5 Retailers That Do Personalization Best

What are the top traits of retailers that get personalization right? It seems the answer is a strong utilization of data-driven personalization and a truly integrated online and in-store experience.

To uncover which retailers are personalizing the shopping experience successfully, Sailthru, a CM Group brand, examined 260 retailers to develop its fifth annual “2022 Retail Personalization Index.” 

A team of researchers calculated the scores of the Retail Personalization Index, which come from a checklist of 80 attributes that a retailer could implement to personalize and/or enhance a customer’s experience across site, email, mobile, other digital channels (which includes in-store, social, and traditional mail), offline, and privacy.

This year retailers were scored out of a possible 80 points. Thrive Market, the health-first membership for conscious living, and Sephora, global beauty retailer, tied for the top spot with a total score of 65.

[See the “2021 Retail Personalization Index” rankings here]

With a combination of DTC start-ups and large brick-and-mortar companies at the forefront this year, top performers prove that every type of retailer can use the zero- and first-party data they collect to create highly successful personalization strategies that deliver more value for customers and higher returns for brands. 

Email also proved to be a top performing channel for DTC and native digital brands, such as 1stDibs, Wayfair and Fashion Nova, which jumped from 69th in 2021 to 12th place in this year’s overall ranking. Ranked sixth, Fabletics scored highest in email for its advanced product filtering and curated product recommendations among many features. 

“Over the past two years, brands have had to focus on short-term gains, whereas consumers have increased their expectations for meaningful personalization both online and in store,” said Jason Grunberg, general manager at Sailthru. “That means there is now a lot of work to be done in order for brands to meet these new customer expectations and see successful revenue generation at the same time. With more retailers turning to zero- and first-party data strategies to drive the future of marketing, it is more important than ever to create value-driven personalized engagement with customers to collect insights that offer continuously better experiences – and revenue opportunities – across every touchpoint.”