Prescription for A Targeted Shopping Experience: Drugstore Dot Com

Here at Elastic Path, we define targeted selling as the delivery of content and offers to different site visitors and customers based on what you know about them. There is a laundry list of retailer examples that we will cover in our July webinar Creating Relevant Shopping Experiences Through Targeted Selling. Until then, I'll whet your appetite with a few applications of targeted selling from a site that's doing it very well, Drugstore.com.

Exhibit A - Geo-IP Targeting

When I land on any page of the Drugstore.com domain, it recognizes me as a non-US visitor, and prompts me to either update my currency (pre-selected from the dropdown) or proceed as a US visitor. Giving customers the choice rather than force redirecting supports US residents making orders when on vacation, for example. (Gotta renew that prescription!)

Updating the site to automatically show prices in a visitor's currency is obviously helpful. Retailers can also filter catalogs to show only the products that ship outside the US to minimize user frustration, disappointment and cart abandonment.

One provider of geo-IP sniffing technology is Quova.

Exhibit B - Searchandising

If you don't carry a brand or product that receives a lot of searches on your site (hint: check those search logs!), you may be able to keep the customer's interest by showing similar brands or products. In this case, Drugstore.com no longer carries Bumble and Bumble hair products, so it "searchandises" its results with next-best-things:

Unfortunately the searchandising doesn't carry over to the international store.

Searchandising is also a great idea for discontinued products that have successors customers may not know about. For example, "We no longer stock '8 Minute Abs,' may we suggest '7 Minute Abs.'"

Exhibit C - Persistent Cookies

Remembering the items that a customer viewed in a previous session can help customers re-locate products they may be ready to buy in subsequent site visits, rather than fumble through navigation. Drugstore.com also includes text links to recent searches and allows the visitor to clear history if its no longer relevant.

Exhibit D - Targeted Offers

After browsing the pet category a few times and viewing products, Drugstore.com starts showing me offers on pet products when I'm browsing other categories.

All these tactics are part of a targeted selling strategy. Want to learn more about delivering a more relevant and useful shopping experience for your customers? Don't miss Creating Relevant Shopping Experiences Through Targeted Selling

Just a reminder of the webinar takeaways:

• How can you leverage what you know about your customer to improve their shopping experience and increase store revenues?
• How are the top online retailers using targeted selling?
• How can you avoid the common mistakes?
• Understanding how to apply targeted selling for your customers
• What does personalization really mean? Sign up today!