Personalisation wins in the age of AI

The march towards true personalisation is happening in stores and on apps across Australia and globally, driven by artificial intelligence and real-time data. The granularity retailers and marketers can view and target their customers with was simply not practically possible just several years ago.

During a recent Eagle Eye-hosted webinar, executives from Giant Eagle, Petco, and Google shared their experiences and expectations on the future of retail through the lens of real-time data and personalisation. 

Justin Weinstein, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing and Merchandising Officer at Giant Eagle, described the process of transforming a traditional loyalty program. 

"We've been on a journey for the past number of years, in terms of how we take this really storied loyalty program, which was fuel perks, and how we turn it into this more digitally native, more personalised, more targeted program that is now My Perks," he said.

Personalisation and data

A true real-time data and one-to-one personalisation journey requires more than new technology. It also demands a change in how retailers think about customer relationships. One interesting example of this was highlighted by Tara Dalrymple, Senior Group Product Manager at Petco, a company which faces a particularly interesting challenge because they serve both pet parents and their pets. 

"We don't get to just serve the person who's actually paying the money for the products, but we're actually serving the pet as well. So our approach to loyalty has to really reflect that dual relationship between pet parent and pet," she said.

"Over the years we've been focused on building a more complete view of each customer and their pet. That way we can tailor our experiences in more meaningful ways, whether that's surfacing food recommendations based on breed and age or sending reminders for upcoming vet visits or grooming appointments. 

This level of personalisation only works with the right data infrastructure, which isn't a given for all companies, according to Paul Tepfenhart, Google's Global Director of Retail and Consumer Strategy and Solutions. Tepfenhart pointed out that data and data silos remain among the first major obstacles for most retailers. 

"We see across the board, there's great data that retailers collect, they have enormous amounts of data. The problem is, it's siloed, hard to get at. Sometimes you can't pry it out with a pry bar," he said.

The solution, Tepfenhart suggests, is to create universally accessible data sets that enable real-time processing. Making existing data work harder, rather than collecting more information, is also an important consideration. 

"When I think about what Google's emphasised and really focused on, it has been making that data accessible, scalable and then open doors for real-time processing, both in receiving data and then running all the cool things that Tara and Justin are working on.

"For me every AI project turns into a data project. We start with data as the biggest challenge, but there's also an org component, getting the organisation behind it."

For Giant Eagle, real-time capabilities are also a product of trust from customers who share an email address, engage with the store through its app, and make their preferences known.

"Through the data framework that we've been able to build, to be able to pull the different signals that the customer is telling us that ultimately creates the impact. There's a whole bunch of moments throughout the journey that matter, but there's only a few of them that we can really influence in a meaningful way. 

"One of those happens around the planning phase, the other happens in store, which is really where all the magic happens, and then how do we make a customer feel really good post transaction about what they just did?"

"Those moments where we can drive that next trip through creating that genuine connection with the customer, sharing with them what they saved previously and what they're going to save the next time. It's simple, but it's really impactful in terms of making our customers feel valued."

Preparing for an AI-Powered future

The question of how AI will reshape retail organisations sparked perhaps the most candid moment of the webinar. When asked about the impact on commercial structures, jobs, and headcount, Justin Weinstein didn't mince words. 

"I think anyone who says they know is lying. I don't think we know the full extent of how it's going to impact it," he said.

"We've talked about AI being a big change for our businesses, it's also a huge step change for the customer."

Weinstein explained the change from traditional web-based product research and reading reviews to AI-based querying, where an LLM can now provide you with answers to all your questions. 

"I raise that in this context because it puts the burden on us as retailers to help save time for the consumer. They're not going to have time or the patience to want to wade through some of the experiences that are today very standard inside of retail," he said.

"As retailers and partners to our CPG friends, we really need to be thinking about how we take time out and be on the leading edge of serving up the things that matter. I think that means having more connected teams, breaking down siloes and not having to have six different conversations with six different teams to get to the same outcome. 

"That ultimately means more accountability inside organisations where people have the ability to make decisions and move things forward. That's a really big seachange that starts with the customer and is going to be put on our backs."  

This article featured a small slice of the full discussion covering modern loyalty, personalisation, retail media and AI. To access the full on demand webinar with many more insights and comments, visit this link.