Personalisation statistics provide the best way to know what consumers think about personalisation as well as how it affects businesses as a whole.

Real consumers and businesses have published detailed reports on the implementation of personalisation, personalisation tools and advanced personalisation strategies.

This post focuses on the best statistics in general as well as for marketing, ecommerce and advertising.

General personalisation statistics

1. 90% of leading marketers say personalisation significantly contributes to business profitability

This stat is from a survey of North American companies who earn at least $250 million per year in revenue.

Respondents were marketing and measurement executives at these companies.

Source: Google

2. 89% of businesses are investing in personalisation

Personalised marketing is in, and an overwhelming majority of businesses are taking an interest.

Even major companies like Coca-Cola, Netflix, Fabletics, Wells Fargo, Sephora and USAA are spending more to understand personalisation and implement it into their digital marketing strategies.

Source: ProfitBlitz

3. 64% of consumers interpret a personalised shopping experience as customisation and service

Epsilon teamed up with GBH Insights to survey real customers. Their ultimate goal was to understand how personalisation impacts customer relationships.

They found that consumers interpret “personalisation” as…
32% Customization
32% Service
16% Discounts & Offers
8% Specific Products & Services
7% Convenience

Source: Epsilon

4. 76% of consumers get frustrated by businesses who do not offer personalised experiences

McKinsey’s Next in Personalisation 2021 Report revealed quite a bit about the role personalisation plays in the world of business and marketing.

Respondents were asked to express “how much you agree or disagree with the statements below when it comes to personalised communications and products/services from brands and business.”

When presented with the statement “It is frustrating when a brand/business shows or recommends me things that are not relevant to me,” 76% of respondents agreed.

They also found that 71% of consumers expect personalisation.

Source: McKinsey & Company

5. 69% of consumers want the convenience personalisation provides, but only if it includes data they’ve shared themselves

Twilio Segment is a leading customer data platform.

They published a report called the State of Personalisation in 2021, an update from the previous version, which was published in 2017.

They found that although consumers appreciate personalisation, privacy and security are far more important.

69% of consumers only want personalisation if it’s based on data they’ve shared with businesses directly.

48% only want personalisation if that data is secure.

Additionally, 7 out of 10 consumers are okay with personalisation, but only if it involves first-party data.

In other words, consumers do not want businesses to obtain data on them by purchasing it from third parties.

Source: Segment

6. 83% of consumers are willing to share data with brands to receive personalised experiences

Accenture surveyed 8,000 consumers from around the world to uncover key data on how consumers feel about personalisation.

Our previous statistic revealed that privacy in regards to personalisation is critical to 69% of consumers.

Fortunately for marketers, Accenture’s report revealed that 83% of consumers are willing to share data themselves in order to facilitate more personalised experiences.

Only 27% of consumers reported brand experiences that felt too personal or invasive.

Accenture honed in on this statistic and found that 64% of those 27% discovered personalised data they didn’t share with brands themselves.

An example was receiving product recommendations based on purchases they made with outside retailers.

As businesses implement personalisation into their marketing strategies, they need to be careful about how they receive customer data.

Source: Accenture

7. 76% of businesses use real-time behavioural data for personalisation

In Yieldify’s Personalisation After COVID-19 report, the company asked respondents to describe the data they use for website personalisation.

76% of respondents reported using real-time behavioural data, such as targeting shoppers who linger on the cart page for longer than it takes to check out.

63% of businesses use individual user profile data obtained from a customer data platform.

62% use cookie-based data to differentiate new and returning visitors.

62% use data from other marketing channels, such as the data they obtain from shoppers through personalised email marketing strategies. See our post on email marketing stats for more.

Source: Yieldify

8. 85% of consumers do not think personalisation is the most important aspect of a brand

In Segment’s State of Personalisation report, the company asked consumers what they feel is most important when deciding to buy from a particular brand.

33% of respondents believe they’ll have a positive impact while 47% believe they’ll have a slight positive impact.

Only 8% of respondents believe privacy rules will have a negative impact on personalisation.

Source: Yieldify

Marketing personalisation statistics

11. Personalised CTAs convert 202% better than default variants

HubSpot analyzed 330,000 calls-to-action available in three different testing methods to see which variant converted best as a whole.

The first was a basic CTA available to all consumers regardless of their actions on the site.

The second was a “multivariate” CTA. This was essentially another basic CTA, except it was shown in two variants split evenly among website visitors.

The third was a “smart” CTA. These were personalised to website visitors based on location, browser language, whether or not they were customers, new visitors or leads, and more.

After 330,000 CTAs, HubSpot found that personalised CTAs converted the best at a conversion rate just shy of 4%.

Source: HubSpot

12. 57% of businesses want to see increased retention and conversion rates from personalisation strategies

In Yieldify’s Personalisation After COVID-19 report, the company asked businesses what motivates them to pursue personalisation strategies.

58% of respondents selected increased retention rates while 55% selected increased conversion rates.

Yieldify broke these statistics down by industry and found that increased retention rates are a big concern for sports and leisure businesses (82%), businesses in the electricals industry (75%), fashion businesses (70%), and health and beauty businesses (70%).

Increased conversion rates are a big concern for entertainment businesses (66%), businesses in the electricals industry (64%), sports and leisure businesses (64%), grocery businesses (62%), and home and DIY businesses (61%).

Source: Yieldify

13. 78% of consumers are more likely to respond favorably to personalised emails from retailers

Dynamic Yield is an experience optimisation platform. With their software, you can implement personalised content, products and offers to individual consumers.

Their platform is used by companies like McDonald’s, Sephora, Skims, Timex, Lacoste and Forever 21.

To better understand what it is consumers want out of personalisation, Dynamic Yield surveyed over 550 consumers in North America, Europe and Asia.

When asked whether or not they’re more likely to respond favorably to emails that look like they were personalised specifically for them, such as using personalised subject lines, the majority of consumers agreed.

Some even strongly agreed.

The continent with the most amount of “agrees” was Asia.

Source: Dynamic Yield

14. 63% of consumers state product recommendation emails sent from retailers are relevant

Dynamic Yield’s survey asked consumers if the product recommendations in personalised emails were generally relevant or not.

Over 62.92% agreed, but the numbers get interesting when you break the stat down.

The majority of consumers surveyed from Europe and Asia agreed or strongly agreed that product recommendations emailed to them from retailers were relevant to their interests.

The majority of North American consumers, on the other hand, 63.13% to be exact, disagreed.

This is a great example of why researching niche markets is so important.

Source: Dynamic Yield

15. 64% of businesses use segmentation to personalise their websites

In Yieldify’s Personalisation After COVID-19 report, the company asked businesses about the segmentation methods they use to personalise their websites.

64% of businesses use segmentation methods as a whole, but let’s break this statistic down.

68% of businesses use real-time behavioural decisioning, such as showing customers personalised content on the checkout page.

68% use static segments, such as a personalisation strategy that targets a customer’s location.

65% use dynamic segments, such as targeting customers who made purchases in the last 30 days.

54% use AI-driven predictive segments, such as pinpointing customers who are least likely to convert.

Source: Yieldify

16. 39% of consumers have experienced “creepy” engagement tactics

Accenture’s personalisation report asked consumers about invasive engagement strategies companies have used to try and get them to buy.

41% of consumers have received texts from businesses after walking by their storefronts.

40% have received mobile notifications.

And 35% have received ads on social media sites after browsing brand websites.

Source: Accenture

17. 74% of businesses report implementing personalisation on their websites

Yieldify’s Personalisation After COVID-19 report revealed that 74% of businesses have some form of personalisation implemented on their websites.

Businesses also reported using personalisation in…

• Email marketing – 60%
• Display ads – 60%
• Mobile app – 56%
• In-store/POS – 52%
• Loyalty programs – 47%
• Chatbots – 46%
• Call centers – 42%
• SMS marketing – 42%
• Other channel – 41%

Source: Yieldify

Ecommerce personalisation statistics

18. 80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a personalised experience

Not only did Epsilon’s survey find that 90% of consumers find personalisation to be very or somewhat appealing, they also found that a majority are more likely to spend their time and money with businesses who utilize the marketing tactic.

Here are a few real responses from consumers who took part in the survey:

• Consumers want a customized experience perfectly suited to them “so that I’m more likely to be interested in what they’re selling.”
• Consumer expect brands “will know what you want, your likes and dislikes and make sure you have what you want.”
• “They offer personalised offers, products and coupons that meet your needs and are items you typically buy.”
• They want a “dedicated shopping assistant, order puller-have the order ready. Curb service, disabled entry doors.”
• They interpret convenience as companies “noticing how I shop/surf internet and customizing advertising and shopping options to my preferences.”
  

Source: Startup Bonsai

19. Companies earn 40% more revenue from personalisation

In McKinsey’s report, companies were asked what percentage of their revenue came from personalisation efforts or tactics.

On average, companies earned 40% more revenue by adding personalisation to their marketing strategy.

Source: McKinsey & Company

20. Consumers are 40% more likely to spend more than planned when experiences are highly personalised

Google partnered with Boston Consulting Group on a study and customer survey they called “Business Impact of Personalisation in Retail.”

They found that consumers are 40% more likely to spend more than they originally intended to when their shopping experiences are personalised and tailored to their needs.

Source: Google

21. 55% of consumers want more targeted promotional offers and discounts

This stat was the result of consumers being asked what a more enjoyable email experience with retailers would look like.

It seems that a good portion of consumers find the promotional offers and discounts sent to them via email to be irrelevant to their wants and needs.

Retailers need to do a better job of segmenting their email lists if they want consumers to stick around long enough to open emails and convert from them.

Source: Dynamic Yield

22. 43% of consumers keep items in their cart in hopes of receiving email discounts

Dynamic Yield’s survey found that although 43% of consumers didn’t realize retailers send special coupons if they leave something in their carts and do not check out, 43% specifically do so in anticipation of receiving a discount.

It seems the majority of consumers who do this are from Europe and Asia. The majority of North American consumers weren’t aware of the practice.

A smaller portion of consumers (18%) do not check out unless they receive a discount.

All in all, implementing personalised emails for abandoned carts and slipping personalised discounts into them can really do wonders for your conversion rates.

Source: Dynamic Yield

23. 60% of consumers are likely to become repeat buyers following personalised experiences

Segment’s State of Personalisation report revealed that 60% of consumers are likely to become repeat buyers after personalised shopping experiences.

This is up from 44% when the company asked consumers the same question in 2017.

Segment also asked consumers what they wish brands knew about them.

This revealed a few useful personalisation statistics businesses can use to improve their personalisation efforts well enough to snag repeat buyers.

• 40% wish brands knew their style preferences and what suits them.
• 24% wish brands knew their household needs.
• 20% wish brands knew their economic situation.
• And a smaller 14% wish brands knew their hopes and dreams.

Source: Segment

24. 75% of consumers want retailers to make navigating online stores easier for them personally

In McKinsey’s survey, the company asked survey respondents how a series of personalisation actions influenced their decision to buy from businesses.

75% of respondents reported store navigation as one of the most important aspects when buying from businesses for the first time.

Other aspects respondents were asked to give opinions on included the following:

• Give me relevant product/service recommendations – Important to 67% of respondents
• Offer personalised messaging – 66%
• Offer me targeted promotions – 65%
• Celebrate my milestones – 61%
• Send me timely communications tied to key moments – 59%
• Follow up with me post purchase – 58%
• Personally address communications to me – 54%
• Send triggers based on my behaviour – 53%
• Engage and onboard me when I buy for the first time – 51%
• Show up in my frequently visited websites/apps – 40%

Source: McKinsey & Company

25. Predictive personalisation software delivers a 20x growth in ROI

Marketers using predictive personalisation software (PPS) track both website and application activity perpetually. It is an autonomous personalisation system, that requires zero human input whatsoever, and it makes returns 20x greater in comparison to any of the the examples above and omnichannel marketing combined. It removes not only the cost of human involvement, but their errors and omissions too. 

Dynamic content becomes an integral element in all predictive personalised emails, which blasts ROI. Using dynamic content with personalised emails packs a powerful punch. For those researching PPS it is essential you choose autonomous software with zero human interaction involvement to achieve the greatest returns or you could spend time and money, wasted on an inferior solution. 

Dynamic content has the ability to change or update with every action made by the consumer interacting with both your site and your emails. That should include the item (SKU code as we are talking personalisation to that degree os sophistication), colour, style, fabric, size, cut, price but also time of day viewed, then purchased, those actions compared and in relation to previous purchases and the pattern made to deliver this purchase to you.

Multiple surveys say that using dynamic email content achieves the highest ROI. Advanced email marketers using PPS know it will be presenting the exact image of each product with the highest buying propensity for that individual and unique customer, at precisely the right moment.

Source: McKinsey

Final thoughts on personalisation

This collection of personalisation statistics reveals key data marketers can use to improve the way they implement personalisation into their businesses.

A common trend is that consumers love the idea of personalisation and are even willing to spend more and come back to experience it.

However, consumers are only okay with personalisation if it involves data they’ve given to businesses themselves and if that data is secure.

According to data, consumers mostly want personalisation to make navigating stores easier and to find product recommendations more efficiently.

They also want product recommendations and marketing messages to be tailored to their needs.

SwiftERM is a Microsoft Partner company. For a free trial of PPS for your website follow the link.