According to the Accenture Personalization Survey, consumers want a more personalized retail experience while remaining reluctant to put their personal information at risk. Nearly 60 percent of consumers want real-time promotions and offers, yet only 20 percent want retailers to know their current location and only 14 percent want to share their browsing history.
The results demonstrated that U.S. consumers are conflicted about what and how much personal information they want retailers to access. More than half (60 percent) say they want retailers to be able to issue personalized, real-time promotions, and in exchange for personal information, consumers expect rewards and benefits such as exclusive deals (64 percent), one-time discounts (61 percent), and special offers (61 percent).
The research found that while many consumers are willing to share some personal details with retailers, nearly all (90 percent) of the respondents said if the option was available they would limit access to certain types of personal data and would stop retailers from selling their information to third parties. In addition, 88 percent would prefer to determine how the data can be used and 84 percent want to review and correct information.
On the payments side, 48 percent of the survey respondents don’t want to be charged automatically for in-store purchases without any action required. Online, 51 percent like the idea of a one-click checkout at retailers they’ve shopped before, and 48 percent are open to reorder reminders on staple items.
“Personalization is a critical capability for retailers to master, but as our survey shows, addressing the complex requirements of U.S. consumers is challenging because they are conflicted on the issue,” Dave Richards, global managing director of Accenture’s Retail practice, explained in a press release. “If retailers approach and market personalization as a value exchange, and are transparent in how the data will be used, consumers will likely be more willing to engage and trade their personal data.”
The survey explored and identified the types of online and offline retail technologies, tailored customer experiences and communications that consumers may experience. According to the survey, the most welcome in-store retailer communications and offerings include automatic discounts at checkout for loyalty points or coupons (82 percent) and real-time promotions (57 percent). When it comes to personalized online experiences, the most popular choices were website optimized by device (desktop, tablet, mobile) (64 percent) and promotional offers for items the customer is strongly considering (59 percent).
“At the end of the day, it’s all about the customer, his or her data, and the obligations retailers have to create and maintain digital trust with those customers,” said Richards. “Personalization can be a powerful method for retailers to differentiate from competitors, increase basket size and build customer loyalty,” said Richards. “To effectively implement personalization across all channels, retailers would benefit from understanding customers at a broad level as well as individually – determining where personalization strategies can best drive business results, and giving key subsets of customers the choice on how they wish to participate.”
