Online Shopping To Become More Personalised Thanks To ‘Swipe-To-Like’ Features

The future of online shopping looks set to become even more personalised thanks to new ‘swipe-to-like’ features from retailers, Marketing Week reports. Argos is leading the charge with this service, launching a Christmas Gift Finder app allowing users to view a number of products and chose – either by swiping right or left – if they like it or not (right if they do, left if they don’t).

This innovative new concept means the app learns with every swipe which products are suitable for the user in question, allowing for intuitive filtering and a very smart app. Argos is the first retailer to make use of this feature, whilst dating app Tinder has become extremely popular thanks to its utilisation of such a simple concept. After the initial launch, Argos recorded 300,000 visits to the site, with the average user flicking through 60 gifts out of a possible 6,000.

Google Now has also begun using a similar concept, allowing users to dismiss cards that they deem irrelevant or uninteresting to them.

Paolo Pescatore, a CCS Insight Analyst, stated that: “there is a key trend towards more personalised services, whether on an app or as a way to browse and access information, with brands looking to target users with specific offers and products they like.”

It is believed that with the popularity of such a feature on dating sites, it makes sense to also use it on retailers’ ecommerce sites, too. It is predicted that these types of apps will gain in popularity on retailer apps as more people browse for goods online – particularly mobile devices.

These features all help to create an app that is smarter and able to make educated decisions based on user data, thus generating a more personalised experience. At the moment, a report from eConsultancy and Adobe has found that only 39% of marketers personalise across desktop, tablets and smartphones.