
Personalizing retail with marketing automation is a competitive choice, especially today, in the era of the Covid-19 pandemic. Through virtual reality, chatbots, click & collect services, the retail world is resurrecting its fortunes by going all in on digital transformation and interacting with the online world.
Today we are facing the result of the acceleration of an evolutionary process that increasingly sees a synergistic and hybrid integration of physical and digital touchpoints. People search for products online and then complete the purchase offline ( ROPO effect – Research Online and Purchase Offline), buy online and then make the pickup at the store closest to home, share experiences and develop conversations on social channels, use coupons for online purchases directly within the store: it is now clear that brands and companies are moving in a rapidly changing context, proposing a customer journey that is increasingly less linear and predictable.
And if adopting an omnichannel strategy becomes the only way forward, a clear fact has been emerging for a number of years: omnichannel customers, i.e., those who take advantage of multiple points of contact with the brand before concluding the purchase, are 25 percent more profitable than customers who make purchases in the traditional way. (Source: High Performance Delivered 2018, Accenture).
Retail 4.0: between experience and digitalization
Aligning with the needs of a consumer who increasingly lives straddling online and offline realities, offering a consistent and integrated shopping experience across touchpoints: the new era of retail personalization with marketing automation, what has been called 4.0, makes omnichanneling and digitization its two key aspects.
Philip Kotler and Giuseppe Stigliano in their volume “Retail 4.0” thus identified ten fundamental rules that will characterize the retail world in the coming years.
- Be invisible: Being able to implement technology solutions that aim to make the customer’s shopping experience increasingly seamless.
- Be seamless (seamless): integrating offline and online channels, eliminating the distinction between store and eCommerce customers.
- Be a destination: conceiving of the point of sale no longer as an aseptic environment, but as a place for increasingly engaging shopping experiences.
- Be loyal: establishing a relationship of mutual trust that fosters word of mouth and enables customer loyalty.
- Be personal: personalize the customer’s shopping experience so much as to anticipate their wants and needs.
- Be a curator: making one’s offering truly unique.
- Be human: preserving the human factor and recovering the centrality of the person.
- Be boundless (boundless): crossing traditional boundaries for an offer and service usable in different modes (click&collect, temporary store…).
- Be exponential: expanding its offerings through collaboration with other brands.
- Be brave: Be brave and embrace change.
It is evident how in such a context the analysis of data, the use of Customer Data Platform and the implementation of omnichannel marketing automation strategies play an essential role. But what activity can be deployed?

Big Data Analytics: knowing and recognizing customers
Implementing an omnichannel strategy allows you to recognize and intercept the consumer across all touchpoints available to the brand, from the eCommerce site to the point of sale, not forgetting social, mobile and ADS channels.
The use of Customer Data Platform, such as Blendee, and the integration of these as the different data sources (eCommerce site, CRM, POS…) allow to know in detail the customer journey of each customer, thanks to the possibility to collect and normalize data and information at the level of Single Customer View.
And if online all this translates into the possibility of personalizing the browsing and purchasing experience through the proposal of “tailor-made” messages, recommended products, personalized emails, all this has obvious repercussions in the offline experience as well: the data collected online and offline together complete the profile of the customer. A customer who visits a store can thus be rejuvenated with activities intended for digital channels, while a customer who visits the store after adding a product to the cart on eCommerce can receive an offer and a tailor-made proposal from the salesperson.
Knowing user behavior but not only: centralized data integration and management allows for omnichannel brand performance analysis dashboards and leveraging all available channels to engage consumers tied to a specific store. Reflexively, it is finally possible to measure the contribution of eCommerce to offline sales growth.
Marketing automation and retail: how to deploy a winning strategy
In an effort to implement personalized, omnichannel customer experience strategies, marketing automation offers a wide range of features and activities that can be deployed.
Here are some ideas:
- drive-to-store campaigns: stimulate users accessing your site from particular geographic areas to visit the nearest store, taking advantage of promotions and discount coupon codes;
- geo-localized campaigns: segment your users according to their geographical area of origin, send them emails, personalized messages or engage them with ADS campaigns ahead of particular initiatives in your stores;
- ringaggia users who have made a purchase at your store with personalized emails, proposals and tailored offers;
- Uses information collected at the point of sale through fidelity cards to personalize the browsing and purchasing experience, including online;
- offer users the ability to book point-of-sale appointments online and collect useful data and information for salespeople;
- Creates custom ringage workflows for users who visit the store or request quotes and offers.
Aware, informed, demanding: the modern consumer is increasingly seeking personalized shopping experiences. Creating relevant and valuable customer experiences at every physical and digital touchpoint is critical to preserving and growing your business.