Whether spawned by the uprise of our tech-savvy society, a shaky economy or evolving consumer expectations, retailers are amping up efforts to accommodate personal preferences. Personalization, or the use of technology to distinguish and market to differences between individuals, is appearing in an array of industries. It seems everyone wants a piece of the personalization pie.

“Personalization is kind of a magic word today. Everybody knows they need to do more of it but there are questions … ‘How do we do it?’ And even more nagging, ‘How well are we doing it?’” said Chief Architect Bill Bishop at research firm Brick Meets Click in last week’s article on Supermarket News. The article recognizes the launch of personalized programs online for two mega-chain grocery stores this year. For example, Safeway’s “Just for U” program offers coupons based on items that have been electronically honed to customer preferences.

“We clearly recognize that mobile, customized, personalized offers are really, really important in the future. And we’ll aggressively pursue that,” Target’s CEO George Steinhafel told investors last month, as quoted in the article.

Personalization efforts may be vital to remain competitive in such a connected society. A news release from Hewlett-Packard earlier this year stated, “Personalization of the in-store customer experience will be a key objective for retailers over the next two years … (and) the challenge is being fueled by rising consumer expectations of rich, multimedia in-store shopping experiences.” Although that’s the case, it was discovered in the HP-sponsored studies that 76 percent of retailers “do not possess the technology tools or the business processes for executing web, catalog or special orders from stores.”

Here at MarketStar, we leverage social media, mobile apps and personalized email content to enhance the in-store selling capacity of our retail clients. We understand the best campaigns are well-rounded, and personalization is becoming more essential to include.

Food for thought: What efforts is your company making to secure a piece of the personalization pie?

P.S. For further reading on this topic, feel free to swing by Retail Systems Research, to check out their August 2010 study called “The State of Personalization in Retail.”

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