“You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards for the technology.” Steve Jobs
And this was exactly how the concept of VeCapture came about, way back in 2008, but that’s a whole other story. Book. Film. And going forward, ecommerce is only going to get more personal, with a whole host of implicit data ie. social data (shares, Likes etc) and purchase data (clicks, purchase history, shopping cart information), available to be harvested by online retailers, creating greater relevance for customers going forward and therefore greater conversions for the online retailers. After all people become more invested in a platform that knows their preferences.
However the toughest challenges for online retailers remain in having enough data on individuals (especially the non-routine visitors) to know how exactly to present other product recommendations. That and also getting the ratio of personalisation to discovery just right. Consumers still like to feel they are opening a pandora’s box with a web site, rather than for their experiences online to become predictable. And the other key will be in getting consumers to realise that giving up data will only improve their shopping experience and to therefore make sure that they feel comfortable with privacy practises.
In other words, starting with the customer experiences and then working backwards.