Online shoppers want personalization – are they getting it?

A new study suggests a significant gap between customer expectations and reality when it comes to personalized e-commerce.

According to “The Ultimate Guide to Product Detail Pages,” a study from AI product discovery platform Zoovu, while more than 70% of people not only want, but expect personalized experiences when shopping online, only 16% of the product pages analyzed offered personalized experiences.

In addition, in an analysis of more than 2,000 data points across 125 product detail pages, Zoovu found that 49% of product detail pages only had one personalized element and another 25% had no personalized elements. Nineteen percent had two personalized elements and the remaining 7% had three or more.

Key findings

• The average product detail page contains more than 59 pieces of information about the product, including specifications, images, related products, product variations, and more. According to Zoovu analysis, retailers are combating this trend by steering away from overly technical language and toward more benefit-driven or needs-focused content, as well as elements that guide customers in their product evaluation.
• More than 90% of the product pages analyzed featured customer reviews and more than half (56.8%) included at least two types of social proof such as customer photos, ‘best’ tags, and certification badges. Across the 125 product pages assessed in the report, there were 13 different types of social proof.

[Read more: Online retailers disappoint customers – here’s how]

"It’s no secret that consumers, with instant access to almost unlimited information, are feeling increasingly overwhelmed, lost, and frustrated when shopping online, which is why optimizing product pages, the last mile of the buying process, is more important than ever," said Ken Yanhs, chief marketing officer at Zoovu. "Driving personalization with generative AI is the biggest opportunity for ecommerce brands to give customers the guidance they’re seeking at the scale they need to drive real, sustainable growth."

In the report, Zoovu analyzed product pages from U.S. and Canadian e-commerce brands in fashion and apparel, consumer electronics, health and beauty, furniture and home appliances, and tools and recreation.