Survey: Personalization & Relevance Increasingly Overlap In Consumers’ Minds

Another day, another survey about the gap between consumers’ stated desire for personalization and the ability of retailers to meet that desire. This time, the survey is from Magnetic and Retail Touchpoints, which polled 200 US and Canadian consumers and 100 retail executives to compare consumer expectations against retail practices and capabilities.

The findings basically mirror earlier survey data that show the consumer interest in personalization exceeds retailers’ current capacity to deliver.

The Magnetic and Retail Touchpoints survey alternates between showing consumer attitudes and retailer responses. As with so many other surveys, the consumer-respondents in this case don’t like or want to see ads they consider to be “irrelevant.” But what defines “relevance”?

WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING EXPERIENCES ARE MOST FRUSTRATING TO YOU?

We get a glimpse into how consumers think about relevance in the following chart showing the consumer response to a question about the kinds of content or information they want to receive from retailers during their shopping process. In many ways, “relevance” and “personalization” are converging in the minds of many consumers.

WHAT INFORMATION WOULD BE HELPFUL DURING YOUR NEXT SHOPPING EXPERIENCE?

These consumers also express a desire for general ease of use (and purchase support), personal recognition and consistency across shopping experiences, whether online or in-store.

For their part, the retailers indicated a general awareness of the consumer desire for relevant ads and personalized experiences. Indeed, the retailers’ survey answers suggest they’re engaged in a high degree of personalized marketing already.

HOW FREQUENTLY DO YOU THINK YOU…

While things like email personalization and retargeting are certainly pervasive, I’m skeptical that the retailers are actually delivering all the personalization they claim to in the survey.

Interestingly, the retailers also name the challenges they face as barriers to greater personalization and “relevance.” This is probably a more accurate statement of reality.

The barriers below can be grouped into three broad categories: data, technology and organizational/cultural issues.

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