalized bestseller lists.

Finally, adopt a headless platform like DJUST to make customization more agile and sustainable.