How my Bra Relates to Personalization Trends in the Digital Retail Space

I came across this article in AdWeek today that has curiously strong ties to a recent online shopping experience of my own. Both involved the topic of personalization in the digital retail space, but my takeaways were fairly opposite.

The AdWeek article captures the essence of an obstacle all online retailers face: ensuring that a customer's virtual shopping experience, once they are on the site, is unique in a way that the customer finds rewarding. The essence of this struggle was well summarized in this line: "It's hard to get the human touch from an algorithm."

The tie in that led me to this blog post is a bit personal, but for the sake of all things advertising, I figured I don't really care. For the past few weeks I have been served ads all over my social media for a company called Thirdlove: they sell bras online. Well, I take that back -- they sell bras online that actually, really and truly fit (or so they claimed).

Bra shopping online? Ha, forget it I thought. If I want a bra that actually fits then I need that lady from Nordstrom who gets to know me way too quickly back in the dressing room because she's pulling on the band of some bra I'm trying on and explaining that I need to go down a cup size and up a band size if I want to eliminate that digging in feeling on the sides.

There's no way I could get a good bra online, I thought.

But I kept getting served those ads, so eventually I clicked. I took an 11-question quiz that promised to "find my fit in just 60 seconds."

As you'd expect, Thirdlove told me that I was in desperate need of a new bra, and they had the perfect one. They even offered to ship it to me to try for 30 days without charging anything but the cost of shipping.

So I did it.

And it fit.

So, when I found that AdWeek article, about how online retailers struggle to personalize the virtual shopping experience, I snuffed at it a bit, because Thirdlove's algorithm did in fact manage to mimick a personalized in-store experience that I had previously thought to be irreplaceable.

But in some ways I see their point, and I'll give you an example: A while back, Amazon's algorithm saw that I bought a toaster, and proceeded to offer me another toaster, which I obviously don't need. I doubt a target employee would see a toaster in my cart and offer me another one.

So yes, many online retailers have a long way to go in terms of attaining the level of personalization that the in-store experience can offer. But there are companies that are doing it well.

To Thirdlove, I wish you all the best. May your bras save women everywhere from being topless under the fluorescent lights of a Nordstrom dressing room accompanied by a total stranger.