Lacklustre levels of personalisation within shoppers’ buying journeys is causing consumers to question the relevancy of their interactions with brands, according to research from cloud communications platform, Infobip and Retail Economics. 

Original research of over 2,000 UK shoppers by Infobip and Retail Economics revealed that more than 60% of customers find the communications they receive from retailers irrelevant, while a further 56% said they find customer experiences (CX) too generic.

This, the report suggests, demonstrates that strategically crafted, individualised engagement is no longer a “nice to have” for shoppers, but the foundation for overcoming friction across the end-to-end customer journey and for building long-term loyalty.

“Customers now expect personalised communications across the customer journey,” said Kim Johal, UK&I Retail Lead at Infobip. “To attract and retain customers, retailers must up their personalisation game, [meaning] communications must be relevant, timely [and] delivered via preferred channels.”

While customers appreciate retailers recommending relevant products, they also want a personalised approach through the purchase, fulfilment and returns stages. Clear communications via preferred channels when delivery delays occur are vital to 82% of shoppers, while the availability and quality of customer support for delivery-related queries remains important to 75%.

Separate research from Scurri also showed a growing demand for post-purchase interactions, with 50% of shoppers saying that receiving personalised offers in delivery tracking updates gives them confidence in the brand they are buying from – an increase of +6 percentage points year-on-year.  

However, it found only a third (33%) of mid-market retailers and 41% of enterprise businesses deploy solutions to re-target consumers between checkout and final mile delivery, when customers are at the highest level of engagement.