Three-quarters of consumers say that retailers collect too much data, a Thoughtspot survey found.
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Dive Brief:
- Consumers are wary of personalization and tend to find it intrusive, according to a survey of more than 4,800 people in the U.S. and U.K. released Thursday by Thoughtspot.
- The vast majority of consumers, 91%, find at least one form of personalization intrusive, the study found. The personalization tactics most commonly cited as intrusive are tracking behavior across other websites or apps, recommending products too frequently, and using consumers’ real-time location information.
- Three-quarters of consumers say that retailers collect too much data. Just 5% of respondents disagree.
Dive Insight:
Brands that want the benefits of personalized experiences need to take the right steps to avoid coming off as creepy.
The data for personalization can be gathered in two ways director analyst at Gartner. They can collect it passively through context like cookies or browsing behavior, or they can take an active approach through polls, quizzes and assessments
“While both methods enable tailored engagement, customers find it less ‘creepy’ the more actively and directly you procure information from them,” Jashinsky said in an email. “This active approach reduces the need for substantial data acquisition and lowers the risk of delivering experiences that can damage the brand.”
Active personalization can encourage transparency, which builds trust with customers. One-third of consumers say that transparency about what data is used to make product recommendations would help earn their trust
Brands can encourage more sharing by offering rewards in return for customer information Gartner research has found that three in five consumers say they don’t like offering their personal information to brands unless they receive something in return
Beyond collecting the data, leaders may want to be careful about how deep they dig to personalize content
Gartner research has also found that content is 3.6 times more likely to be perceived as creepy when marketers use ten data dimensions instead of just one.
