When we think of retail media, our minds often jump to the digital realm. Targeted ads, sponsored content, pop-ups, and in-app offers on e-commerce platforms have all become ubiquitous in the industry, driving consumers to buy based on real-time, hyper-personalised insights.
But at the heart of the retail media experience has always been the store, the tangible experience of shopping and engaging physically with the brands you find there. Although ecommerce appears to dominate currently, in-store experiences are still vital for a majority of shoppers. In a recent report, EY found that 57% of consumers want to see, touch and feel items before they buy them, and one third want the personal in-store service online shopping can’t match.
While the world of retail remains hybrid, retail media, too, has the potential to bring even more real value to physical, real-world experiences. In the coming year, we are sure to see more and more brands harnessing the power of shopper data to enhance and inspire more in-person engagement.
The best of both worlds
A whopping 9 in 10 consumers prefer personalised ads, which is something retail media marketers have known and built an empire around for decades.
The shift to ecommerce and digital retail media helped retailers to build a much richer picture of their shoppers than they once had. And this data can alert marketers to dynamic trends, detecting consumers’ latest interests and immediately feeding that into timely, effective campaigns.
As ever, data is a tradeoff, and retail marketers pioneered a relationship with modern customers that uses these insights to build offers and campaigns that are as relevant and helpful as possible. And yet even the most hyper personalised pop-up can only feel so personal. When it comes to reaching customers and generating a true sense of brand loyalty, it’s worth considering the full marketing mix.
Boots is an excellent example of a store that combines data with tangible experiences for maximum effect.
Famous for its Advantage Card, which was once carried around in millions of bags and wallets, Boots is a pioneer of retail media strategies.
When the brand set out to entice more shoppers back to their brick and mortar stores after the pandemic, leaning on one of the UK’s most popular loyalty programmes was a no-brainer, but it needed to reach customers in their homes with a trusted voice.
Boots leveraged its wealth of Advantage Card insights to execute a hyper-targeted direct mail marketing campaign, knowing that 71% of consumers say they completely trust the mail they receive. Using a machine learning model to analyse past shopping behaviours, the team scored each recipient on their likelihood of using various Quarterly Mailing offers, so that each physical mailer could deliver customers a deal that they would truly value, engage with, and use.
This data-driven approach was enhanced even further by contact optimisation, ensuring that each member received the six most relevant offers directly to their doorstep. The perfectly curated direct mail campaign drove nearly 1 in 4 to make a purchase in-store, with members redeeming 2.4 coupons in-store on average.
There’s a powerful lesson here: marketers often already hold the data, success is simply a question of listening to that data, being creative, and picking the right medium.
A new era of real-tail
Mixing the online and offline isn’t just a powerful tactic for the established high street giants. Since its launch in 2012, e-commerce darling Pretty Little Thing (PLT) has created a well-defined digital presence, tapping into the power of social influencers far earlier than many of its competitors.
But when analysis identified a group of loyal shoppers aged 17-24 that had stopped shopping for the last 12 months, Pretty Little Thing found that email offers and texts simply weren’t delivering a high redemption rate. They needed a new approach, one that was playful, thoughtful, and would reactivate recipients’ love of the brand.
So the team sent an anniversary card, decorated with PLT’s unmissable bright pink branding and a message
“It’s our anniversary…We look good together”. Celebrating a year since the first purchase, the card offered a 25% discount in case the customer “needed a reason to come back”, and come back they did. Compared to a control group of lapsed shoppers, the campaign saw a 9% increase in reengaged shoppers.
By stepping away from digital communications, Pretty Little Thing found a way to cut through and achieve real engagement. JICMAIL data shows that 17–24-year-olds are 31% less likely to receive physical mail than other age groups, making it the perfect way to stand out.
The secret to these successful campaigns is in understanding exactly how to reach consumers with the right message, in the right formats. The wealth and depth of data that retail media has brought to this industry has turned much of marketing into a science, but there is always room for an artful touch.
Finding that balance in the marketing mix to nurture more clicks but to also enhance in-store and in person physical experiences will be what defines the top, most trusted retailers in the coming years. After all, consumers still live their day to day lives in the real world, even if some of their favourite retailers don’t.
Cameron Russell is Head of Marketing at Marketreach