Per my Shop.org blog post a few weeks ago, I see an eCommerce market that is still getting ready to fully embrace personalization, but still focusing more on the plans behind inputs (traffic) and outputs (customer retention/upsells). 

Based on the recent analyst reports, thought leaders in the blogosphere, and topics covered at trade events however, web site optimization (of which personalization is a part) will be the number one focus of online business in the coming years.

With that in mind, I did a Google search this morning that was a total headscratcher.   Click here to see the results.

The fourth link down is a CNET article from 5 years ago explaining the failure of web personalization.

” Companies trying to get personal with their Web site visitors in hopes of increasing sales are wasting more money than they’re earning.”

The third link down is a blog post from over 4 years ago discussing the steps required to build an actionable plan around web personalization.  This blog was well written, insightful, and would work just as well today as it would have in 2004 (advances in technology notwithstanding).  That said, it discussed the concept of personalization in terms that imply everyone is doing it, something almost all current practitioners will disagree on.

This is my favorite quote from the piece:

“It’s a tired old yarn, but if you hope to implement a web personalization strategy, the first and most important step is to develop and mature your business goals and requirements”

Wasting Money? Tired old yarn?  How can the ‘next big thing’ in eCommerce have this kind of historical background?

I blame Google. (in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way)

If you look at the writing trends in 2004 about eMarketing, you see a fairly equal split between traffic generation and website optimization.  With the increased competition that emerged online in recent years, traffic generation became so important that it completely dominated.  The chart below is a Google Trends report for “PPC” vs “Personalization” to illustrate this point.

PPC is in blue, Personalization is in red

So…after a brief lapse, the hottest concept of 2003 is gearing up to be the hottest concept of 2009.  Everything old is new again. 

Now don’t get me wrong.  There have been some major changes in the personalization space in the last 5 years.  There are some great vendors out there to power different aspects of personalization (I know a great company called Sitebrand), and the analytics space has matured to the point where it is possible to reap great rewards from a properly executed personalization initiative.

This couldn’t be made any more evident by the following point:  The CNET article referenced above cites a Jupiter Research article from 2003 called “Beyond the Personalization Myth”.  Recent reports from Forrester and Aberdeen are of the opinion that this myth has become a profitable reality.

As a personalization analyst, I would like to welcome you back to the discussion about optimizing your website and growing your business.  We missed you.

Cheers,

Jim