Personalization is more crucial than ever, according to Deloitte Digital’s latest research.* Since our foundational study two years ago,¹ consumer interest in personalization has increased 20%, and 50% more brands consider it a core component of their customer strategy.
Yet despite heightened attention, only a quarter of brands are delivering the kind of personalization consumers recognize and want. How do these standouts do it? They recognize personalization as a mutual exchange in which customers share information about themselves—and brands reciprocate by delivering spot-on experiences that bring value to customers’ lives.
In a new series of articles, Deloitte Digital is delving into ways that personalization can help brands flourish by driving a positive, reciprocal exchange. Personalizing consumers’ mobile app experiences is one of those ways.
Go beyond customization
Apps make it easy for users to tweak settings and notifications to their liking. However, brands shouldn’t stop at mere customization. Doing so would mean missing out on opportunities to harness everything brands can learn about customers based on their app interactions—their age and gender, the time of day they typically use the app, the screen gestures they prefer, the product category they looked at for the first time, and more. By leveraging this kind of data, brands can deliver content and design that is truly attuned to each customer’s unique interests or needs.
To make your brand’s app experiences more personalized, consider these actions:
Win over customers from the get-go by understanding their initial goals when they download your app. It can be valuable to directly ask about their favorites or preferences to immediately make their time on your app more convenient and bespoke. By knowing what they like, you can calibrate the right level of in-app recommendations, offers and push notifications for each customer, making them feel connected but not inundated.
Adapt and experiment with different content and design based on actual user behavior. For instance, consider where customers land when they first open the app. Some may prefer seeing the home screen with several options of where to go next, while others may want to dive deeper in the shopping, service or delivery experience. By analyzing user profiles, you’ll take customers to the places that align with their demonstrated and implied interests.
Be transparent upfront about the benefits customers will see by enabling location services for your app. By gaining their trust and permission, you can adjust and improve the app experience based on customers’ whereabouts. You can design the app interface to change, for example, when someone approaches your store or restaurant location for an order pickup, speeding up the process.
Offer special deals when customers use your app while shopping in-store. This gives you valuable information about how your customers actually shop, and it gives them the kind of tangible benefits they want from personalization. Our research found that 78% of consumers expect money-saving insights, and 84% said personalized discount offers or bundles significantly influence their purchase decisions.
Drive ongoing engagement by creating an in-app community where users can share ideas, ask questions and gain access to unique offers and opportunities. A robust in-app community means users spend more time on your app and are less likely to forget about it or uninstall it. Best of all, the community conversations can help you get to know customers better so you can curate more impactful content and recommendations.
* This report highlights results from a January–February survey of 500 business executives who are responsible for personalizing the customer experience at US business-to-consumer companies, plus 1,000 adult consumers who had interacted with a brand online or through an app in recent months. Unless otherwise noted, the statistics and insights highlighted in this article are based on that research survey.
1. Leala Shah Crawford, Embrace meaningful personalization to maximize growth, Deloitte Digital, July 2022, p. 2, accessed August 6, 2024.
2. Laura Ceci, Cumulative global hours spent on mobile apps 2020–2023, Statista, April 8, 2024, accessed August 16, 2024.
