waitrose website

Waitrose boosted its online sales by nearly 25% by using personalisation technology to target shoppers.

The retailer used the technology from provider Monetate in a marketing campaign after seeing that customers who had shopped at least five times online were more likely to be retained long term.

It offered an £80 discount spread over five online shops and generated individual customer codes after working out how many times they had placed an order. The technology also highlighted relevant web content, which led to an increase in online orders of up to 24%.

In another marketing campaign over the Christmas 2015 sales period, the Monetate personalisation platform let Waitrose’s website use information from myWaitrose cardholders that resulted in a 20% uptake by customers who had previously bought turkeys and were targeted with an offer to buy them again.

“The website is a growing part of the Waitrose brand and we want the customer online experience to be consistent with the quality of experience you get in one of our stores,” said Waitrose digital optimisation manager Jane Godfrey.

“We’ve seen great benefits from using the Monetate personalisation platform - it has allowed us to work more efficiently and target our customer base more effectively.”

Mike Harris, vice president Europe, Middle East and Asia at Monetate, said Waitrose was a perfect example of how its platform could drive sales.

“It’s exciting to see the success already achieved from these initial campaigns and we look forward to working with the Waitrose team to develop their personalised offering throughout 2016 and beyond.”