Retail – Cora

Personalization is an impactful strategy to increase Cora Romania’s revenues. It inspires customers to buy more products while shopping, and it generates additional in-store visits through promotional offers. Providing more engaging content through personalization also increases brand trust and customer loyalty.

Website personalization generates 7% more online revenue

Cora personalizes all the product placements on their site, using Yusp’s personalized search, product listing, and product recommendation capabilities. 

During a test, we measured the additional value generated by personalization by comparing the site’s personalized and non-personalized versions. 

The website visitors were divided into test and control groups randomly. We turned off the personalized recommendations boxes and removed personalized category listings and search results for the control group users. 

During the A/B test, Cora measured the conversion from visit to sales (average purchase probability per visitor) and the average revenue per visitor (total revenue per number of visitors in the group). 

The result was a 10% increase in conversion from visit to sales and a 7% increase in total revenue.

Personalizing all product placements

Let’s see how Yusp implements personalization on Cora’s website, across different product placements and recommendations, connecting the online and offline shopping journey. 

Personalized recommendations show up on the main page of the website, as well as the category pages. The content of the recommendation boxes is changing based on the visitor’s browsing habits and shopping history. 

Once the visitor adds his loyalty card to his account online, the offline purchases will also impact the personalization journey and the products shown to him. 

The products show up in a personalized order on the category pages. The recommendation engine also populates the filtering widget to create personalized custom filters based on the user’s browsing habits.

Besides the personalized recommendation boxes on the website, the engine displays customized browsing elements like the category and search listings. 

The search results are not only ordered based on the keyword but also based on the visitor’s browsing and purchasing history. For example, if they search for ‘apple,’ the result will start with their favorite type of apple, which the engine knows based on their history. 

Displaying complementary products on the cart page can facilitate upselling and further increase the overall cart value. For example, the engine reminds users to purchase lemons and oranges after having purchased other fruits before completing their usual shopping list. 

The Cora website extended its personalization capabilities to CMS content, as well. The site organizes content in order of personal relevance for the user and includes them in the search results. 

As a result, besides product recommendations, the engine recommends content, including recipes and promotions to the user. This personalization tactic keeps the users more engaged and inspires further shopping. 

Visitors can enjoy a pleasant user experience due to specific product placements along the journey. For example, if a visitor picks a recipe and wants to buy the ingredients, the site will automatically recommend the products he needs to prepare the meal. The visitor can quickly select the brands he prefers without having to search for the items further. 

Similarly, if a product in the cart is out of stock, the customer receives personalized recommendations for potential substitutes.

Personalized promotions for 1 million Romanian loyalty card owners

As a retailer, Cora’s primary objectives are to entice its customers to visit their shops more frequently. 

By implementing personalized promotional offers, Yusp enables Cora to offer lower prices on relevant products to those customers, who would otherwise choose another shop for a discount. 

There are approximately 900 000 Cora Loyalty Card owners in Romania, who received an individual offer, each with different, personalized price discounts based on their previous purchases and their estimated customer lifetime value. 

Yusp measured the impact of the personalization in periodic promotional messages through an A/B test. The control group received a general promotional message, while the target group received additional personalized promotion. 

The experiment clearly showed that the users in the target group visited the stores more frequently due to the promotions. During these extra visits, the average basket size remained the same, which means that the visitors purchased their usual shopping list and the promotional products, which resulted in millions of dollars of extra revenue for Cora.

In-store personalization

Cora developed an in-store customer experience application that is also integrated with the Yusp personalization engine to help customers during shopping and increase the average basket value.

Personalization is already helping the customer while putting a shopping list together. Yusp recommends specific products for each item, showing the price, so the customer can review the options and select the most appealing one.

Right after the customer enters the store, he receives a notification with some promotional products highlighted. The notification is an impactful way to help customers discover relevant products on sale, as most of them don’t read the printed promotional catalog based on the vendor’s experience.

The application shows reminders and relevant promotions according to the items already picked up or scanned in the store while shopping.

The Key Takeaway

In a traditional brick and mortar retailer, the critical elements of a successful digital transformation are improving the offline shopping experience and providing a consistent customer experience across all the customer touchpoints.

The Cora case study shows how the retailer used personalization to reach its digital transformation goals. So far, Cora implemented a comprehensive package of personalized placements on their website, in their mobile apps, and throughout their loyalty program.

While personalization is a larger scale project, the implementation of Yusp was ROI positive since the solution generated more revenue than the cost of implementation. 

Personalizing the website generates 10% more conversions, with 7% additional revenue.

Simultaneously, sending personalized promotional offers for loyalty cardholders increases the effectiveness of the Cora Loyalty Program. It generates a significant number of additional store visits, resulting in an additional $ millions per year.