Although online shopping growth continues to far outstrip that for traditional physical stores, more analysis still needs to be done to better understand the digital shopper.

 As McKinsey’s Gadi BenMark and Maher Masri write: 

“Companies have more data at their fingertips than ever, so why do online shoppers remain such a mystery? The solution begins with bringing all the information together to form a meaningful picture of the consumer.”

“An airline sends a regular customer an E-mail about a special promotion on flights from New York City to exotic Caribbean destinations. The company had noticed she’d recently browsed vacation sites. The interested shopper eagerly clicks, landing on a page that shows all the airline’s flights from all the cities it serves to all its destinations. By the time our erstwhile traveler has waded through this screen to find flights from John F. Kennedy International Airport and LaGuardia Airport, she’s no longer seeing palm trees in her head — she’s seeing red. This is the fault line of the modern digital-shopping experience, where reality falls far short of the promise of receiving what you want, when you want it.”

“It doesn’t have to be this way. The solution is cracking what we call the shopper genome: converting the vast amount of data regarding consumer behavior and desires into meaningful insights. Today, the vast majority of E-commerce companies focus on just one part of a shopper’s genome, for example, product affinities like urban or designer styles, while ignoring others, such as need states or emotional-connection points. Others compartmentalize their efforts by using separate channels, teams, and processes, resulting in a disjointed customer experience. That’s like scientists decoding one set of chromosomes while ignoring all others.”

Take a look at this McKinsey chart to see what companies should be doing. Click the chart to read more.