Hyper-personalisation is winning customers for retailers in the Middle East

Consumers are no longer following a linear path to purchase. Retailers are trying to solve the pressing issues of broken customer journeys and inconsistent engagement. And these issues are common when a consumer switches between different online and offline channels—a behavior that has become commonplace in the post-pandemic world.

Companies that recognize that every customer is a distinct individual with unique needs and accordingly customize their engagement with them are realizing 40 per cent more revenues than those who do not.

Personalisation matters more than ever

A Forrester report revealed that personalisation ranked the highest in the list of tech investments in 2021. In fact, 89 per cent of digital businesses are investing in personalisation. But there’s a problem. Only 40 per cent of consumers feel that the information they get from brands is relevant to their tastes and interests. “This massive gap exists because personalisation has evolved from tactical segmentation to strategic individualization, and most retailers are playing catch-up,” said Abhinav Mittal, Director – Sales, MEA Region at Algonomy.

The digital medium has reshaped a lot of the buying behavior and expectations of consumers in key retail sectors, including fashion, food and grocery, consumer electronics and furniture. Customers today expect a completely seamless shopping experience across all touchpoints—from store to digital and back —and consistently through their lifecycle as users.

In the last two years, three-quarters of consumers have switched to a new store, product or buying method. If brands want to retain customers, they have to personalise their engagement with customers and give them what they want—at the right time, through the right channel.

"Ideally, brands should have a single view of the customer across multiple channels to generate behavioural data about their habits and preferences. What if a brand could serve uniquely personalised data into their mobile phones while they’re in a brick-and-mortar store shopping for groceries and clothing? Unfortunately, data silos often throw up obstacles to this kind of personalisation. A sound data-personalisation strategy works on breaking down these silos and we, at Algonomy, help not only break these silos but also empower retailers to automate customer journey orchestrations," said Syed Rahim, Senior Director – Customer Success for Southern Europe & MEA at Algonomy.

“AI driven personalisation is critical for engaging customers with the right customer journey online, especially in retail space. This along with right data/customer behaviour driven product recommendations is what Algonomy helps us with to empower our customers with the best user experience,” said Shahin Riaz, Head of Product at Extra.

UAE, a key market for retail

In 2020, total retail spending in the UAE was at the 14th position globally, according to a survey by global consultancy Kearney. The industry is further projected to grow at an annual rate of 6.6 per cent according to the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry, taking UAE’s retail sales to $70.5 billion by 2025.

It’s obvious that manual merchandising and segmentation alone cannot handle this scale of growth. The need of the hour is combining algorithms with human expertise, which is aptly demonstrated by Algonomy, the only algorithmic decisioning platform for retail that has deployed its hyper-personalisation solutions across several retail brands in the MEA region.

“With clients like Majid Al Futtaim, Alghanim, Extra Saudi Arabia, Rivoli Group, Al Tayer Group, MEA has been a strategic focus geography for Algonomy for many years. Retail brands in MEA get a partner focussing on retail value chain of merchandising, supply chain collaboration, and customer experience areas,” added Abhinav.

“What’s needed today is AI-powered decision-making at scale across marketing, eCommerce, merchandising, inventory management, pricing, and other retail functions. We at Algonomy call this Algorithmic Decisioning”, said Amit Agarwal, SVP - Sales & Business Development, Algonomy. “Brands in the MEA region have been able to make the right real-time decision for each customer at every stage of interaction using Algonomy’s retail expertise and real-time customer data platform and algorithmic decision-making solutions.”

“We, at Alghanim Industries, use Algonomy’s Customer Data Platform to leverage our data into increasing customer engagement. The platform’s flexibility in micro-segmentation and its functions in customer journey orchestration helps us ensure the best customer experience, creating a prolonged, organic and satisfying relationship between people and our brands. Having enjoyed a fruitful relationship with Algonomy, Alghanim Industries is excited to see the many excellent features provided in the future,” said Altug Can Aldanmaz, Head of Customer Engagement & Analytics at Alghanim Industries.

Transforming retailers with digital

Leading global brands including Burberry, Walmart Canada, Honeywell, Pizza Hut UK, KFC Canada, Comcast, Rue21, Price Chopper, McDonald’s India, Carter's, Tiffany & Co., JD Williams & Company, and Miinto, affirm that the partnership with Algonomy has helped them deliver the most relevant, hyper-personalised experience to the customer across all consumer channels, without any experience fragmentation - all in real time and at scale.

Recently, Aditya Birla Fashion and Retail Ltd (ABFRL), one of Asia's largest fashion retailers, entered into a multi-year strategic partnership with Algonomy to deploy its hyper-personalisation solutions across its brands. ABFRL will leverage the personalisation suite to craft truly seamless and 1:1 shopping experiences across all channels - website, app, email and in-store, and across the commerce journey touchpoints for search, browse, product recommendations and content.