I feel that the personalization will be a game changer moving forward next year, with all the Social platforms & Amazon implementing it.
How do you personalize your shop to each customer?
I already have the meta ads pushing people to categories based on what they clicked on, we also sort the catalog based on the customer’s past interactions & create upsells based on which PDP they viewed.
But I want to create the feeling of going to your local market shop where there’s one Nana that knows you since birth, knows exactly what you like, your sizes & your no go’s.
How do you create that kind of experience on Shopify?
That’s a great way to frame it, turning a digital store into that “local Nana” who knows you inside out. Shopify has the bones for it, but the “market shop” feeling really comes from layering tools + strategy so the experience feels almost eerily personal. A few approaches you can take:
Dynamic Storefront Personalization
Liquid/JS personalization
Email + Onsite Sync
Product Discovery that Learns
Community Layer (the Nana effect)
Delightful Details
That’s what makes Shopify feel less like a warehouse and more like that corner shop where they already know your order.
It feels like personalization on most stores is stuck. It’s usually just “if they bought X, recommend Y” or “if they clicked this, show similar items.”
Real buyers act way more complex than that, sometimes they’re comparing, sometimes they’re hesitating, sometimes they’re browsing with urgency. And click data alone isn’t enough for meaningful personalization. You can tap into much richer signals like:
Meta ad campaign or SEO keyword a user came from
Quiz results or pop-up interactions
AI chatbot can understand your products, customer intent and not robotic
What you’re already doing with Meta ads, catalog sorting, and upsells is a strong foundation. To take it further on Shopify, you could:
On-site personalization: Use apps or custom logic to dynamically show products, banners, or discounts based on customer tags, purchase history, or browsing behavior.
Checkout personalization: Add custom fields, gift notes, or relevant upsells right in checkout, this makes customers feel like the store “remembers” them.
Email & retention: Connect your store data with tools like Klaviyo or Shopify’s own customer segments, so your emails feel like they’re speaking to each customer’s preferences.
Loyalty/VIP tiers: Reward returning customers with exclusive offers or early access — it’s like giving your regulars the best seat in the shop.
Store credit rewards: Offer personalized credit for special moments like birthdays, first orders, or anniversaries with your brand. It feels personal, but also motivates them to come back, you can even try our free app Koin to set this up easily.
It might never be exactly like a Nana who knows your life story, but the closer you can get to remembering details (sizes, fav products, occasions) and reflecting those back in the shopping journey, the more customers will feel “seen.”
use customer metafields to save preferences, sizes, color likes/dislikes per user - build this data passively from behavior and explicitly from quiz/prompt/modal on login or checkout.
Inject this data into theme logic (Liquid + JS), so everything from banner copy to product imagery speaks to that individual like “Back for more oversized hoodies, @vortand ?”.
I hope you are well!
You’re absolutely right about personalization being transformative - the shift toward hyper-personalized experiences is accelerating across all major platforms. Creating that “neighborhood shop owner who knows everything about you” experience is the holy grail of e-commerce personalization.
You’ve got a solid foundation with your meta ads targeting, catalog sorting, and PDP-based upsells. To get to that best level of personalization, AiTrillion is here to help. Here are some advanced personalization strategies where AiTrillion can help you with personalization:
Dynamic Content Personalization:
Personalize homepage banners, product recommendations, and even color schemes based on customer behavior patterns
Show different social proof (reviews, ratings) based on what resonates with similar customer segments
Predictive Shopping Lists:
Use purchase frequency data to predict when customers need to reorder
Create “suggested shopping lists” based on seasonal patterns, life events, or consumption cycles
Send proactive restocking reminders with one-click reorder functionality
Behavioral Triggers Beyond Purchase History:
Track browsing time, scroll depth, and interaction patterns to understand preferences
Monitor cart abandonment reasons and address them proactively
Use seasonal shopping patterns to anticipate needs
If you want to know more, feel free to let me know.
Thank you everyone for the responses! A lot of interesting ideas here, especially insights from @bevisgibson and @lixonic. I will look to implement the changing theme logic ASAP based on everything from SEO phrases/Ads to behaviour inside the webshop.
One topic came to my mind - is there any place for chatbot to help with personalization?
Can you input a talking element in the website, where you could personalize based on what the customer is typing + clearly seeing his needs & preferences (what products he’s exploring, how is he comparing them or buying immediately)
All without getting the customer frustated/bored with the chat itself.
What do you think?
yes of course, I have done many researches on chatbot personalization recently since it’s the most obvious and easiest thing to apply these days. Customers tend to accept this as an alternative since they prioritize their needs more, it’s great to have real human support but as long as it helps solve a personal problem, then the chatbot is ok.
To nail this, the input data must be clear, given as much cases as possible (AI supports would help to acknowledge problems better than automation). Not to forget give your customer a choice to talk to customer support if they want, too.
You can recreate the “local shop” vibe by mixing and matching Shopify’s native features with intelligent apps. Apply customer tags and segments to enable tailored product recommendations, personalized email flows, and dynamic discounts. Utilize apps for recommendations based on browsing history, saved preferences, and wishlist tracking. Even small bits of copy that address the customer by name add a sense of familiarity.
Talk to your actual customers and know them, everything else will always be unauthentic; but of course no one want’s to hear that.
Either A) Money and lots of it to either pay through the nose for: #1 tons of services/apps and streamling away the artificiality or #2 learning and investing in how to turn vague asks into real deeper question to develop solutions
or B) Have an actual nana ,which can basically mean you personally spend the time, on customers instead of hoping robotic processes can fix that on the cheap.
Most every replies will focus on A and give vague milquetoast top10 lists found on google or generated by an LLM. Recognize the lack of detail and how many steps to get from A to B get utterly left out this will undermine any sense of “nana”.