Retail Revolutionaries Part 1: Companies that changed the way we shop online
Part 1: Content Curators - Mastering the Art of Personalization à la Amazon
Sometimes the art is in the simplicity. As Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos so simply explained it,
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the ultimate in personalization is “when you go into a bar and sit down, and the bartender puts a whiskey in front of you without having to ask what you want." [PC World, June 28, 2000].
The stroke of genius behind Amazon’s success was in seeing the potential to recreate that sentiment to an online shopper – and doing it! From their startup as an online bookstore to today’s extensive network of 3rd party resellers and e-commerce platforms, Amazon has always found a way to take the incredible wealth of information being generated on the Internet and curate it down to the individual level. In essence, it is the result of combining art and science.
This commitment to creating customer-centric experiences through data optimization has been – and continues to be – evident across all Amazon operations.
Amazon’s influence can be felt across all industries. For example, Netflix, the world's leading Internet television network, may not have changed the way we shop online but they certainly revolutionized the way people watch TV and movies. Catering to more than 36 million members, they serve up personalized entertainment recommendations based on individual choices and ratings.
Other evidence that online personalization is making a huge impact on the retail industry can be found in new initiatives by Walmart with their @WalmartLabs technology and by Target’s recent launch of Cartwheel.
Every day it seems there is another innovative company leveraging the data out there to provide personalized, curated online shopping experiences. Read about them in our blog.
Today’s cloud technology and the significant amount of data available to marketers make it easy to implement customized programs quickly such as:
• Personalized upsell/cross-sell
• Intelligent wishlist and shopping cart conversions
• Geo-localisation
