The epoq Personalization Experience Day 2020 (#epoqPXD) was awesome!

Keynote on personalization

In his keynote speech on personalization, our CEO Thorsten explained that personalization allows you to respond to the needs of shop customers throughout the customer journey and that personalization is a development process. Especially in the current coronavirus pandemic, it is important to build proximity to customers, because shopping in brick-and-mortar stores has changed: social distancing, long queues, mandatory masks, etc. According to studies, every second person wants to order more online from now on.¹ That is why personalization is an important driver in digital commerce.

Thorsten reported on the targeted fulfillment of customer needs at every stage of the customer journey.

Personalization best practices for shopper guidance and inspiration

Immediately following the keynote speech, the first personalization best practices were presented. Janine from Tableware24 reported on personalized results lists and where they can be used throughout the online shop. Claas from A-Z Gartenhaus GmbH then explained self-learning ranking in more detail and showed how KPIs can be improved on the product overview page. Both are measures designed to help shop customers find their way around the online shop and navigate quickly and easily to the product they want.

The same slot continued with inspiration from shop customers. Thomas from Miles & More presented where recommendations can be used in the online shop and the recommendation strategy behind each one. Robin from Ankerkraut also showed which recommendation strategy is hidden in the shopping cart layer.

The speakers reported on orientation and inspiration in the online shop.

Now it's getting technical: generating an AI-based knowledge base for the online shop

After a short coffee break, things got technical. The epoq development team showed participants how to generate an AI-based knowledge base. Rainer provided various insights into product data, such as how to structure the category tree in the product catalog and how to enrich attributes. Jannik then explained terms such as big data and smart data and discussed how reinforcement learning works.

To round things off, Stephan talked about A/B testing. He emphasized that, in addition to a good statistical analysis program, expert knowledge is also necessary here to rule out pitfalls that could lead to wrong decisions.

The speakers discussed the components of an AI-based knowledge base.

Personalization Best Practices: Building a connection with customers after they make a purchase in your online store

After lunch, we dove into more personalization best practices. However, we left the online shop and immersed ourselves in email marketing. This is because it is important to establish a connection with the customer after they have made a purchase in the online shop. After all, you want them to find their way back. Valerie from Sendinblue first discussed important basics such as welcome emails and subject lines, and how these can be automated.

Nils from babymarkt.de then explained how category-specific newsletters can be personalized and the associated increase in KPIs. Finally, Sebastian from Ex Libris discussed AI-based target group identification and how this can be used to personalize emails even further.

The speakers shared their knowledge about connecting with customers after the purchase.

Personalization learnings along the digital customer journey

Michael from epoq and Philipp from elaboratum discussed the various phases of the customer journey and presented numerous insights that have a positive impact on the customer experience and increase the conversion rate. Among other things, it is important to:

• Display unique selling points to customers during product research and offer a logical menu structure.
• Asking customers the right questions during the product selection process and guiding them step by step to the desired product.
• Identify each customer's preferences and display product recommendations on various store pages.

The whole thing was rounded off with aspects of sales psychology that also need to be taken into account. This is because the human brain can be divided into two systems: System 1 for intuition and instinct (95%) and System 2 for rational thinking (5%). This division also has a significant influence on the conversion rate in online shops.

The speakers shared various insights gained along the customer journey.

Digital customer experience: Inspire with personalized shopping worlds

The final presentation of the epoq Personalization Experience Day focused on personalized shopping experiences. Niklaas from Shopware began by taking a closer look at the topic of content commerce. Thorsten then explained what a personal stream for each individual customer in an online shop might look like. He brought along an example from OUTLETCITY METZINGEN to illustrate this. Lisa from Fackelmann rounded off the presentation by explaining how to get started with personalization.

The speakers talked about personalized shopping experiences.

Expert Talk

The epoq Personalization Experience Day concluded with the Expert Talk. Various experts exchanged views on a range of personalization issues and engaged in lively debate on the topics. The experts came from the following areas: agencies/consulting, system providers, shop operators, and personalization providers.

The questions focused on topics such as:

• the connection between personalization, usability, and personas,
• the importance of personalization in e-commerce projects,
• the greatest KPI lever of personalization in online shops and
• how the whole thing should be viewed in the context of "best of breed."

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Conclusion: A day full of insights with a fun factor

A great day has come to an end. The work was definitely worth it. It was a lot of fun to share the various insights with the participants and to address the exciting questions. These ranged from results lists, recommendation strategies, reinforcement learning to email marketing and personalized shopping worlds. The crowning finale was the multifaceted Expert Talk. We are already looking forward to the epoq Personalization Experience Day 2021 and hope to see you there.

Source: ¹ bevh – The E-Commerce Association