Website Personalization: Types, Steps, Expert Tips [Guide]

Website personalization is a powerful strategy available to businesses of all sizes.

That, of course, includes yours. In fact, you may already have most of the customer data you need to get started. Even if you don't, you can still get a great start by making onsite campaigns (banners, discount popups, live chat messages, sticky bars, etc.) that target different groups of visitors.

This guide is here to help you get a handle on website personalization, show you how to use it in your business, and offer some ideas to get good results quickly.

Go to sections:

• Website personalization definition

• Benefits of personalizing websites

• Types of website personalization

• Website personalization ideas

• How to get started with web personalization

What is website personalization?

Website personalization is the process of tailoring web pages and onsite campaigns to preferences, behavior, and characteristics of individual visitors and visitor groups based on the data collected about them, both in real time and over time.

Website personalization is an important part of onsite marketing, which aims to combine all tools (web pages, chat, popups, sticky bars, forms, etc.) into one coordinated personalization plan. Both strategies have become especially relevant today because of the high cost of external channels like ads and the opportunity to personalize at scale.

Related:

Website personalization examples

How website personalization impacts conversions

Here are some of the most important benefits of personalizing websites.

Higher conversions

This is the ultimate benefit of an effective website personalization strategy. When visitors get personalized experiences, they are more likely to interact positively with the site, complete desired actions, and make purchases.

In fact, studies show that 41% of online shoppers are "highly likely" to switch to businesses that provide personalized offers and experiences.

Easier product discovery

Increased relevance of marketing messages and higher customer engagement are key outcomes of effective website personalization strategies.

By promoting products and offers that align closely with visitors' and customers' interests and needs, you can help them find the right options more quickly. For example, if you give a discount for the product category a visitor bought from before and visited a few times, they may be more likely to convert.

Reduced decision fatigue

"Decision fatigue" is a term for the feeling of being overwhelmed by too many options, leading people to avoid making a decision altogether.

Website personalization helps to reduce "decision fatigue" by giving visitors personalized experiences and relevant marketing offers. Product recommendations are one of the best examples because they narrow down the choices and suggest products the visitor is more likely to be interested in.

Types of website personalization

There are many ways in which you can personalize your web content and marketing to engage more visitors and customers.

Behavioral personalization

Here, personalization is based on the browsing and shopping behavior of visitors. Common examples include upsell messages when a visitor adds an item to the cart, product recommendations based on viewed items or categories, and the cost of products added to the cart.

Contextual personalization

Websites and onsite campaigns are tailored based on three key factors: technology (devices and browsers used by visitors), season (Christmas promotions, Mother's Day sale, etc.), and time of the day (promoting a same-day delivery in the morning or flash sales that last just a few hours).

Geographic personalization

Free shipping to a certain area, season-based promotions, or localized website versions—these are some the examples of personalizing for the geolocation of a user. The content and offers can be personalized on the information such as country, state or region, and city.

Traffic source personalization

Online businesses can customize content and onsite campaigns for visitors coming from different sources, including organic search, paid ad campaigns, directly, and social media. For example, you can show a tailored offer only to visitors coming from organic search.

Account-based personalization

The goal here is to show customized marketing offers to registered customers and visitors who haven't made a purchase yet. For example, new customers may get a first-time buyer discount code, while registered customers can get loyalty bonuses.

Content personalization

This type of website personalization involves dynamically changing sections of a web page (text, images, discounts, recommendations, or promotions) to match the preferences of individual visitors. The best example is product recommendations based on the browsing and purchase history of a particular visitor.

Intent-based personalization

Based on the actions a visitor takes on a website, this type is mostly about campaigns triggered by real-time visitor behavior, such as exit-intent offers. These campaigns (mostly exit popups) appear when a visitor is about to leave the website and include discounts, personalized limited-time offers, reminders of unfinished purchases, lead magnets, or other incentives.

Website personalization ideas

Here are simple yet effective ideas that successful online businesses use to deliver personalized website experiences.

Welcome message for returning visitors

Try a personalized welcome message for those visiting your website for the second (or more) time. This way, you'll create a more meaningful and personalized interaction.

TOMS Shoes, an ecommerce retailer, created this campaign for returning visitors who didn't sign up for mobile alerts. Using this website personalization tactic also allows to build both email and phone number lists for nurturing.

Personalized product recommendations

To encourage visitors to browse more pages and increase sales, OddBalls uses an AI algorithm to serve customized product recommendations to each visitor, regardless of their account status.

The list of products is displayed in a social media-inspired feed with notifications, which is easily accessible from any page. To boost sales, AI Wishlist lets visitors choose item sizes and add them to the cart directly from the feed.

"The notification feed at OddBalls has been instrumental in helping us to gather data, assist conversion rates, promoting new launches and ultimately generating revenue since we launched it. It's a fantastic feature that has been in use for over a year... We highly recommend the use of the feed for all stores."

Dan Mitchell, Ecommerce Manager, OddBalls

Learn more

See how OddBalls uses onsite notifications to personalize product recommendations and onsite campaigns

Read now

Product quizzes

Quizzes can be super helpful in choosing the right products, so almost 20% of Shopify businesses are using them.

Syos is one of them. This store offers 3D-printed saxophone and clarinet mouthpieces, which can definitely be tricky to choose. That's why there’s a quiz to help out, and it pops up only after a new visitor checks out a couple of products:

Targeted messages based on browsing history

Along with cookies and customer accounts, browsing history is the best way to collect data to create a personalized website experience.

Example: Dolce & Gabbana shows a small message promoting the latest men's collection, a category I viewed during previous visits. Also, note that the message appeared on the "women's bestseller" page.

Geolocation targeting

Segmenting visitors based on their geolocation helps serve them personalized web pages and content. This helps ecommerce stores to offer location-based promotions, local fees for shipping, and items available only in specific countries.

For instance, when visitors arrive on the DB Journey website, they are immediately asked to select their shipping country.

Relevant limited-time offers

Online businesses can increase revenue in ecommerce by showing personalized time-sensitive offers based on customer data (visited pages, purchase history, etc.). For instance, if a shopper looks at several products within a specific category, you can offer them a limited-time discount code valid only for purchases from that category.

Example: Shutterstock offered a discount only on packs of videos, making it a good deal for anyone looking for that format:

How to start implementing personalization on a website

Personalizing websites can seem complex, but starting with a structured approach makes it manageable and even easy.

Here are some simple ideas for a start.

Step 1: Collect and analyze your customer data

Deep dive into your marketing and analytics software (GA4, CRM, heatmap tools, etc.) to collect information from your visitors, such as their browsing behavior, purchase history, and demographics.

Analyze this data to identify patterns and preferences that can inform your web personalization strategy. Next, determine target visitor groups who you want to personalize your website for registered, high spenders, new visitors, etc.).

Here are some of the most common campaigns and data required for them:

Step 3: Choose personalization types

These include behavioral targeting, intent-based targeting, account-based targeting, content personalization, geolocation targeting, etc.—any of the ones we described above.

Once you've chosen the types, create campaigns for specific audiences.

To see which personalization strategies fit specific scenarios, here are a few great examples for an ecommerce store.

Step 4: Use apps for automation

To make implementing personalization easier, consider using tools and apps designed specifically for this purpose. These can include AI-powered product recommendation tools, popup and form software, quiz builders, and more.

Find top-rated options for you:

• AI tools for ecommerce (for product recommendations, creating texts and other content)

• Best popup tools for Shopify (for targeting different visitor groups with popups on Shopify)

• Exit-intent popup software (for intent-based campaigns)

Step 5: Test and optimize

This can be done through ecommerce A/B testing, where you compare the performance of different personalized elements on your website. Use the data from these tests to continually improve and refine your personalization strategy.

Check out these conversion rate optimization software for A/B testing platforms, heatmaps, and visitor recording tools.

Step 6: Monitor results

Keep a close eye on the impact of your web personalization efforts on key metrics such as conversion rates, sales, and customer satisfaction. Use this data to make informed decisions about future personalization strategies.

Consider these tips for effective monitoring and improvement:

• Track revenue attribution: Measure how personalization contributes to sales or upselling (web personalization tools have goal and revenue tracking)

• Divide reporting into customer segments: Analyze results for different visitor groups (new vs. returning visitors) to identify specific improvements

• Get user feedback: Collect insights through website surveys or popup forms to understand what visitors think of your personalization efforts

Summary

Website personalization is not merely a strategy—it's a game-changer that directly influences customer engagement and satisfaction. By understanding your customer preferences and behaviors, you can craft experiences that not only meet expectations but exceed them, driving loyalty and growth.

Learn more about marketing from our blog:

• Try different texts: how to write engaging descriptions for products

• Experiment with incentives: 20 ideas for discount and coupon codes

• See how successful businesses personalize web pages: examples and ideas for ecommerce website design