Personalization Trends in 2021 – What You Need To Know

Image showing numbers going up.
Photo by Austin Distel on Unsplash

COVID-19 has accelerated innovation in online commerce. And the latest topic of discussion is personalization.

Personalization ties into many different touchpoints on the online sales journey. It affects the digital marketing that brings new users to the site, the messaging used and the offers customers see.

Google searches for “personalization” have grown in popularity over the last few months. This shows there is a demand for personalization. And a desire for people to learn more about it.

So businesses and management are beginning to change their thinking. They want to discover how they can create experiences that appeal to individuals. This is quite a shift from thinking about broad demographics.

We’ve picked out a few personalization trends that you need to know about in 2021.

Personalization trends 2021 - image showing several people collaborating.

Better Collaboration and Alignment 

For a personalization strategy to truly work, it needs alignment between multiple departments. Engineering, design and marketing teams have to seamlessly combine to create personalized experiences.

When embarking on a personalization project, it is important to map out key responsibilities in detail. This helps you to make best use of your engineering resources and ensure priorities are in sync across different teams.

Teams that are in sync, with aligned goals, will have a positive impact on the overall customer experience on your site.

Personalization trends 2021 - image showing an executive.
Photo by Andreas Klassen on Unsplash

Increased Awareness From C-level

C-level executives have become a lot more aware of issues such as O2O strategy and customer experience trends. Personalization could become the catch all term that C-level executives use to encompass a variety of different practices.

Practices such as A/B testing creative messaging will now fall under the umbrella of personalization/experience optimization. It could well mean that previously separated engineering, creative and marketing personnel will be re-aligned as “experience teams” working under individual project managers.

This increased awareness will bring more investment and more C-level scrutiny. So KPIs (or OKRs or whatever metrics you might use) will change. Which makes measurement crucial, which leads us to…

Personalization trends 2021 - image of cookies to represent web cookies.
Photo by Mockaroon on Unsplash

Cookie Troubles…

With Google phasing out third-party cookies and Apple about to release iOS 14.5 (phasing out IDFA), tracking the success of your personalization efforts could become difficult. 

A solution for this will be available. but some data loss will occur. And businesses who can best prepare for that outcome will be able to adopt better personalization practices.

Personalization trends 2021 - in store personalization image of open sign.
Photo by Mike Petrucci on Unsplash

O2O and Personal Digital Experiences

The potential for personalization in a retail setting is limitless and it can really be applied to most product niches.

For example, fashion retailers can tie personalized data to AR (augmented reality). This could recommend an outfit and allow the customer to virtually try the outfit on. Post-pandemic, this could be an option that would appeal to many shoppers.

Furniture retail can tie AR and personalization together to make recommendations and allow in store customers to place furniture items in their home to see if the item would be a good fit.

Personalization is the thread that ties a lot of emerging technologies together. It can use these technologies to craft engaging and memorable in store experiences. With a great personalization and O2O strategy you can drive more users to stores. Where they are more likely to make impulse purchases. 

Combining personalization and investing in tech can increase sales and footfall in retail locations.

Personalization trends 2021 - Matrix code to signify tech stack.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Integrating The Tech Stack

Personalization will become more and more complex as it matures. It will require more data, more teams and more tech to keep it going.

Your staff will be looking for a solution that can move all of your personalization/experience optimization data into one platform.

“One ring to rule them all”…as someone once said.

This solution could be an in-house custom system built for your business or a third-party vendor. Either way it’s important to remember that as your needs change, you need a system that can change with you.


Contact us via hello@maqe.com.

How MAQE can help

MAQE has a team of designers, data scientists, project managers and marketers that are experts in experience commerce. We can help you to craft a personalization strategy that is perfect for your business. Get in touch with us via [email protected] to find out more.