According to a recent eMarketer survey, nearly 75% of retailers in North America list personalization as one of their top priorities when it comes to customer experience.

Retailers want to provide personalization to both first-time and repeat customers with relevant content and recommendations, but the reality of its implementation seems a little more complicated.

However, according to Drew Giovannoli, product marketing manager at Bazaarvoice, it doesn’t have to be so complicated. We interviewed Giovannoli to get the scoop. 

“They’re not expecting anything futuristic. They just don’t want retailers to waste their time,” said Giovannoli in a phone interview with DrivingSales. “They aren’t trying to learn and navigate your store – they want what they’re looking for without having to go in a million different directions.”

Giovannoli is the product marketing manager in charge of personalization data products at Bazaarvoice, a company that has been working with leading retail and brand clients for over a decade. In the interview, he said a common conversation he holds with clients tends to focus on personalization and giving a better experience to customers, which then provides returns for the business.

However, there’s often a disconnect between what retailers think they’re doing and what customers feel like they’re getting. Add in the difference between personalization and customization, and the waters muddy even more. 

“You can customize into different segments, but when you personalize it, it’s really talking about that one-to-one experience,” he said. Many times, Giovannoli added, retailers are catering to an A/B Test.

“For example, let’s say you sell three different types of ice cream. You ask Joe what his favorite flavor is, and he says chocolate. Customization would be knowing Joe prefers chocolate, but going with strawberry because that’s what the largest group likes,” he said. “It’s personalization if Joe says he likes chocolate ice cream and that’s what we give him.”

“Where the disconnect really occurs is when a retailer starts to cater to the masses instead of to the individuals,” Giovannoli said. “If we are tailoring an experience at all, we’re often just splitting among a demographic instead of tailoring to the individual preferences.”

So, what are the best dealerships doing to maximize the customer personalization experience? Making recommendations based on what shoppers are looking for, not based on who the dealership thinks a shopper is. You don’t want to just know who they are; you need to find out “what this person actually cares about,” said Giovannoli.

“63% of folks who are actively shopping automotive retail say a personalized home page makes it easier to find items that they like,” said Giovannoli. “But only 26% of those same folks have actually experienced a personalized homepage.”

When it comes to personalized sites, customers should rarely be viewing content thats feel “new” to them, according to Giovannoli. Rather, it should feel like they landed in just the right spot. Things like relevant videos and content, display, production recommendations, and search personalization are great tools for improving site personalization.

On the other hand, the least effective dealerships are catering to the masses rather than the individual.

“Businesses start to fail when they treat everyone the same,” Giovannoli said. “When someone walks into a dealership, you can start to figure them out immediately, but that immediacy isn’t available online, so you have to find a way to bring that same experience to your website visitors.”

The idea and implementation of personalization is hardly limited to a single industry, but there may be a notion that it isn’t as applicable in the automotive industry, said Giovannoli.

“In retail automotive, there is a huge interest among consumers when it comes to finding what they’re looking for, and there are a number of different factors: are they more of a premium customer or a value customer? Sports or adventure?” he said. “Personalization is not just for high-end apparel retailers; taking advantage of this kind of data can give automotive retailers a huge competitive advantage.”