Why e-commerce brands need to embrace product recommendation quizzes

"Oh, Etsy has the best handmade gifts!" "Check out Amazon."

Whether you're shopping for that special gift you can't find anywhere else or need an immediate restock of collagen masks, you're probably opening your browser and heading to Amazon, Etsy, or your favorite brand's website.

Why?

Because the rise of modern-day e-commerce over the past few decades has made it easier and more convenient than ever to shop online.

You know what it's like to be a consumer shopping e-commerce stores. But do you know what your customers want, expect, and need from your e-commerce brand?

Growing competition among e-commerce brands

Perhaps out of desperation to stay afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic, many brands—established and new—turned to e-commerce to generate revenue.

The result? E-commerce grew by 16% in 2021. And projections indicate that e-commerce sales will skyrocket by 50% in 2025 to $7.4 trillion.

But that's not the only thing increasing competition among e-commerce brands. Technology like Shopify has virtually eliminated the barrier to entry, making it affordable, quick, and simple to set up an e-commerce shop in minutes (and start selling almost immediately).

Now thousands of brands can join the e-commerce world—further fueling fierce competition. Another driver? E-commerce's global reach.

Online stores can reach customers anywhere, making e-commerce more appealing to brands looking to expand into the global market and grow revenues.

More competition, higher customer expectations

With countless options, consumers don't have to settle for a broken, disjointed, or generic e-commerce shopping experience.

McKinsey found that an overwhelming 71% of customers expect (we'd argue they demand) a personalized shopping experience—and 76% get frustrated when you don't deliver. That's nearly 8 in 10 shoppers who can go to your competitors if you don't get personalization right.

Customer expectations are through the roof, and they all center around a more personalized shopping experience.

But before we dive into how to leverage e-commerce personalization, take a look at just a few of the benefits brands reap when they personalize:

• 76% of customers are more likely to consider buying from brands that personalize
• 78% of shoppers are more likely to make repeat purchases from brands that personalize
• 78% of consumers are more likely to send referrals to brands that use personalization
• Personalization can drive a 10-15% revenue increase

Meeting expectations with product recommendation quizzes

One of the most effective ways to meet consumers' demands for personalization is by putting product recommendation quizzes (PRQs) to use. So, what is a PRQ?

A product recommendation quiz plays matchmaker between your brand and a consumer, guiding customers to one of your perfect-fit products based on their preferences or needs.

Like Nike recommending the Dunk Lows because I value fashion more than a functional basketball shoe. Or Glossly Locks suggesting a hair mask because my hair is dry and brittle.

So, how do they work? Product recommendation quizzes ask shoppers a series of questions, using their answers to point them toward a product that matches them to what they're looking for.

Take a look at this PRQ. It asks a few questions to understand the shoppers' skin type and shares the results with them and a personalized product recommendation based on their skin type.

Long story short, brands are turning to product recommendation quizzes for e-commerce personalization. PRQs can boost sales and give customers what they crave—to be seen and treated as individuals—but they're more broadly reshaping the entire customer experience (CX).

The rise of product recommendation quizzes among e-commerce brands

Your customers are no longer content with a one-size-fits-all approach to marketing. They won't shop your brand if you treat them like just another transaction. They're human beings who expect you to treat them as the unique individuals they are.

Both their expectations and the demand for personalization have skyrocketed over the past few years—and if you can't keep up, they'll find a competitor who can. But there's good news:

you can personalize at scale and elevate the customer experience with interactive quizzes, like product recommendation quizzes.

Creating personalized shopping experiences with PRQs

Shoppers want you to create personalized shopping and tailored customer experiences. But they're also concerned about whether they can trust you with their data and how you'll use it.

This phenomenon is known as the personalization-privacy paradox. You can't deliver the personalization customers crave without their data, but they're not quite comfortable sharing their data with you (not until they trust you).

"That's the paradox of our time (as marketers)—the great irony of personalization. We want the ends, but we aren’t sure if it justifies the means. We either have personalization (and with it, data collection), or… we don’t." - Kevin Branscum, Senior Director, Brand Marketing at Typeform

So, how do you address data privacy concerns and a customer's need for personalization? Collect zero-party data (ZPD)—information people share with you willingly (we'll get into this more later). ZPD collects data unintrusively, feeling natural, not forced or creepy.

Take a look at makeup brand Ogee. Its product recommendation quiz asks a few questions to help customers find the right shade without being forceful.

Swapping one-size-fits-all for e-commerce personalization

It seems like there are new marketing trends every year. While some of these trends turn into solid long-term strategies, many are just fluffy distractions away from effective marketing.

But one marketing trend that's not going anywhere? Personalization.

Consumers want the highly personalized shopping experiences that product recommendation quizzes give them. Take Ogee—its shade match quiz walks shoppers through questions to find the perfect shade. But they don't stop there.

Once a shopper completes the quiz, they're directed to a shoppable landing page. And every product already has the shopper's shade pre-selected. Talk about personalization!

Ogee also uses data collected from the product recommendation quiz to take e-commerce personalization to the next level. They use that data to segment their audience and send tailored campaigns, emails, and offers based on their results to create an individualized customer journey.

Grabbing attention with interactive quizzes

In 2004, the average attention span was 150 seconds. But just eight years later, it was cut in half. And now? 47 seconds. You have less than a literal minute to grab attention and keep your shoppers engaged.

How do you do that? You guessed it—product recommendation quizzes. They're interactive, require active participation, and are interactive quizzes, so they capture attention and keep it.

The next big thing for e-commerce: product recommendation quizzes

PRQs make personalized shopping possible, taking customers on a guided discovery so they can find products that meet their needs. Instead of endlessly scrolling product pages to find something that might work, you direct them to personalized shopping pages (like Ogee did).

But they do more than just boost sales and give shoppers the individualized experiences they crave. Product recommendation quizzes also:

• Create tailored journeys
• Build trust and loyalty
• Get zero-party data
• Make personalization scalable

How product recommendation quizzes increase conversions

You can buy almost anything your heart desires on Amazon—clothes, kitchen gadgets, podcast equipment, you name it. But when you search for something, you get hundreds of results pages.

What product will best suit your needs? Is one pair of sunglasses better for your ski trip versus another? How do you pick the best option? It's overwhelming and often leads to us closing the tab and not taking any action.

A product recommendation quiz gets rid of the overwhelm and helps shoppers find exactly what they're looking for, driving action—and conversions. It also keeps shoppers engaged for longer, boosting the chance they'll convert.

But even if you don't see immediate jumps in conversions from interactive quizzes, you can use the data from them to nurture browsers into buyers. Whether using their answers for segmentation and retargeting or simply building brand awareness, product recommendation quizzes offer both short- and long-term ROI.

Designing tailored journeys with interactive quizzes

Product recommendation quizzes do more than increase conversions and create personalized shopping experiences—they help you design a tailored journey.

Yes, PRQs direct shoppers to their perfect-fit products. But, done well, they can give you a wealth of information about your customers, their preferences, and data to further personalize every aspect of their journey.

It starts with asking the right questions—relevant questions only. Nothing gets a shopper to exit your product recommendation quiz faster than asking a bunch of questions unrelated to the quiz.

Ogee did this flawlessly with its PRQ. Every question feels so necessary to the quiz that you might not have noticed the few questions they slipped in that had nothing to do with finding the right shade.

Why? Because, in the context of the quiz, they make sense. While my desired makeup finish doesn't impact my shade, it feels relevant in the quiz because it still relates to makeup.

The best part? You can use that data to learn more about your customers, further segment them, send personalized offers and campaigns, and tailor every part of their journey based on the data from the PRQ.

Knowing my shade is one thing, but also knowing I like a dewy finish gives Ogee more data to make even more on-point product recommendations.

Building trust with e-commerce personalization

While one-off purchases contribute to the bottom line, you're probably trying to build a loyal fanbase of repeat customers. That's where e-commerce personalization comes into play.

When you take the time to get to know your customers on an individual level, you show them that you understand their unique wants and needs. And when your product recommendation quiz delivers products that perfectly suit their needs, you build trust.

That trust is the precursor to long-term customer loyalty. And that loyalty leads to a higher customer lifetime value, more referrals, and increased sales (and order values).

Zero-party data collection with quizzes

Consumers are more concerned about data privacy than ever—zero-party data is one way to calm their fears. Because it comes straight from your customers through channels like interactive quizzes (and PRQs), it feels innately less intrusive.

See how Ogee asks for the form-taker's email but doesn't force them to share? It feels like they understand the hesitancy to share data and will still reveal your results without the email. Trust built.

Despite their worries over data privacy, they're still choosing to share with you, which builds trust (so long as you don't break it). Shoppers are telling you, "Hey, I'm sharing this data with you because I trust you."

And this data is truly invaluable. It gives you insights into their needs, preferences, and even behaviors. That zero-party data helps with e-commerce personalization and across the broader customer journey. 

Making e-commerce personalization scalable

You already know product recommendation quizzes make personalization possible beyond the quiz itself by:

• Helping you build more accurate audience segments
• Revealing a shopper's needs and preferences
• Allowing for more targeted campaigns
• Helping you create more personalized offers

But the product recommendation quiz also scales personalized shopping experiences every time a visitor comes to your site. You might not have a personal shopper for your site, but with PRQs, visitors can feel like they have one picking out perfectly matched products for their needs.

All you have to do is create a product recommendation quiz (Typeform makes it effortless). Whether you get 10 visitors a day or 10 million, every interaction is personalized when you leverage interactive quizzes.

Deliver on customer expectations with e-commerce personalization

Personalization has become the new "it girl" of marketing—giving customers what they want while delivering serious ROI for e-commerce brands.

Whether you're a multi-million-dollar brand or an up-and-coming e-commerce shop, product recommendation quizzes can jumpstart that scalable personalization.

The data from these interactive quizzes helps you segment your audience for better targeting and more effective marketing. And the quiz itself creates a highly personalized shopping experience that builds long-term trust and makes shoppers feel like you know them, making them more likely to convert.

Long story short, PRQs are a must-have for e-commerce brands.

Need some help building your first quiz? Check out our product recommendation quiz playbook and then start building your own PRQ with this tried-and-true template.