5 things to consider when planning christmas peak personalisation

21/09/2015

4. Filter bubble

One of the oft-repeated threats of excessive personalisation is the creation of a ‘filter bubble’ – a personalised online world that only reflects the existing tastes of an individual. This can hinder serendipity and the opportunity to find new content or products that might not be directly similar to the buyer’s previous purchasing choices. During the Christmas period, this risk is greater than ever. Retailers potentially need to loosen their personalisation algorithms a little to weaken the walls of the bubble and allow for a little serendipity.

5. Fulfilment

Providing clear fulfilment information is always important, but even more so during this time of year. Customers who are buying gifts need to be presented with clear information about fulfilment dates and options. If possible, they could be given the option to filter products by delivery date, enabling them to only browse products guaranteed to arrive before the deadline.

As the busiest time of the year for most retailers, it can be tempting to see the Christmas period as a rich source of data that can be harvested for future insights. New and existing customers who have interacted with your website over Christmas could be marketed to, personalised for and encouraged to return. However, this data needs to be treated with care. Whilst it does tell you a lot about the behaviour of shoppers at Christmas, it may not tell you much about their year-round shopping habits.