How an IP Location API Can Bolster Content Personalization
These days, people are all about personalization. The more personalized the content is, the more customers would want to visit the site. Increased website traffic means more income, and for most website owners and developers, that’s the goal. For businesses that not only cater to online clients but also have physical stores, the goal is to bring online visitors to their brick-and-mortar establishments. But how can they effectively do this without compromising the quality of their service? Let’s take a closer look.
The Emerging Trend of Content Personalization
Content personalization improves customers’ retail experience. While e-commerce shops are causing a dent in the revenues of brick-and-mortar stores, some still cannot fully replicate the in-store experience. Then again, astute business owners know that they can use their online stores to benefit their physical shops. Brands are, in fact, using immersive retail experiences by providing links between their online and physical stores to drive their sales. They know that content personalization and customer engagement can be effectively brought to the cyberspace with the right tools.
A Smart Insights report revealed that consumers spend 48% more if they get a personalized experience. Gartner, likewise, revealed that organizations which spend time crafting personalized messages to help customers boost their incomes by 16% compared with those that do not. The research firm also believes that by 2020, smart personalization engines that help recognize customer intent can contribute a 15% increase in profits.
That said, investing in content personalization tools can effectively generate more revenue for any business. And one effective way of improving content personalization is using an IP location API.
How an IP Location API Improves Content Personalization
The crafting of an effective content personalization strategy requires starting from and building around these three primary standards:
- Capturing customer information: The easiest yet the most crucial component of content personalization is capturing customer information. That is where an IP location API can benefit your business immensely. This tool allows users to identify any customer’s geographical location, including time zone, country, city, postal code, and more. Knowing this information, shop owners can easily customize the language and currency to each customer, depending on where he or she resides.
- Data analysis: The customer data gathered can then be analyzed to create customer profiles. These profiles allow users to categorize customers and tailor-fit content to their specific requirements. Data analysis is crucial to know what products customers search for and buy, among other things. Knowing that, shop owners can easily customize any visitor’s experience, depending on his or her purchasing history.
- Actionable insights: After successfully analyzing customer data, store owners need to act on the insights by building a marketing strategy that follows the buyer’s journey. One action can be directing those who prefer to shop in-store to the nearest establishment to where he currently is, be it at home, at work, or on the go. That is possible with the help of an IP location API, which can be accurate at the city or even street level.
The Power of Content Personalization
One specific example of online stores that exert a lot of personalization effort is Amazon. The site is heavily laden with a wide variety of personalized content that is meant to hook its prospective customers right away.
Upon visiting the website, customers instantly get a personalized greeting that uses their name. Amazon also has a Wish List tab that pools their customers’ frequently bought or favorite items. It also has several local versions based on the customers’ current geolocation as well as a list of products, wherever they may be. The site offers alternatives to products that are not available in certain locales as well. Shipping fees are also automatically computed and shown, depending on the customers’ current location.
Amazon has also successfully introduced collaborative filtering. It currently recommends what others in the same area have bought recently. These recommendations typically appear under “Visitors who viewed this product also viewed” sections, which is believed to generate more revenue. This tactic works because it makes customers feel a sense of belonging, especially if they reside in the same location.
The Bottom Line
Data gathering, analysis, and insight application aided by an IP location API can largely benefit any organization because when these three work together, they bring the highest possible return on investment (ROI). However, website owners and developers must realize that while they have to keep up with the personalization trend, they also need to do so without infringing on a customer’s privacy. An IP location API can help them do just that.
The retail landscape is bound to become even more competitive as the Internet continues to grow. Therefore, any business that wants to stand out has to effectively communicate with its customers on a personal level. They need to learn to harness the power of automation to enhance their customers’ experience and keep them coming back for more.