It all starts with your data

The good news is that every retail business already has the key to unlock this next-level personalization: Customer data. 

AI is only as good as the data it’s based on, so rich data is essential to providing the comprehensive view of the customer it needs to determine the right channel, time, and content to send them. 

The problem? Many marketers are using platforms which are good at executing campaigns, but don’t pull in enough data sources or have the richness of data required to actually personalize, let alone predict customer behaviors or tastes. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, the wider business  might have rich data through a Customer Data Platform (CDP), but face a bottleneck effect where they have to go through a tech team to actually access it on an ongoing basis. Marketers need the best of both worlds to deliver next-level campaigns with AI, which is where Customer Data and Experience Platforms (CDXPs) excel.

And with the arrival of agentic AI, we’ll see an even bigger shift. Almost like a virtual assistant, agentic AI can learn, make decisions, and perform actions autonomously. In a retail context, this will unlock personalization opportunities on a scale that’d be impossible for a human marketer. And though many might not yet feel ready to hand over complete control to an AI, it won’t be long before the technology proves its value and gains marketers' trust.The key is having the right data foundation in place today, so businesses are ready to take advantage of this next wave of AI-driven marketing when the time comes.

Right channel

Marketers today have more ways of reaching their customers  than ever before, whether it’s email, SMS, mobile push, social media, or beyond.

However, using them to indiscriminately bombard your customers doesn’t drive engagement—it drives frustration. That’s where smart channel orchestration comes in. 

Rather than adopting an “every channel all at once” approach, marketers can use Ometria’s AI channel optimization tool to create campaign journeys that adapt to each customer's channel affinity, targeting them wherever they’re most likely to engage and convert. This engine continuously reassesses each customer’s channel affinity, ensuring they aren’t overexposed to a single channel by detecting signs of fatigue.

In practice, this allows marketers to work smarter, not harder when it comes to driving customer engagement. With our research suggesting that more isn’t always more with message frequency, AI offers a powerful alternative, empowering marketers to be more targeted and ultimately increase customer engagement with campaigns. 

Effortlessly building channel optimization into a campaign with Ometria

Right time

Choosing the right channel is only half the battle—you also need to ensure the message lands at the perfect moment to drive an action from a customer.  

All marketers know that timing is everything, but many still rely on sweeping averages, educated guesses, and intuition to time their campaigns. AI is completely removing the guesswork. 

With AI, sending your campaign at the “right time” can look like: 

• Send Time Optimization: A send time that’s perfect for one customer might be completely ineffective for another, leading to missed opportunities. Ometria’s send time optimization functionality iteratively optimizes send times on an individual basis, ensuring messages are sent at the time that maximizes the chance of engagement.
• Predictive Frequency Optimization: Are they an impulse buyer or more of a slow burn? Ometria’s predictive frequency optimization determines the best number of messages a customer needs to receive to engage or convert, ensuring you’re landing right in the communication sweet spot (rather than accidentally pestering or ghosting them).
• Predictive Next Order: When a customer is getting ready to buy, a well-timed message can be just the thing to get them over the line. With Ometria’s predictive next order, you can segment customers based on their projected next purchase date, allowing you to deliver targeted comms to nurture and secure the conversion. 

Using AI-powered strategies like these, retailers can move beyond broad assumptions and instead engage customers with precision. With messages that feel more relevant and personal, marketers can effectively increase the likelihood of conversion and long-term loyalty.

Right message

Even with perfect timing on the perfect channel, your message itself needs to be personalized to the needs of the individual to be truly impactful. AI can support teams to tailor content at scale, as well as reduce the time-consuming process of generating creative.

Tools like Ometria’s Predictive Segmentation for example, uses a complex algorithm to predict which products, brands, categories, and more a customer may have an affinity with, and automatically build audiences based on that. The iconic beauty retailer, Sephora UK (an Ometria client) used this to create a newsletter campaign which featured the cosmetics brand a customer was most likely to shop with. Unlike a generic invitation to explore their product range, this approach was personal, relevant, and effective for securing a conversion. 

Read more about how Sephora UK uses predictive segmentation here.

Other tools which make crafting the right message at scale include:

• Personalized Product Recommendations: Ometria’s proprietary technology analyzes a customer’s browsing and purchasing behavior to create their unique taste profile, ensuring that when they receive product recommendations, they align exactly with their preferences. 
• Dynamic Content: Adapts automatically to a customer’s predictive characteristics, showing the specific categories or brands they’re likely to have the greatest interest in. 

Delivering the right message often comes with a heavy workload when it comes to creative; however, AI for subject line and copy generation can ease the burden. Returning to our Sephora newsletter campaign example, Ometria’s AI tools could help generate variants of the copy and subject line for each brand, expediting what would otherwise be a lengthy, manual task.

A new generation of marketing

The landscape of retail marketing has shifted. Customers expect highly relevant, perfectly personalized communications—and they reward the brands that deliver.

With AI-powered solutions like Ometria’s CDXP, retailers can move beyond simple personalization and deliver unforgettable 1:1 marketing experiences that drive tangible results at scale.

Existing customers, please reach out to your customer success representative to explore how our AI functionality can benefit you.

Not yet with Ometria? Why not book a demo to start discussing the possibilities for your business.