Known for the quality of their products, high standards of customer service, and ethical sourcing, Waitrose has over 350 shops in the United Kingdom and exports products to 52 countries.
Many users from across the globe regularly interact with the brand through the content they offer on their website. This means that the site must serve several audiences with different goals, all while reinforcing the Waitrose brand identity as a trusted source of premium products and experiences.
One of the most popular features of the Waitrose site is the recipes page, in which the brand shares recipes along different themes such as “Quick and Easy”, “Comfort Food,” and “Healthy Ideas.” The marketing team began exploring which contextual factors would be most influential in determining the best recipe to display to each customer.
Success with Strategy
The various recipe categories have all been shown to appeal to Waitrose customers, but they carry very different context and message: choosing the right content to capture a visitor’s attention is essential, especially on the homepage where page real estate is at a premium.
Waitrose learned that customer data points such as family income, population density, and shopper’s OS were influential in recipe selection. The team was also surprised to learn that day of the week was one of the most important factors.
The results from Waitrose’s initial Automated Personalization Experience have given the team confidence that AI can help them deliver an online customer experience that meets the brand’s in-store standards.
Waitrose Continues Its Personalization Journey
In this Monetate Success Story video, Optimization Specialist Adam Ireson describes how Waitrose continues to explore homepage personalization, by leveraging customer behaviors and past orders to build custom tailored experiences.
If we’re targeting younger, busy people who live in London, for example, we now know that they are more likely to want quick and easy products and recipes. It’s another layer that we can add on to our knowledge of our customers.
Waitrose can build tests within 5 to 10 minutes. They also leverage some of Monetate’s merchandising features like product recommendationsOpens a new window and product badging to help promote different products and ranges.
