Nearly two-thirds (65%) of online businesses are planning to increase their use of personalisation post-Covid, although the vast majority (63%) admit they struggle with unconnected data-sets, and only have a partial view of customer behaviour.
That is according to a new study by customer engagement specialist Mapp, which quizzed over 1,000 companies in the UK, Germany, and Italy on their plans for 2021 as the coronavirus threat starts to recede.
Nearly half (43%) of UK ecommerce companies increased their online sales over the past year, with a third already providing a personalised experience on their website, and a further 13% reporting they are looking to do so in 2021. However, only a quarter report the use of dynamic content on their website, but over half are planning to introduce it in 2021.
And although 65% report they have accelerated investment in digital and technology innovation due to the pandemic, 43% still do not have an app and of those that do, only 5% have one that does everything their website can do.
When it comes to data management, one of the major challenges marketers face right now is in unlocking the power of their own data. The survey revealed that almost a third of businesses do not currently use a data management platform (DMP) to improve targeting and optimise advertising spend and 63% of businesses struggle with unconnected data sets, providing them with only a partial view of customer behavior.
At the same time, three quarters of respondents said they can identify less than 20% of customers who visit their website and 38% can only identify less than 10%.
Even so, those marketers who use a customer engagement platform report very high levels of satisfaction, with 67% rating their customer engagement vendor 4 or 5 out of 5 during the pandemic.
Mapp global strategy director Ricardas Montvila said: “Covid has massively accelerated ecommerce and digital business models.
However, our survey also shows the full potential of personalisation is far from being realised. In the future, customer intelligence and marketing analytics will become critical in providing even more precise real-time customer insights to optimally use existing budgets in a changed market environment and to score points with the end customer through customised content.”
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