While everyone wants personalized recommendations and experiences when shopping online, many people aren’t willing to let companies have access to their data or AI chats that make these sorts of recommendations possible.

This makes things challenging for brands as they try to navigate these murky waters and find the right balance between delivering experiences that customers like, without overstepping their boundaries, are making consumers uncomfortable.

Many UK Shoppers Resist AI and Data Sharing

In order for brands to offer personalized deals, experiences, and recommendations, they generally need some customer data to do so. This may come in the form of zero-party data that customers provide, first-party data that a brand itself collects, or in the form of third-party data that brands get from browsing history, AI chat history, or other external sources.

However, data from a Braze survey featuring 2,000 UK consumers shows that many people aren’t willing to provide some of this data. In fact, 43% of respondents aren’t willing to share their real-time browsing data or even AI chat history, even if it means more personalized deals.

In addition to many being against handing off their data, they’re also unwilling to use AI. While 35% of UK shoppers say they’re likely to use AI to find new products or deals, 43% say they’re unlikely to use these tools at all. 

Also, there were plenty of concerns about AI, as 30% are cautious about it replacing in-store staff, 16% are concerned about its capabilities and prefer human interaction, and 13% believe that AI taking over jobs from staff would ruin their shopping experience.

This echoes previous research that highlights that many people have trust issues with AI. While there are many possible reasons people don’t trust AI, it often boils down to a lack of control, privacy-related concerns, or the fact that they’re simply skeptical about AI recommendations and why particular products were chosen to appear in results.

But a Majority Want Personalized Experiences

However, despite this unwillingness to trust AI and/or provide brands with data, most people still want brands to personalize their experiences. In fact, 70% say that it’s important for brands to know their preferences, especially during huge shopping events.

As a result, it’s clear that personalization matters to consumers, but many people simply aren’t open to providing what brands need to offer it effectively.

Speaking about this gap, the GM UK at Braze, Nico Berliner, said that “British shoppers want brands to understand their preferences, but they are increasingly locking down their personal browsing and AI search histories,”.

This idea is often called the personalization paradox, where customers crave personalized and customized experiences, but aren’t fans of the AI and data tracking that’s often required to provide them.

This leaves ecommerce brands in a weird spot where they need to find the balance between providing personalization, but ensuring their efforts don’t go too far and be seen as creepy or invasive by consumers.

Berliner also added that “This data standoff means the open-web blind spot is growing, making a brand’s first-party data its most valuable asset. It is more important than ever for companies to make the most of the direct, consented data they already have, so they can deliver smooth experiences across channels and build consumer trust.” 

Our Take

Managing the Personalization Paradox Properly

Trying to successfully manage this paradox isn’t simple. It’s a delicate balance that’s very easy to get wrong, which leads to either customers being unhappy about your personalization efforts or being turned off by how much data you’re collecting.

A tip for navigating this paradox is to ask customers directly about what they want. This feels much less like surveillance than gathering data from cookies, and gives customers the freedom to provide the data they’re comfortable with you knowing, while leaving out what they don’t want you to know.

For example, instead of having to scour their history to learn their size, color, and style preferences, you can ask them directly. In addition to asking for data, you can also give them more control and a say over the data you collect, and also let them know why you’re collecting data, what you collect, what you use it for, and why the data collection benefits them.

Finally, ensure the data you’re gathering is strictly about their shopping habits and preferences, and not their personal lives, jobs, or other things that may be seen as too intrusive if you know a lot about them.