What E-commerce Personalisation Means in 2025

E-commerce personalisation in 2025 has advanced well beyond recommending similar products or addressing customers by name. It now refers to delivering real-time, data-driven experiences that adapt to each shopper’s unique behaviour, preferences, purchase history, location, and even browsing intent, across every digital touchpoint.

For brands looking to scale or refine their e-commerce site experience, staying ahead of the latest personalisation trends is no longer optional—it’s a business imperative. As consumer expectations grow and digital competition becomes more aggressive, e-commerce success depends on adopting smarter, more strategic, and privacy-conscious personalisation solutions.

Why Personalisation Matters More Than Ever

Personalisation has become a baseline expectation for today’s e-commerce landscape. According to McKinsey, 71% of consumers expect personalised interactions, while 76% feel frustrated when these experiences fall short. Another McKinsey study reveals that companies investing in personalisation strategies see revenue increases and retention improvements of up to 15–30%.

These numbers underscore a crucial reality: in 2025, brands that fail to deliver relevant, tailored e-commerce experiences risk losing customers to those that do and do it well at scale.

Scalable E-commerce Personalisation Tactics

These are some of the new ways to personalise your website in today’s competitive e-commerce landscape:

1. Offer Incentives for Those Signing In

Simply offering a 10% discount is no longer enough to keep your customers engaged and loyal to your brand. In 2025, leading e-commerce brands are shifting their focus toward building genuine value through meaningful sign-in experiences that benefit both the customer and the business.

Rather than treating account sign-ins as just another marketing tactic, savvy retailers are designing login experiences that feel intuitive and rewarding. By encouraging users to stay signed in, businesses unlock a suite of features that boost convenience and drive long-term engagement, such as real-time order tracking, hassle-free returns, access to exclusive referral programs, and post-purchase rewards like free shipping or personalised discounts.

What makes this approach particularly effective is its alignment with modern privacy standards. Instead of intrusive data collection, customers willingly log in when they see clear, useful benefits, similar to requesting a helpful shopping assistant, rather than being followed around by a pushy salesperson.

2. Use Smart Product-Detail Page (PDP) Recommendations

According to a study by Segment, 52% of consumers agree that as their digital experiences with brands become more personalised, their brand satisfaction improves. That’s why product recommendations have become popular for many e-commerce websites. In fact, more often than not, these product recommendations are typically products related to the user’s browsing pattern, complementary products with the items the customer is using, or substitutions. Therefore, it’s important to leverage technology that helps you provide this more personalised experience for your customers.

For Shopify users, delivering this kind of personalised experience doesn’t require third-party tools. Shopify offers several built-in features that make product recommendations easy to implement and manage, including:

• Data-Driven Recommendation Engine: Shopify’s built-in engine analyses browsing behaviour, purchase history, and product relationships to recommend relevant items—even for first-time visitors. You can customise recommendations by creating rules for upsells, cross-sells, bestsellers, or manually selected products.
• Shopify Search & Discovery App: This free tool enhances your recommendation strategy with deeper customisation, performance analytics (such as click and purchase rates), and greater control over which products are displayed.
• Shopify Flow: While not designed solely for recommendations, this powerful automation tool lets you create workflows that trigger personalised product suggestions based on specific customer actions, such as completing a quiz or making a purchase.

3. Implement a More Data-Driven Loyalty Programme

These days, customers are expecting more personalised and meaningful experiences from the brands they support. To meet these expectations, businesses must leverage data to transform traditional rewards programmes into powerful tools for customer retention and engagement. This data could be obtained through their purchase history, browsing patterns, and engagement trends.

By using this data effectively, you can create tailored loyalty experiences that feel relevant and valuable. For instance, if a customer regularly purchases skincare products, you could offer them early access to new product samples or exclusive promotions aligned with their preferences. This level of personalisation not only strengthens loyalty but also increases customer lifetime value.

4. Create Personalised Bestseller Lists

Bestseller tags are strategic indicators applied to products that consistently perform well within a specific time period. These tags often act as sales accelerators, providing immediate visual cues to consumers about a product’s popularity, making it more appealing and thereby influencing decisions. 

Taking this a step further, you can boost engagement by creating personalised bestseller sections on your e-commerce website. Instead of showing a generic list, tailor your bestsellers by customer segments, such as by location, browsing behaviour, or product category. For example, a returning customer who frequently shops for fitness gear could see a list of bestsellers in that category, increasing relevance and the likelihood of conversion.

5. Consider Dynamic Content for Different Customer Segments

Dynamic content is essential for today’s digital marketing strategy as it enables brands to deliver highly personalised experiences across touchpoints. Leveraging data and automation, businesses can tailor content to match each customer’s interests, behaviours, and preferences, resulting in stronger engagement, higher conversion rates, and improved customer loyalty. 

From personalised emails and targeted ads to custom product recommendations, dynamic content ensures that the right message reaches the right audience at the most impactful moment. This level of relevance not only enhances user experience but also drives sustainable business growth.

6. Retarget In-Session Based on Behavioural Triggers

Behaviour-triggered popups and real-time messaging are effective tools for capturing customer attention and nudging them toward conversion. 

For example, if a shopper spends time on a product page without adding the item to their cart, a well-timed prompt, such as a limited-time discount, free shipping offer, or reminder of low stock, can encourage them to take action. These subtle yet strategic interventions reduce bounce rates and guide users toward completing their purchase, ultimately improving on-site engagement and sales performance.

7. Improve AI-Driven Chatbots with First-Party Data

AI-powered chatbots have become a vital component of modern e-commerce, offering 24/7 customer support and seamless assistance throughout the shopping journey. When enhanced with first-party data, such as browsing history, purchase behaviour, and preferences, these chatbots can deliver highly personalised interactions that go beyond basic inquiries.

For Shopify users, features like the Shopify AI Shopping Assistant enable merchants to provide intelligent, on-site support. These assistants can suggest relevant products, guide customers to what they’re looking for, and offer tailored recommendations, all based on the individual shopper’s activity. By leveraging first-party data, AI chatbots transform into powerful, conversion-driving tools that enhance user experience and reduce friction in the buying process.

8. Customise Checkout for Returning Users

Checkout is no longer just the final step in a transaction—it’s now a powerful touchpoint for data collection and deeper customer understanding. In fact, many e-commerce platforms are transforming their checkout into a dynamic space for personalisation and conversion.

For example, a Shopify POS agency can leverage Shopify’s flexible ecosystem and improve the checkout experience in various ways, including:

• AOV with Post-Purchase Offers: Add post-purchase pages between checkout and confirmation to surface one-click upsells, cross-sells, or loyalty program invites—maximising value from every transaction.
• Custom Rules Using Shopify Functions: Without needing to code, you can create logic for unique discount rules, shipping options, and payment methods tailored to specific customers or behaviours.
• Behaviour Tracking with Custom Pixels: Integrate tracking tools to monitor drop-offs and checkout behaviour, helping you identify friction points and improve your conversion funnel.

Personalisation Best Practices

While personalisation offers many advantages, it must be applied thoughtfully to avoid crossing into intrusive territory. These are key best practices to guide your e-commerce personalisation strategy:

1. Be Personal, Not Invasive

Consumers value relevance, but not at the expense of privacy. Therefore, avoid using personal data in ways that feel overly specific or intrusive, such as hyper-targeted ads or aggressive retargeting, as it may come across as surveillance.

Instead, allow customers the freedom to browse and discover products organically. Make sure to offer personalised experiences that feel helpful rather than restrictive. 

Most importantly, make personalisation opt-in, especially when leveraging cookies, loyalty programmes, or AI-driven tools.

2. Build Trust Before Personalising

Effective personalisation is built on trust, so before requesting account sign-ins or offering tailored recommendations, ensure your brand has delivered clear value.

Start by focusing on customer service, transparent policies, and reliable post-purchase support. Once trust is established, gradually introduce more personalised touchpoints at the right moments—when the customer is ready and engaged.

3. Protect Customer Data at All Costs

With growing concerns around data privacy, it’s critical to handle customer information with care. Therefore, collect only the data you truly need, clearly explain how it will be used, and give customers control over their personal information.

Equally important, ensure that all data shared with you is securely stored and protected against unauthorised access. A strong data protection strategy not only builds customer trust but also helps your business stay compliant with regulations and international standards.

Let 360&5 Help You Personalise Your Shopify E-commerce Websites

At 360&5, we help brands in Singapore transform standard storefronts into personalised, high-converting digital experiences through their Shopify website. As a trusted Shopify Plus development company, we specialise in creating e-commerce solutions that drive customer loyalty, engagement, and sales.

From tailored front-end design to backend integrations that unlock powerful data-driven insights, our team delivers e-commerce web development services built for personalisation at scale.

Let’s build a smarter, more human shopping experience together.

For more insights, check out the role of AI in e-commerce and our guide on how to scale an enterprise e-commerce platform.