Comment: Personalisation continues to under-deliver
Personalisation is a term that has been bandied around for years in the retail sector but just what exactly is it and is AI going to simply muddy the waters even further, with technology continuing to under-deliver personal experiences to shoppers.
It is interesting that the term personalisation is nowadays so often associated with technology solutions analysing data to deliver a tailored interaction rather than a personal service that is delivered by a human. Maybe it should not be a surprise because in a world that has moved online and where big branded operators predominate the only way to deliver a personal service at the necessary scale requires the processing power of technology.
What’s been disappointing is that the technology has perennially delivered a poor level of personalisation despite years of effort from retailers and vendors. This scenario was highlighted by recent research from Valtech that suggests UK shoppers are being misled by claims of personalised retail experiences as major brands continue to waste money on digital technologies and AI that leave them often guessing people’s shopping lists.
Despite years of investment, many brands still lack the systems and data needed to understand shopping behaviours and create experiences that feel personalised. The research shows that although every retailer claims to personalise offers, only a third describe their efforts as ‘advanced’, and just one in seven can do it in real-time. For 36% of retailers personalisation still means sending the same offers via emails and via loyalty schemes for 29%.
Subscribe to TRBFor all its attributes and great promise AI might not necessarily solve the problems of personalisation because the heart of the problem is the state of the data within many retailers and there is a serious shortfall in expertise within most organisations that will stymie efforts to leverage the new technology.
What AI is promising is the ability to automate lots of activities but the risk with this for the retail industry is that it will move the sector further away from its objective of delivering greater personalisation. Speaking at the recent The Retail Bulletin The Retail Conference 2025 Susannah Schofield, director general of the Direct Selling Association UK, reckoned the sector was losing personalisation at the expense of automation.
She suggests the continued gung-ho moves towards embracing ever more tech is all well and good but the result is a growing feeling of disconnection – especially among young people – as there is simply too much tech. “The future is not technology, it’s tone. Retail needs a relationship infrastructure, with data and emotion intertwined. Brands that stay with the human touch will succeed. Attention is the new currency and empathy is the new data,” suggests Schofield.
When everything becomes automated – and supposedly delivers richer personalisation – then the luxury is actually dealing with people. To my mind the greatest personalisation is being greeted in a store by a person who might not necessarily know anything about you or your shopping history but can initiate an interchange that enables them to ascertain your requirements.
Yes, this is significantly tougher to achieve online let’s not forget that the vast majority of sales are still undertaken in stores and this will undoubtedly continue to be the case while personalisation across channels is anything but personal.
