Even though behavior targeting has been around almost as long as the Internet, it had a resurgence of popularity last year. Many in the ecommerce world became enamored with the idea of being able to offer product recommendations based on immediate behavior. Ecommerce Times explains behavior targeting (BT) this way:

BT tracks a Web visitor’s browser clickstreams — typically in the last six visits — to predict what the visitor may want in the future, and to target ads, content or products based on those “personalized” past behaviors.

This can be an effective tool on your ecommerce Web site if used properly. You can suggest additional products that a consumer might enjoy, or you can create ads specifically target toward a certain consumer. You can even pay to have these come up when potential customers do certain searches online. 2007 saw behavioral targeting on a sophisticated level not seen previously. But there are issues that go with behavioral targeting. Ecommerce Times points out the of two big ones: privacy and quality.

Privacy

In a world where the fastest growing crime is identity theft, privacy issues are strong. While proponents of BT insist that all information collected and tracked — and used to craft suggestions and ads that target consumers — is kept anonymous, the Ecommerce Times article points out how anonymity can be lost:

In addition, with so much information about us on the Web, an anonymous individual on one site can quickly become a known/named user on another site once BT starts to compare and contrast user behaviors across multiple sites. So, our private information can spread out very quickly without us even knowing it.

Personally, I’m not sure how much of a concern this is for the coming generations. Generation X is already more comfortable with the sort of privacy invasions in the name of consumer convenience that many in the previous generation still can’t stomach. Generations Y and beyond seem to think nothing of living in a world where their every action is scrutinized. Blogs, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter prove that. For the rest of the world, some are proposing a “Do Not Track” list that would work similar to the “Do Not Call” registry.

Quality

Of bigger concern, from an ecommerce perspective, is the quality of product recommendations and targeted ads. Set up a “profile” of someone, and you may get several different behaviors. This is because humans are contextual. I may shop for a Disney Princess gift for my niece, but the last thing I want when I go to buy a movie for myself is a recommendation that I might enjoy Snow White or that I should buy tickets to see Enchanted at the theater. Ecommerce Times points this out about humans and their various roles:

This is the pitfall of profiles. In a given month, an individual will have thousands of roles. Knowing my past is not necessarily a better way to predict my future. In fact, this phenomenon has been known by psychologists and other scientists for years — humans are animals of context and situations, much less than of historical profiles or roles.

Consumers want product recommendations, but they become annoyed if the behavioral targeting doesn’t get it right. In fact, offering poor product recommendations and targeted ads can be more damaging than offering none at all. Although offering none at all won’t win you very many points in an ecommerce business environment that relies increasingly on convenience and “on demand” availability.

Intent-based targeting goes beyond the current ecommorce methods

Ecommerce Times points out that the solutions to these two problems of privacy and quality could come in the form of the next step in ecommerce business marketing: Intent-based targeting. Ecommerce Times reports on what intent-based targeting is all about:

This approach relies exclusively on the collective wisdom of like-minded peers who have demonstrated interests or engagement with similar content and contexts.

The concept of profiles is completely removed in this case. Instead, through understanding expressed or implied intent, content appropriate to the user’s current mindset can be delivered.

This is an interesting concept. Somewhat similar to Amazon.com’s “others who bought this also bought…” line, I think. The idea is to gather information on the consumer’s intent as he or she searches, rather than relying on what he or she has done in the past. This means that recommendations are more likely to be appropriate for the current time, rather than based on a previous need. And it keeps users more anonymous and private. A rather interesting idea. It will be even more interesting to how “they” pull it off.

Tags: ecommerce, ecommerce business, behavioral targeting, intent-based targeting,
ecommerce marketing, ecommerce trends