It’s 2023, so it’ll hardly come as groundbreaking news that the effective collection, analysis and use of data is crucial to boosting ecommerce conversion rates and revenues.

But there is a common misconception in the ecommerce world that utilising data to accomplish these goals must come at the expense of customer experience. And indeed it is true that access to an unfettered amount of data can lead to poor, inefficient use of this data and a disjointed, bloated customer experience onsite if you lack the means to channel it correctly.

For online brands that depend on a seamless customer experience, further exploitation of data can seem like a risk. But this fundamentally misses the potential of data to be the driving force behind enhancement of your customer experience.

When it comes to product discovery and the online customer experience, data should be the foundation of any feature that seeks to improve it. Personalisation, on-site search and merchandising, all vital to customer experience, are driven by customer data and require sufficient analysis in order to maximise conversions and sales.

As increasing overheads narrow your margins and tough economic conditions continue to dampen consumer spending, targeting greater efficiency in these key areas through the use of data has never been more important for stimulating growth. Read on to learn how to put data at the heart of your brand’s customer experience.

Algorithmic commerce

DYNAMIC CONTENT

Serving customers dynamic content is one effective way of utilising data to enhance the customer experience. Personalised recommendations are nothing new in ecommerce, but rapidly improving algorithms and AI are pushing the boundaries of what’s possible.

Your site may have thousands or even millions of historical sales; far too many for human processing to accurately and quickly make sense of. The best AI platforms can spot the most important patterns needed to serve hyper-relevant, inspirational dynamic recommendations in real time. With every recommendation that is served, A/B testing collects further data and ensures future dynamic content is more relevant. All changes are tied to your brand’s commercial goals; for instance they can be optimised to boost conversions, average order value or lifetime value among others. Crucially, it also enables brands to offer personalised recommendations across more touchpoints, and to cross-sell in a way which is relevant to their personal customer journey.

SEARCH

On-site search is another area ripe for improvement through the use of data. Search box users are five times more likely to make a purchase and spend three times more on average than users who don’t use the search box. Despite this, most brands still rely on basic search functionality that doesn’t intelligently prioritise products and frequently returns irrelevant results. Poor search functionality costs businesses revenue, but it also incurs reputational damage. Research from Google shows that 86% of UK consumers are more likely to see a brand differently following an unsuccessful search.

AI-powered search platforms significantly improve relevance in search results by taking into account keyword frequency on product pages, considering synonyms, spelling mistakes and language discrepancies. Most crucially, results served are prioritised by using individual shoppers’ real-time behaviour and shopping traits, while search results can also be aligned with business strategy to serve products based on factors including popularity and inventory. These improvements can rapidly result in tangible improvements in click-through and conversion rates and revenue.

MERCHANDISING AND CREATIVE CONTROL

Embracing data enables brands to make considerable progress quicker than ever before. Based on learning from this data, algorithms can execute your merchandising strategies instantly. AI-assisted merchandising doesn’t take away creative control, instead it takes your strategy and delivers it through dynamic content, personalised recommendations and search results.

AI-assisted merchandising enables you to deploy new strategies much more quickly than previously possible by harnessing the full power of every platform at your disposal. Define the parameters of your A/B testing and an AI orchestrator does the rest, meaning the most efficient solutions are implemented quickly and intelligently, enhancing your site’s customer experience.

In short, AI merchandising does the heavy lifting – automating your team’s more mundane duties and freeing up their time to focus on value-added tasks. The ability to deploy new strategies so quickly and efficiently will ultimately have a significant impact on the lifetime value of customers and stimulate quicker growth.

Achieving exceptional results with Crownpeak

Some of the world’s biggest brands are using Crownpeak to revolutionise their customer experience online. Our AI tools and algorithms capture and analyse customer data in real times, helping to create personalised shopping journeys which deliver extraordinary results.

Find out how a partnership with Crownpeak could enhance your brand’s customer experience and achieve sustained growth by requesting a demo today .