Wes Funk of Omniture has a story published today on DMNews.com that looks at customer segmentation as a factor in delivering repeat customers and increasing sales. According to Funk, improved segmentation can lead to significantly improved marketing effectiveness. He's absolutely right, but is segmentation enough?

Funk gives the example of shopping for light fixtures online. He had a few items in his shopping cart, but then at the last minute decided to leave the site. A few days later, he came back to the site and he was offered a discount on lighting fixtures, and also provided additional information on a new line of lighting fixtures that the store was now carrying. It was unexpected and it delivered a relevant, personal message to him as the consumer.

But what if Wes had decided not to return to the site? Or, even worse, what if he'd left the site initially because he had a few basic questions, which he then got answered at a competitor's site?

Personalization in the form of micro-targeting is the future of e-commerce. Consumers want companies to understand their buying preferences and service history in order to create shopping experiences that are relevant to their needs. Sophisticated retailers are already using every piece of information they can gather to present individual customers with personalized marketing and merchandise selections based on their segments and personas. By using real-time data from each customer, companies can guide a customer to the exact products and services that meet his or her needs.

Why not leverage this same information to rescue online customers should they reach an impasse and require live assistance?

Of course, not every customer interaction is going to require one-on-one attention, so there are some guidelines to follow.  When considering offering live help, be sure to:

• Proactively target “engaged” Web site visitors
• Offer the most appropriate contact based on context
• Move shoppers seamlessly across channels
• Share information from one channel to the next