Personalization at Scale: How Shopify and dotdigital help brands deliver tailored experiences

Speaker A: We are uh, talking about how to make the most out of a Shopify centric stack. And we're on to part three which is personalization at scale. So Nils, I'm going to be coming to you for quite a bit of this one. I'm your host Rowan Smith from UE and I am delighted to be rejoined by Niels from Dot Digital.

Speaker B: How are you? Very well, thanks. Thanks for having me.

Speaker A: Can I just get a very brief reintroduction of to who you are and what you do before we get onto this next bit?

Speaker B: Of course, yeah. So my name is Nils. I am a partnership manager at Dot Digital and I work closely with the UE and a lot of agencies across the band uk, making sure that we enable them to make sure that they know everything about Dot Digital and we do things like fun marketing and events. Excellent.

Speaker A: And Yael from Shopify as well. Thank you very much for coming back.

Speaker C: Thank you for having me again. I'm Yael, I'm uh, a partner solutions engineer at Shopify. We focus on the EMEA region, working with agencies, tech partners to leverage the platform to the extent of their needs and their clients, optimize their tech stacks, innovate, create added value services.

Speaker A: Thank you very much. So we are straight into really key expectation for today's consumers, whether they see this as something that comes directly from their E commerce stack or whether it's still considered to be purely a marketing automation element. But this is really about the connection between the two. Yael, if I can come to yourself, what level of personalization do consumers now expect from E commerce brands and how are Shopify facilitating that?

Speaker C: I think commerce consumers, I don't want to say only E commerce consumers because generations have changed and their expectations vary. Um, we look at Gen Z as a use case here where they actually prefer purchasing in store but they will first go online to see what they want to purchase and what promotions they currently have. So they expect it to be seamless, doesn't matter where they create the purchase. So if they saw a promotion online and now a discounted product, they have the expectation that the same discount would be available in store. They want to be able to use their gift cards cross store, cross location. And this uh, really needs to have that data all in one place in order to be able to facilitate such things. So when you look at fermented systems and data, you cannot achieve that seamless experience of every channel available there for customers. And I think Shopify has put a huge emphasis on um, this, hence unified commerce, unified data approach to Facilitate such experiences.

Speaker A: Definitely. And Nils, this is going to be maybe slightly heavier. How do you balance that kind of drive towards personalization and people wanting to have a more personalized experience with maybe privacy concerns? We have more regulation coming in this year. This obviously is still quite a hot topic. How do you manage that with digital?

Speaker B: Yeah, there's a lot to consider obviously within that question. I think there's been obviously a drive towards first party data. Right. And I think having the right tools in place, I don't want this to be like coming from a tools point of view. I obviously represent a software provider, but I do think it's very important to have the tools in place to make sure that you can first of all capture that first party data in a good and sufficient and efficient way and then being able to act on it and act on it in a way that meets all the criteria for things like GDPR and all of the local regulations that you might be subject to and making sure that it's done in a way that customers expect to be approached by you as a brand. And I think that's key. I think we have gotten used to a high level of personalization in our personal lives. Right. Like I think sometimes where brands are actually competing with the likes of Spotify and Netflix and Google, who have already seem to have mastered this uh, sort of personalization game. I think we've moved away from the discussion of like, when is personalization too much. I think you still need to be mindful of how you present your personalized messages, your personalized content. But I think it starts by making sure that you can capture that first party data and use it to a, uh, customer's benefit. Because that's ultimately what we're after, is like creating a customer experience that makes customers come back and want to have more.

Speaker A: Definitely. And I think it's that keeping the customer at the heart of it that's really key here. Yael, just on that point, how does personalization data or data that can be used for personalization vary on Shopify for someone who is interacting with a brand there for the first time versus a long term returning customer.

Speaker C: And very, very much, uh, based on what products they've purchased or what data they input, things they added to cart personal information. We have a whole section for creating customer accounts so it can remember your previous purchases, it can have your store credits on there, it can have your vaulted credit cards there so that you can have that quick checkout experience. And when you're new to the store, that's when you Start collecting the data as in effect start personalizing the experience. Now the great thing about new customers, if they're coming from outside campaigns, you can already target and personalize the experience once they land into your site based if they've come from a Google, uh, campaign or a social media campaign or influencers. So there is room for personalization even when it's new customer landing in your store.

Speaker A: And how do you handle that on Shopify for customers who shop across maybe multiple devices, multiple channels within that unified commerce way of working, uh, our integrations

Speaker C: or CMOs, whether you have your own app, the store app, it's all connected to our back Office. Shopify has SDKs where you can create storefronts anywhere you want in any type of channel. We're getting all that information directly and via APIs. And the same goes with social commerce. So Shopify is always the first to integrate with any new social commerce. We're integrated with TikTok shopping, Instagram, um, Facebook, obviously in North America, additional ones, but we're always there. So the integration is always really tight and the information is direct.

Speaker A: And from the marketing automation side or digital side of the fence, then Niels, how do you leverage behavioral data from Shopify to fuel personalization? Through email, through sms, through the marketing channels?

Speaker B: You operate, yeah, in a lot of different ways. I think we talk a lot about the customer life cycle and that's something that's becoming more complete as a picture, as a single customer view. And that allows you to do a lot of good stuff. It's automating what we might call your low hanging fruit type of campaigns, such as your abandoned cart, your abandoned browse, your welcome campaign. These are your campaigns that are gonna, generally speaking generate the most revenue. But it's taking a wider approach to it or a bigger picture approach where you look at the entire customer lifecycle. You can leverage that data from Shopify in a way to predict the behavior of customers. So you can start looking at when is the next purchase going to take place, what does the customer lifetime value look like for a specific customer and make sure that you tailor your approach accordingly. It's things like average order value, which you can use to push the right products to your contacts. So making sure that you present them with products that uh, fit their budget, their spending behavior. And so yeah, there's a lot of different ways and a lot of different channels that you can use that data.

Speaker A: Okay, thanks. So Yael, from your side then, from a personalization opportunity on Shopify, where do you see brands getting the most Value out of personalization data or behavioral data in post purchase. After that, customers made their first interaction with a brand.

Speaker C: Firstly, we have a lot of post purchase pages place we have an order status where we know customers go in and check what they have purchased and we can offer additional promotions there. But I think in that instance, Shopify Flow is one of our strongest tools there because Shopify Flow is essentially a low code or no code automation tool which is based on triggers, conditions and actions. And you can create triggers for almost any type of customer behavior. So whether it would be order made, a returning customer, you can then check anything you want about that customer, what products they've bought in the past, what number of purchases, is it, a subscription order, and then create actions accordingly. So imagine you have a customer has a subscription order with you and you know it's something that requires specific replenishment. You can make a campaign around that through a certain set time or cadence. So if we think of the classic coffee, so once every three months you can offer them um, a uh, cleaning kit for their coffee machine and so on. So I think flow is a really powerful tool to leverage that data and create flows that not only promote efficiency but also revenue.

Speaker A: Definitely. And from the tooling that's available on the marketing automation side, then from, I'm thinking not just for digital, but the fresh relevance tooling that you have as well. What kind of personalization strategies do you find drive the best revenue for your clients? Niels, Big question.

Speaker B: That's a big question. It's also going to differ for each brand, but it's starting from that first touch point that you have with a customer. And I think personalization hides in a lot of different things. And I feel like very often we will talk about things like product recommendations, you will talk about the website being tailored completely to you, but I think it's also the subtle tactics that need to be used. So the way that you present the brand, the way that you approach your customers, the type of voice you use, the channels that you're using with your customers is definitely on site. As in, hey, we're going to show you products that we know you're going to like, but it's taking that next step and making sure that everything you do so the channel that you're using, the messaging that you're using, and making sure that's tailored to the end customer and is, yeah, like we said earlier, it's really keeping that customer central in everything you do. And yeah, you're asking for a blueprint,

Speaker A: maybe the startup one.

Speaker B: Yeah, there's definitely the tactics, right? Like I said, like making sure that throughout the customer life cycle you make sure that there is these touch points that are going to be perceived as valuable so that your brand is more relevant essentially. So, yeah, things that Yale just to mention is like if you have products that need to be replenished every now and then, making sure that you do that at the right time with the right kind of messaging and it can come across as supportive, it can come across as empathetic rather than pushy. And I guess that's what you're ultimately trying to achieve with personalization is like creating valuable customer experiences rather than just pushing more product. And that uh, I think should be the ultimate goal.

Speaker A: So when you're creating these kind of automated customer journeys across pulling Shopify data points into Dot Digital and trying to present the right messaging to the customers that you're working with, what are the most essential automated journeys that a Shopify brand should have in place through a platform like Dot Digital?

Speaker B: Uh, I think for each and every brand you will have your sort of go to automated program. So we'll always suggest having a welcome program, usually that goes hand in hand with a discount code. So you tend to see that those perform incredibly well. What we start to see as well as our customers of ours, I guess this is driven by the end customer, not really by the marketeer, but that we're using different channels as an end customer. So having a variety of different channels in your outreach with those programs is probably the next step for a lot of marketing teams. And yeah, you have to start thinking about those specific campaigns. We work with a crawl walk run type of strategy where we suggest customers who start with those crawl tactics and they will typically include your welcome campaign, your venom card, your post purchase campaign, making sure that you get those valuable reviews in social proof, et cetera. And then it's things like reactivation and loyalty programs that tend to do the trick.

Speaker A: Nice. I would hope that some of those should seem relatively familiar to some of the people listening or watching along today. But Yael, from your side, are there any underutilized data points that Shopify is able to provide to a customer or things that are available from a personalization or an automation perspective within Shopify, which you don't see get used as much, but there's some real potential there.

Speaker C: Uh, interesting, I think anything to do with past purchases. So I think today when a brand wants to launch a new product, they're looking for those early adopters in their pool of customers. I Think there's a lot of data in Shopify that you can leverage to launch a new product based on what your customers have purchased before, what they like, how fast are they to try new products when you launch them? Um, I think there's a lot that can be done there, and especially when we're seeing brands now focus on customers as well. So product companies have been customer user centric for a while now. The brands are starting to be that way as well. So whether it would be for testing new products or thinking what will be the next product or how to launch the next product, there's a lot that you can gain from data that's already stored in Shopify.

Speaker A: That's great. I'm also interested on this unified commerce idea. How do you map within Shopify these data sources that come from customer interactions through different channels? So whether it's international markets, it's offline via, uh, Shopify POS or through this more traditional e commerce store, how do you go about pulling all that data together within Shopify?

Speaker C: It's actually seamless because no matter where the transaction or the interaction occurs, it could be that sales agent in the store, uh, showing the customer which shoes they might like and processing the transaction, or whether it would be the customer checking out online. The data is there immediately and therefore it's showing under the customer what they've purchased before, where they purchased, what is their preferred payment method, what is their preferred shipping or delivery method. Do they like to pick collect in store? Do they like to have it delivered? Do they like to pay in store but have it delivered to their house? What kind of products do they like? Maybe they only shop when there's discounts or promotions. You get to have all that mapping on the customer immediately, no matter where they've made the purchase historically. And I think that's a lot of power as a brand.

Speaker A: Definitely. I think that's certainly something that I feel is really central to how Shopify is going to market at the moment and the kind of customers that you guys are really able to help from this perspective. One more to yourself, Leel, if I can. When we're talking about building automated journeys and customer flows within Shopify, how would a client of yours go about testing performance, trying to optimize those automated flows? What data's available on the performance of the flows themselves within Jobify?

Speaker C: You mean how effective they are?

Speaker A: Yeah. So if a customer's judging a flow that they've put together for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, what data's available to see, not just how performant it is for a particular customer but on um, a flow as a whole, on a process as a whole, how well they're doing.

Speaker C: So I think over time for each workflow that you put in place, you need to have a goal. This is efficiency in terms of inventory management, this is efficiency in terms of how we manage our campaigns. And then over time our brands are seeing the impact of it. So not on the day to day basis of each customer but the overall impact it's having on the business because you no longer have to have somebody in place to reconcile inventory from location to location, how many hours does that save? So you now have another person who you can dedicate to uh, growing the brand. So I don't think there's a specific tool in place because businesses differ and they use workflows differently. But when you have a clear goal as to what that workflow is going to solve or it's to going post to soap, then you can start measuring the impact and the performance of it.

Speaker A: Fantastic. Thank you. And one more if I can. And Niels, I've been saving this one. We talked a fair bit about automation here, but also from an AI perspective how digital currently or hoping to leverage AI for the future to make things like this, processes like this better and more performant for brands you work with.

Speaker B: Yeah, I mean uh, I referred to it earlier, didn't I? So efficiency is what's needed in marketing teams. So for us a lot of emphasis will sit in that area as well. Making sure that setting up automated programs is a lot easier, that we're going to suggest segments to our users and marketing teams to say, hey, you should probably be spending your time, attention on this group of your customer base to make sure that you either reactivate them or that you involved more in the brand through a loyalty program, that sort of thing. And something else that we're working on is the content creation side of things which is obviously huge for marketeers. So supporting marketeers in a way that they get to focus on the fun and creative stuff but get the help from AI to do that. So something we're working on now which is quite relevant for the Benedict region. But I guess any merchant operating in multiple country is something like automatically translating content rather than spending so much time on translating each and every campaign and newsletter and piece of communication, making sure that those sort of processes are automated. So that's two elements of the platform and then the third element is very much that reporting angle. So I think where things are going is much more an interactive way of working with technology, that's something that we're focusing on is using natural language query to make sure that you can request data from us, rather than us presenting what we think is relevant to you. You can tell us what you want to see and return valuable insights to you.

Speaker A: Fantastic. Thank you very much indeed. So that wraps up our section on personalization at scale, but also how to leverage that unified customer data position that we were speaking about earlier. We have one more section to bring you, so we'll be back very shortly on what future looks like scalability and innovation on Shop.