Research shows outfit and styling recommendations among the top performing personalization categories

New York – January 20, 2019 – Stylitics, the leading digital visual merchandising and outfit recommendation platform, and leading global information company The NPD Group, released a Trend Tracker report exploring the attitudes of female Millennial shoppers towards personalized e-commerce experiences. The Millennial Mirror: Retail Personalization report reveals that while data privacy is a major concern, 95 percent of panelists are willing to provide specific information to get more relevant experiences. This is good news for retailers struggling to find a balance between data privacy and offering more personalized shopping experiences.

A majority 82 percent of the panel surveyed said they prefer a personalized shopping experience. Further, 87 percent said they would be more likely to return and/or make a repeat purchase if a shopping session is personalized. “Retailers who are not rethinking and personalizing their customer journeys are under-delivering and leaving sales on the table,” said Rohan Deuskar, founder and CEO of Stylitics. “At a time when brand trust and loyalty are declining, pairing smart personalization strategies with transparent privacy measures can keep customers coming back.”The report explores shopper experiences among top categories for e-commerce personalization including outfit/style recommendations, product recommendations, and size/fit guidance.

Outfit/style recommendations are at the top of the list for personalization preferences, with 81 percent saying they experienced some form of outfit recommendation when shopping online, and 65 percent saying it was one of the features they interacted with most. Additionally, these customers will purchase one to two more items on average if shown suggestions on how to wear them.

Preferences/occasion details and product recommendations are currently the features most encountered when shopping online and can also yield an increase in units per transaction. Additionally, most panelists are willing to provide personal size and fit information and indicate this type of guidance would significantly increase their likelihood of making a purchase.

Marketers need to be aware that the willingness to share information dramatically drops when they ask for email addresses, social media accounts, household income or race/ethnicity.

For more information, please contact your NPD account representative, call 866-444-1411 or email contactnpd@npd.com.

Methodology

This qualitative study was carried out by market research specialists at Stylitics in collaboration with The NPD Group in July 2018. The study identified 3,911 women within the 18-45 age group in the U.S. and analyzed their purchases over the past 18 months. 80+ women from the panel were selected for a further in-depth qualitative survey on their online shopping experiences with personalization. This study is not intended to be a U.S. census representative panel, but rather an early notification system to alert the industry to evolving marketplace and style trends as soon as they are detected.