Amazon win web-personalisation crown

Consumers have crowned Amazon the best at web-personalisation, according to a new study by big-data marketing company BloomReach.

Four out of five (82%) respondents to the 2014 Consumer and Marketer Personalisation Study, conducted by RedShift Research, found that Amazon were amazing at personalisation – claiming no other company offers the same level of web-personalisation.

The study highlighted the growing technology gap between Amazon and the rest of the e-commerce world – which seem at odds with consumers’ expectations regarding personalisation.

The study, which sampled 1,000 UK consumers and 122 UK online retailers, found that just 2% of retailers thought that a personalised shopping experience was an important factor.

Raj De Datta, co-founder and chief executive of BloomReach, said that retailers are at odds with what consumers are looking for.

“Amazon has raised the bar in customer experience and the challenge is for retailers across the world to try to match that. The good news is that consumers are more open to competitor brands, placing little value in brand reputation but a lot of importance in the experience.

“Marketers need to recognise that brand reputation is not as important as they think it is and more on improving customer experience.”

The study further revealed that 59% of consumers believed that online experiences are more unique to their needs; different to the 80% of retail marketers who disagreed with this, saying that saying that online could not offer a more personal experience.