Most of you have probably already heard about the importance of personalization in the e-commerce business but what exactly does it mean? How the health-commerce industry can benefit from it to be successful? Nowadays personalization is rather becoming a must-have than an optional approach for brands. According to McKinsey’s Next in Personalization 2021 report, 71% of consumers expect personalization while 76% of respondents feel disappointed and frustrated when they don’t find it. Let’s dive into the topic and find out more – today I’ll share with you a few basic eCommerce personalization tips and strategies that will provide your clients or patients with the best shopping experience. And hence, of course, increase the conversion rates of your company.

personalization-the key to successful health-commerce

What is e-commerce personalization?

Personalization in e-commerce is a process of creating shopping experiences that are dedicated to an individual customer, not to a wide group of receivers. Instead of one common universal path of interaction with a group of clients, online sellers should focus on building a personal, individual customer journey for each client. The key elements of the customer journey should include customized website content, e-mails, and social media activity that would be changing, depending on the current needs and previous behaviors of the visitors.

It is hard nowadays to find a company that doesn’t operate in the e-commerce industry. It is no different with medical companies. Achieving success in this field often determines the existence of a company today. That’s why providing customers a personalized experience is so important to gain a competitive advantage.

More and more customers expect an individual approach to them and a personalized shopping experience from the sellers or service providers. It’s not just about communication but also an offer adjusted to their individual needs. To fulfill them, e-commerce owners should pay particular attention to the gathering, analyzing, and using the data about their online store visitors in an appropriate way.

Examples of personalization methods for health-commerce

Personalized product recommendation

One of the most common ways of personalization is to apply personalized recommendations of products. They’re based on the profile of the shopper, usually determined by the visitor’s previous activity, browsing history, or the preferences selected by them on the website. Later on, they are displayed on the shopping cart or in e-mails.

Product cards usually contain links to related or recently viewed products and advertisements based on the user’s previous activity. Customer data can also be used to send customers information about promotions that may be of particular interest to them, products they abandoned before completing the checkout, or suggestions based on previous purchases.

Personalized recommendations can also be realized through paid advertising. For example, Facebook remarketing allows marketers to target their visitors with ads for products they previously viewed or added to their cart without completing the purchase.

Using chatbots to communicate with clients

Thanks to social media messengers, you can personalize customer interaction by installing a chatbot. There are many possibilities for using it, for example providing customers with the possibility of making a purchase via chat, enabling them to check the status of their order, providing information about the availability of products, answering basic questions, or even making birthday wishes. All these activities contribute to building positive relationships with the clients.

personalization-the key to successful health-commerce

Location-based personalization

If you trade internationally, it makes sense to introduce a feature such as geo-location notifications. If you have dedicated store pages for visitors from different countries, offer them redirection to a homepage that matches their actual location when they find themselves on the wrong one. Most online retailers have country-specific domains for international customers. However, it will be a bad idea to force users to go to a specific page based on a script, because it may turn out that it redirects it incorrectly and the user gets discouraged and leaves your page.

Digital assistant

Another way of improving the customer experience is by providing them with a digital assistant who will help them make the right choice. Sometimes customers feel overwhelmed by the number of available options and possibilities. Not only does this make it difficult to make a choice but also creates uncertainty and hesitation. Introducing a virtual assistant which asks the customer a series of questions regarding their requirements aimed at narrowing down the scope of the relevant products will make them feel more comfortable and peaceful. Based on the given answers, there are presented a few personalized suggestions of products to the client. This solution would be especially helpful in pharmaceutical e-commerce, where the scope of medicines is infinite and the advice of such an assistant is irreplaceable. Such great facilitation will certainly help you build customer loyalty, no matter if provided online or offline.

Examples of product personalization in health-commerce

Similarly to other sectors, healthcare should also introduce some personalization strategies to stay competitive in the market. The offered services should be focused on personalization and a positive customer experience for patients. Today’s technological solutions already allow for the creation of automated diagnosis and treatment paths, which, supported by AI, IoT, machine learning, or data analysis, enable conducting a multi-layered customer segmentation based on medical or behavioral situations. Proper matching of different personalizing solutions to healthcare can significantly influence the personalization of patients’ treatment. Personalizing medical services is essential in providing more effective therapeutic services in which the patient can also be engaged. Personalization in health commerce may apply not only to the online store and e-commerce but also to the personalization of the products. Companies can gain a competitive advantage by abandoning the “one fit all” principle and considering customers’ individual preferences. Here are some examples of how different brands and healthcare sectors use the power of personalization but in regard to their products:

  • Smart hairbrush from L’Oreal. A few years ago, L’oreal launched a new, highly personalized product called “Kératase Hair Coach” based on IoT technology and using connected devices – a smart hairbrush. It uses its sensors to monitor the condition and health of hair and then suggests the next steps for the treatment. This innovative product analyzes the user’s hair type, sharing insights on their dryness, frizziness, manageability, or breakage, and recommends products suitable for correcting the detected tendencies, creating a personalized experience for customers. Such eCommerce personalization strategies increase the users’ engagement and loyalty towards brands.
  • 3D printing of pharmaceuticals. The concept of using 3D printing in clinical pharmacy has been evolving for the last few years. They aim to print medicines with a size, shape, dosages, and even multi-drug combinations adapted to the patients and their therapeutic requirements and personal preferences. This innovation creates an entirely different experience than it was before and is a good eCommerce personalization example.
  • Smart Body Scale. In response to the development of human awareness about their own body and health, on the market have appeared products that help people in more accurate diagnosis and measurement of the health of their bodies – smart body scales. These products provide different parameters of the user’s body, such as visceral fat index, weight, water percentage, muscle mass, BMI index, bone mass, and daily calorie requirement. The scale can be connected via WiFi with a phone on which the generated data is displayed. Then, with such individual results, you can go to your dietitian or personal trainer to conduct a deeper analysis of the results.

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Personalization in eCommerce creates a unique experience for each customer

Remember that nowadays, the success of an eCommerce business, including those in the healthcare sector, highly depends on the level of personalization of the products, services, and customer experience. This is where healthcare software development services come into play, offering tailored solutions that cater specifically to the needs of healthcare consumers. Today’s consumers, especially in the healthcare industry, tend to expect or even demand personalized offers from sellers and service providers. If you’re at the beginning of your journey with personalization, just choose and test a few different solutions at first, leveraging healthcare software development services to better understand your clients and build your own customer base. Check what makes your customers happy and then optimize personalization efforts with these specialized services to increase sales and achieve the best results in the healthcare market.