Report: How personal is *too* personal when it comes to digital experiences?

Today’s consumer is constantly interacting with digital touchpoints from their favorite brands. According to our research, 46% of consumers shop online multiple times per week. And generally speaking, shoppers have a favorable view of personalized experiences.

70% of our survey respondents said that recommendations based on their behavior (such as browsing or purchase history) improve their online shopping experience, while, 63% said that recommendations based on their stated interests and preferences improve their online shopping experience.

Which types of personalization actually improve your online shopping experience?

Far less popular are personalized recommendations based on the buyer’s current location (which only 19% of respondents find to be helpful) or demographic identifiers like age and gender (which only 17% find helpful).

When done well, personalization can open the door for brands to better connect with consumers. 67% of online shoppers say that personalization has helped them discover relevant new products and services, and 46% have felt increased loyalty to a brand due to a positive personalized digital experience.

As a result, nearly half of shoppers (45%) actively look for brands that provide personalized digital experiences, with Gen Z buyers being 40% more likely than average to say this.

How interest in personalization differs across regions and industries

Our survey respondents were split evenly between US residents and UK residents, which revealed that location plays a strong role in consumer receptiveness to personalization.

We found that consumers in the USA are 42% more likely than those in the UK to have felt increased loyalty to a brand from a personalized digital experience, and 44% more likely than those in the UK to say that location-based recommendations improve their shopping experience.

This difference isn’t surprising, given the UK’s stricter data protections like GDPR, compared to the US’s patchwork approach to privacy.

We also found a significant amount of variance by industry, in terms of where online consumers go to seek out personalized experiences:

Which types of brands do you want to personalize your online experience?

Customer data is the fuel that drives personalized experiences. But brands need to tread very carefully when it comes to how they collect and deploy data, as buyers have a limited appetite for sharing their information.

A full 95% of online consumers say that they want to control what data brands collect from them, and 81% report that they’d be more loyal to brands if they were allowed more control over their data.

What personal info would you be willing to share if it meant a better, more relevant online experience?

So what data do consumers feel comfortable sharing in the service of personalized experiences?

• 59% would be willing to share their past purchases from a brand if it meant a better, more relevant online experience
• 53% would share their hobbies and interests
• 37% would even share their browsing history on the brand’s website or app

However, when the data clearly identifies them, they’re less interested in the trade-off.

• Only 6% would be willing to share their public social media profile information if it meant a better, more relevant online experience
• Only 5% would share their biometric data
• Only 4% would share their telemetric or sensor data

Marketers need to earn and keep consumers’ trust

Only 11% of consumers are “very willing” to share their personal data with brands, even if it guaranteed a more relevant personalized experience (including exclusive discounts and highly accurate recommendations). 

One in five consumers are “not at all” willing to share their data, signaling that brands have a long way to go in earning the confidence required to deliver real value through personalization.

To what extent are you willing to share more personal data with a brand if it guarantees a more relevant personalized experience?

Still, many online shoppers prefer some level of personalization over none at all. 45% of our respondents would prefer a personalized online experience that uses some of their data over a non-personalized online shopping experience with full data privacy. (Again, US-based consumers were 25% more likely than those in the UK to say this.)

It’s also worth pointing out that there’s a massive generational divide to consider in regards to data-sharing. Baby Boomers were 74% more likely than average to express extreme unwillingness to share more personal data with brands in exchange for more relevant personalization, while Gen Z consumers were 152% more likely than average to say they are very willing to share more personal data with brands in exchange for more relevant personalization.

Don’t treat data privacy as a nice-to-have

Privacy concerns need to be taken seriously because consumers will abandon your brand in a heartbeat if they feel their personal data is being abused.

73% of our survey respondents already don’t trust brands to handle their data responsibly, and 55% have chosen not to shop with a brand due to privacy concerns.

Therefore, it’s crucial for brands to prioritize better data practices. Of our respondents who don’t trust brands to handle their data responsibly, 72% say they would have more trust if there were clear opt-ins and opt-out options, and the same percentage would have more trust if there were more transparency on how their data is used.

So what does effective personalization actually look like? According to our respondents, here are the most critical elements of personalized experiences:

How would you describe the ideal personalized experience?

• 67% of shoppers describe their ideal personalized experience as secure and trustworthy
• 66% describe their ideal personalized experience as respectful of privacy
• 61% describe their ideal personalized experience as transparent about how data is used
• 61% describe their ideal personalized experience as easy to use
• 55% describe their ideal personalized experience as fast and efficient
• 53% describe their ideal personalized experience as relevant

Still, brands can easily take it too far, catching their buyers’ attention in the wrong way. 64% of online consumers have experienced personalization from a brand that felt too invasive or creepy.

Of the respondents who experienced personalization that creeped them out, here’s where it crossed the line:

• 70% saw an ad for something they were just talking about
• 51% experienced a brand following up too frequently or persistently
• 36% received hyper-targeted ads based on their real-time location
• 35% experienced a brand knowing something about them that they never shared
• 26% were contacted by a brand without giving their contact info

So take precaution: Your attempts to create relevant experiences for shoppers can actually scare them away if you’re getting too close, too soon.

Finally, we asked our participants to give us their thoughts on the rise of AI-driven digital experiences. In short: Online consumers are comfortable with AI’s presence in creation of content and offers, but not as a full replacement for human interaction and support. Of the buyers we surveyed:

• 79% are comfortable with AI creating product descriptions
• 72% are comfortable with AI creating marketing messages
• 60% are comfortable with AI creating customer service chat responses

When asked whether AI/bots or humans provide better customer service, a full 43% of respondents said they’d rather have help exclusively from humans, while 51% said that it depends on the issue, meaning that marketers need to strike a thoughtful hybrid balance of both human and AI support.

Buyers’ tend to prefer human interaction in situations where they need extensive help:

Still, AI can be a helpful tool in buyer research. 71% of buyers prefer interacting with AI over humans for product recommendations, and Gen Z buyers were 35% more likely than average to say this.

What consumers tell us about the “future” of personalization

Modern brands are thrilled at what new technology can unlock in their quest to engage with buyers, but consumers themselves are slower to catch up.

According to our research, just 24% of shoppers are curious about AI copilots that predict their shopping needs, while 23% are curious about wearable-driven personalization and 19% are interested in voice-acticated or smart speaker-based personalization.

28% of our respondents said they’re not at all curious about future personalization technologies, and Baby Boomers were 70% more likely than average to say this.

Which future personalization technologies are you most curious about?

While there might be an “enthusiasm gap” between the high-tech digital experiences that enterprise brands are building and what consumers actually want and expect from shopping experiences, it’s not all bad news. 75% of the people we surveyed believe that their favorite brands understand what they want as consumers, and 63% believe that AI technology will help brands better understand their buyers’ needs.

As long as brands keep their customers’ preferences as priority #1 when designing personalized experiences, AI will positively impact the relationship between buyers and brands.

Overall, our study suggests that there’s a big opportunity in providing consumers with the kinds of personalized experiences they’re looking for.

Remember, 45% of shoppers actively look for brands that provide personalized digital experiences, and more than half of our respondents said they’d be willing to share information about their past purchases, hobbies and interests if it meant a better, more relevant online experience.

However, data privacy is still a massive concern for buyers, especially in the AI era. 64% of online consumers have experienced personalization from a brand that felt too invasive or creepy, and 55% have chosen not to shop with a brand due to privacy concerns.

Our research also revealed that the vast majority of shoppers (82%) prefer interacting with a human instead of AI for complex customer service issues, and that younger consumers are far more willing to share personal data with brands than older consumers.

Our advice? Make sure your tech stack is set up to offer personalized experiences with proper guardrails around data usage, and focused on customers’ historical behavior and interests — not personal information scraped without their consent.

A modern, adaptive digital experience platform (DXP) builds the foundation for high-impact personalized experiences by:

• Collecting customer behavior and context in real time
• Creating relevant content automatically through brand-aware AI
• Offering full flexibility in how personalized experiences are delivered to visitors

Our Contentstack Edge platform is built for the kind of personalization that your buyers will remember (in a good way). Learn more here.

Research for this report was powered by Kickstand, and included 628 respondents, evenly split between US residents and UK residents, who met the following criteria:

• 18+ years of age
• Make online purchases online at least once per month

Additional demographic info for our report participants:

For more digital experience industry research and benchmarks, visit contentstack.com/resources

Contentstack is on a mission to deliver the world’s best digital experiences with the world’s first adaptive Digital Experience Platform (DXP). Iconic brands like Walmart, Mattel, MongoDB, and Burberry rely on Contentstack to deliver real-time, personalized customer experiences, powered by content, data and agentic AI.

By turning raw data into context-rich insights, Contentstack Edge empowers brands to move beyond static personalization toward true adaptive, in-the-moment connections that resonate with every customer, across every channel. A recognized leader in customer care and a proud supporter of Pledge 1% and Girls Who Code, Contentstack is committed to innovation with purpose, community impact, and helping brands around the world reimagine possible.

Learn more at www.contentstack.com.