My 15 Minutes of Fame: Consumers doubt the value of online personalisation: study

Personalisation is considered to be an extremely effective way of driving sales and conversions, with 94% of businesses stating that personalisation ‘is critical to current and future success.’

In fact data included in our Realities of Online Personalisation report shows that for two-thirds (66%) of client-side respondents, both improved business performance and customer experience are the main drivers for personalising the website experience.

However two new studies suggest that consumers aren’t blown away by personalised experiences online, or at least that’s their perception.

In a global consumer survey by Adobe 42% of respondents said they were ‘neutral’ about the value of personalised product and service recommendations online, which is as good as saying they either don’t care or aren’t aware of it.

A third of respondents (33%) said that they find personalisation somewhat or very valuable, while 26% claimed that it’s either not very or not at all valuable.

How valuable do you find it when a website makes personalised product and service recommendations to you?

But a separate study from Lyris suggests that consumers are quite receptive to certain elements of personalisation.

When asked which personalised features they preferred the most in the context of brand communications, 48% of respondents said they like to receive product recommendations based on their interests compared to 20% who gave a negative response.

Opinion was more closely split when it came to personalisation of webpages based on age and gender, with 37% saying they appreciate this kind of targeting compared to 31% who said they don’t.

The Lyris survey also asked about personalisation in regards to marketing messages, with 63% of respondents stating that they receive so many messages that use their name that it no longer makes any difference.

However a further 22% said they appreciate personalised offers as they are more likely to meet their needs than mass-market offers, while 20% said that they like getting messages that include details of their previous transactions or other personal details as it makes them feel that the company values their business.

Privacy

Much of the negative sentiment towards personalisation is driven by privacy concerns and a mistrust of business motives.

In the Adobe survey 84% of consumers agreed that there are too many technologies tracking and analysing their behaviour, while 68% said they find targeted advertising creepy.

Please rate each of the following statements based on whether you agree or disagree. (Agree)