Successful brands put the customer first.
They track real customer behavior (with consent) and use those insights to remove friction, anticipate needs, and streamline buying. You can boost revenue the same way—by intentionally designing a better customer experience.
If you want to take this further, focus on one proven growth lever:
Personalization.
Personalizing the customer experience is a winning strategy. In recent industry surveys, marketers consistently report that tailored journeys deepen relationships and improve performance.
Brands that tailor content and offers typically see measurable gains in conversions, average order value, and retention. The blocker? Many teams still don’t feel confident they have the right data, tools, or workflow to personalize well and in a privacy-safe way.
That’s why I wrote this guide.
Maybe you already know you need personalization but aren’t sure where to start. Or you’ve tried a few tactics and want to level up.
Either way, here’s exactly what to do.
Below are practical ways to increase sales by accommodating the needs of your customers and personalizing their experience—using first-party data, clear consent, and simple on-site improvements.
Encourage your customers to create profiles
Start by giving customers a lightweight way to create an account on your site or app. Profiles unlock everything else in this guide—saved preferences, faster checkout, order history, personalized recommendations, and loyalty perks.
Once an account exists, you can observe behavior tied to that profile (pages viewed, categories browsed, items purchased) and use it to improve the experience—always honoring consent and privacy choices.
Customers are comfortable with you tracking their habits when it’s clearly used to help them—like remembering sizes, surfacing relevant products, or pre-filling forms.
Customers want you to:
- Make shopping easier with remembered preferences and one-click actions
- Send only relevant, timely offers instead of generic blasts
- Personalize on-site content and recommendations
- Provide a consistent experience across web, app, email, and in-store
Many consumers even expect brands to know the basics—preferred categories, sizes, and price ranges—and proactively suggest options they’ll like. Set yourself up to do that from day one.
Make account creation effortless:
- Ask only for essentials (name, email, password or passkey). Capture the rest progressively at checkout or via a preference center.
- Add a simple “Create an account” checkbox at checkout that reuses entered data.
- Offer passwordless login (email magic link or passkeys) and social sign-in for speed.
- Explain the value: “Save your sizes, check out faster, and get relevant picks.”
Both you and your customers benefit. Personalized content, remembered settings, and faster checkout lift conversion rates and lifetime value.
Segment your email subscribers
Collecting emails is critical—but personalization is what makes them perform. Segment your list so people receive messages that reflect their interests, lifecycle stage, and location.
The best way to do this is by segmenting your email lists:
Not every subscriber has the same goals. Sending everyone the same promo is the fastest path to low engagement and unsubscribes.
You also need to learn how to write marketing emails that don’t get marked as spam. Authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), consistent sending domains, and clear opt-ins matter as much as copy.
Smart segmentation ideas that work in 2025:
- Lifecycle: new subscriber, first-time customer, repeat buyer, lapsed
- Behavior: categories browsed, items added/abandoned, purchase frequency
- Location & climate: city/region (winter promo ? Texas summer)
- Value: AOV tiers, VIPs, discount-sensitive shoppers
- Preferences: sizes, styles, interests collected via quizzes & profiles
Segmentation reliably improves opens, clicks, and revenue per send while reducing bounces and unsubscribes. It’s also better for deliverability and customer trust.
Store information for faster checkouts
Customer profiles shine at checkout. Ask for the details you need once, then securely store them so buying again takes seconds.
Every extra step adds drop-off. Re-typing name, address, and card info on every order is tedious—especially on mobile.
Take a look at how Delta handles it: stored traveler details and payment methods make booking fast, even without a card in hand.
For ecommerce, implement:
- Address autocomplete and validation to reduce errors
- Digital wallets (Apple Pay, Google Pay, Shop Pay, PayPal) and one-click “Buy Now”
- Tokenized cards vaulted with your gateway (never store raw PANs)
- Passkeys/passwordless login to remove login friction
- 3-D Secure 2.0 where required to reduce fraud without killing UX
Shorter, safer checkouts increase conversion and repeat purchase rates—especially on mobile.
Implement geotargeting practices
Use location to keep content relevant. At minimum, tailor currency, shipping options, delivery times, and language conventions by country or region.
In addition to segmenting email by location, you can adapt on-site content based on where a visitor browses from.
Here’s a simple example from SAXX that lets users choose their country.
The U.S. and Canada are similar, but small details matter—units of measure, spelling variations, duties and taxes, and shipping SLAs.
By letting visitors pick region and language, you ensure they see accurate products, prices, and policies.
Global brands should go deeper, like Nike with country and language options.
Apps can personalize by precise location—again, only with explicit permission. Ask for access transparently and deliver real value in return.
With geofencing, define a radius around a store and trigger a helpful notification when someone enters it—like a timely lunch discount if you run a restaurant and the user is nearby at noon.
Privacy tip: Respect OS-level preferences, offer an easy opt-out, and avoid “creepy” surprises.
Create a customer loyalty program
The goal of personalization isn’t just one more order—it’s retention. A well-structured loyalty program rewards the behaviors you want and gives customers a reason to come back.
You’ll see higher cart adds, conversion rates, and revenue per session from repeat buyers compared to first-timers. Reward that loyalty and you’ll get more of it.
Build your program around value, not just discounts:
- Tiered rewards: unlock perks at spend thresholds (shipping upgrades, early access, exclusive products)
- Points for participation: purchases, reviews, referrals, profile completion, and feedback
- Personalized offers: bonus points on favorite categories, birthday gifts, and anniversary milestones
- Progress tracking: show status and next reward in the account and app
When rewards reflect each customer’s interests and lifetime value, they feel earned—not gimmicky.
Listen to customer feedback
Customers leave when they don’t feel heard. Close the loop by collecting feedback and acting on it.
Use lightweight surveys and interviews to surface issues and opportunities. Then analyze themes and prioritize fixes that meaningfully improve experience and revenue.
Make it a habit:
- NPS/CSAT/CES at key moments (post-purchase, support resolution, subscription renewal)
- On-site microsurveys to learn why visitors bounce or what’s missing
- Feedback changelog: publish “You asked, we built” updates so customers see their impact
Don’t ship changes just to ship them. Focus on recurring themes across many customers, implement, and report back. That builds trust and retention.
Recommend relevant products
I mentioned this earlier, but it’s worth going deeper. Use browsing and purchase histories to power helpful, not pushy, recommendations.
Form fields can’t tell you what someone is about to shop for. Behavior can. With it, you can make relevant suggestions that feel like service.
If you do, consumers will be more likely to buy from your brand—online and in-store.
Keep it simple and helpful:
- On product pages: “Frequently bought together,” “You might also like,” or alternatives when an item is out of stock
- In cart: complementary add-ons that don’t distract from checkout
- In email/SMS: post-purchase care guides, refills, and accessories
- In store: associate tools that surface customer preferences and history
Avoid option overload. Many shoppers leave for competitors when faced with too many choices. Curate a small, high-confidence set instead of dumping the entire catalog on them.
Example: if someone bought a surfboard and a wetsuit, recommend wax, sunscreen, and a waterproof bag—not random products. It feels personal because it is.
Let your customers be part of the personalization process
Combine data-driven personalization with interactive tools that capture preferences directly (often called “zero-party” data).
Even without a profile, you can help customers tell you what they want—while narrowing choices so shopping feels manageable.
For example, Warby Parker walks shoppers through a quick quiz to find frames that fit their style and face shape.
The flow starts with men’s or women’s styles, then asks about fit preferences.
Notice the subtle personalization cue: the illustrations reflect the choice you just made, keeping the journey feeling tailored.
Next come color preferences and frame shapes.
Then questions like time since last eye exam and whether you’re shopping for eyeglasses, sunglasses, or both.
The result is a curated set of products that match stated preferences, which beats scrolling through hundreds of options.
Borrow the pattern: short quizzes, size finders, fit calculators, and budget sliders. They improve discovery while giving you permission-based data to use later.
Write content from the first person perspective
Personalization isn’t only about algorithms. Your voice matters. Write like a person talking to another person.
This comes naturally to small businesses that interact with customers daily. But even global brands can sound human by using a conversational tone and first-person perspective when it makes sense.
When I blog, I use “I” and “we” because it creates connection. Do the same across your emails, site copy, and support docs—while keeping grammar tight and avoiding slang that could confuse readers.
Make it personal in your inbox too: sign emails with a name, include a real reply-to address (yourname@yourcompany.com), and avoid faceless senders like support@company123.com for relationship-building campaigns.
The goal is clarity and trust, not corporate jargon.
Craft personalized email subject lines and content
Let’s stay with email for a moment.
Segmentation and voice set the stage, but subject lines and preview text determine if your message gets opened.
Personalized subject lines—like using a first name or referencing a browsed category—tend to lift opens and clicks when used tastefully. Industry research (including this Adestra report) has shown this pattern for years.
Practical tips that work now:
- Keep subject lines concise and specific; pair with compelling preview text
- Use dynamic tokens (first name, city, category) sparingly to avoid looking spammy
- Match the email body to the promise in the subject—bait-and-switch kills trust
- Test send time, from-name, and one variable at a time to learn what your audience prefers
- Always offer easy preference management: frequency control, topics, and channels
When subject lines and content are aligned to the reader’s intent, you’ll see happier customers and stronger sales.
Conclusion
Your customers want and expect a personalized shopping experience. It’s your job to deliver—responsibly and transparently.
Encourage simple account creation. Segment your email list by lifecycle, behavior, and location. Store details securely for fast, wallet-friendly checkout.
Use geotargeting to localize content and offers across your site and app. Launch a loyalty program that rewards the right behaviors and clearly shows progress.
Collect feedback, analyze patterns, and close the loop with visible improvements. Power relevant recommendations with browsing and purchase behavior—without overwhelming shoppers.
Invite customers into the process with quizzes and preference centers, and communicate in a human voice. Craft subject lines and messages that respect their time and deliver value.
Implement these personalization strategies and you’ll enhance the customer experience across channels—while lifting conversions, order values, and lifetime loyalty.