Having explored the importance of instant and relevant search in the online shopping experience, there is now another major challenge: personalization. Recognizing a customer and adapting the offer to their expectations can make all the difference, but this personalization has to be well thought out. If it is based on criteria that are too general or poorly adjusted, it runs the risk of creating frustration and distracting the buyer from his or her objective.
On a marketplace, where the range of products on offer is particularly vast, this challenge is even more complex. How do you offer a truly individualized experience and avoid recommendations that are disconnected from customers' real needs? This is what we will be looking at, using the example of La Redoute, which has managed to reinvent its model thanks to digital technology and a controlled approach to personalization.
How can you meet customer expectations?
Recognizing your customer is not enough
One of the factors that leads customers to return to a site is being acknowledged and receiving personalized treatment, which saves them time. But if this personalization is done badly, the customer will be frustrated. Imagine that you receive a recommendation of shoes from brand X, because your profile shows that you are of an age and have a purchasing history that matches other people that order from this brand – whereas in fact, you do not like this brand at all. Or you are offered promotions on candles because it’s nearly Christmas and in your region, candles are a best seller, but you came to buy a mirror for your new bathroom. Given the extent of the product range on a marketplace, this personalization is even more complicated. Creating personalization rules throughout the purchasing journey is a real headache. However, the customer has come to your site because they think they will find what they’re looking for quickly. And for many, a personalized product offering has become a given. To achieve this level of personalization with a marketplace, you need to put in place new functions that enable real individualisation of information.
80% of customers want personalized experiences. (McKinsey study - 1000 consumers in the US)
Focus on a marketplace strategy : La Redoute, the renaissance of a french flagship thanks to digital
La Redoute is a mail order pioneer which was badly shaken by fast fashion and the arrival of online sales specialists such as Zalando. To cope, it had to refocus its brand on its strengths - lifestyle fashion and home decor - while keeping an extended product offering via the marketplace model.
A marketplace that is part of the recovery strategy
The marketplace was launched at the end of 2010. At this time, the site had 7 million unique and highly qualified visitors and wanted to position itself as a selective marketplace with quality products and services. La Redoute followed a “hyper-elitist” recruitment policy for sellers, because it didn’t want this marketplace focus to degrade its brand image. The marketplace did not save La Redoute immediately, and the company was sold in 2014 by PPR to two of its executives, but it is part of the new refocusing strategy for its buyers. At the same time, the company is continuously launching new systems for improving customer experience, respecting the profile of its clientele, with simple and accessible functionality (voice search, image recognition, augmented reality, etc.)
The path to success
In 2020, the business saw its revenues rise by 20%. The site totalled 12 million unique visitors, which made it the top site for clothing and decoration in France. Digital represents 90% of sales and the marketplace hosts 600 sellers. La Redoute has continued to evolve its business model with the creation of a C2C solution to meet consumer demand for more ethical purchases, and by going further into omnichannel with the opening of points of sale, as well as kiosks in Galeries Lafayette, following its recent takeover by this group.
Among the ingredients from La Redoute’s recipe for success
- Highlighting own brand offers, in particular with online shops dedicated to the world of home decor.
- Keeping a large range of products (toys, computers, jewellery, etc) offered by third party sellers in the marketplace.
- Many technological innovations, tested by customers with the goal of improved customer experience. A focus on products with a greater margin, with a shift towards the world of home decor (which has grown from 30% of sales to 70% in 10 years).
- A deeper exploitation of data to improve understanding about customers.
Photo credit: ©istock ©Shutterstock