Recording consumer behaviour or preferences and responding to them in real-time is set to become a key differentiator in dealing with the customer not only over the Internet, but shortly also via wireless devices and interactive television.
'Global Personalisation Technologies: making one-to-one a reality', a new report published by Datamonitor, speculates that global investment in personalisation technologies will grow from $500m in 2001 to $2.1bn in 2006.
The UK is Europe's biggest investor in personalisation technologies followed by Germany then France. According to Datamonitor, North America accounts for the lion's share of investment, generating 67% of personalisation revenues, due to its lead in e-commerce and CRM technologies.
Europe accounts for 25% ($131m) of global investment and the UK leads with 28%, followed by Germany (24%) and France (20%). Despite considerably smaller economies, Scandinavian countries still account for 13% of the European market, due to the advanced state of telecommunications and Internet usage in that region.
Financial services and retail are the prime adopters of personalisation technologies, accounting together for around 50% in both the North American and European market in 2001.
Although currently limited to the Internet, the development of wireless devices (mobile phones and PDAs) and interactive television will create new needs and boost demand for personalisation software, believes Datamonitor.