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The Retail Multiverse: Personalization & Community Connection at the Speed of Culture
As customer expectations shift and AI opens the possibility of personalization to more brands, successfully navigating the retail multiverse will require a delicate balance of human insight and technical innovation. Find out how retailers can find their equilibrium with insights from Mood Media’s SVP of Global Account Management & Marketing, Jaime Bettencourt.
Multiverse might be a term more frequently associated with the Marvel movie franchise, but it’s increasingly being adopted by the retail industry to describe the holistic approach retailers must now take to satisfy existing customers and attract a new generation of brand advocates.
It's omnichannel,amplified.
The future of retail will see the barriers between online and offline stripped away as communications, proposition, and brand experience are aligned across all touchpoints. Not only does this enhance trust and customer loyalty, but it also boosts sales.
Customers are driving this shift. As digital natives have entered the market, their shopping habits have become increasingly fluid and channel-agnostic. Gen Z is just as comfortable making a purchase on their phone through the TikTok shop or an Instagram affiliate link as they are planning a visit to a brand’s flagship store. The customer journey is no longer linear, which presents challenges and opportunities for cross-channel retailers.
“Today, brands need to meet customers where they’re at and be present at every stage of their shopping journey,” explains Jaime Bettencourt, SVP of Global Account Management & Marketing at Mood Media. “That means providing a consistent and reliable brand experience that delivers convenience without compromising trust and authenticity.”
Making It Personal
Personalization is a conduit for connection – and AI is making it accessible to brands of all shapes and sizes. When rolled out at scale, it looks like curated product recommendations, tailored communications, and frictionless customer journeys.
Effective deployment relies on first-party data, which AI can use to better understand and predict consumer behavior, providing product recommendations, advice, and dynamic offers. The most sophisticated models tailor their recommendations based on the customer’s current location and intent rather than relying on historical purchase data.
“AI will be transformative when it comes to personalization,” Jaime continues. “It can process complex historic and real-time data in a matter of minutes and create predictive models that inspire conversations that feel human, not artificial. It’s all about making customers feel seen and heard in new ways and in greater depth.”
Taking In-Store Interactions Online
Loyalty programs offer a valuable data source while also fostering community. Historic purchase information, linked to individuals through their loyalty account and processed by AI, can inform libraries of personalized content that enhance the customer’s digital experience.
Sephora is further elevating the art of discovery through its new partnership with OpenAI. Taking inspiration from the conversations shared by Beauty Advisors and customers in-store, the collaboration provides a new forum to continue these conversational interactions via both Sephora’s AI Beauty Chat and ChatGPT, providing trusted guidance and expertise that feels true to the brand, even on an external platform.
“Amber Turley from Sephora joined me for a fireside chat at Shoptalk Spring and what struck me most about the brand’s work with OpenAI is that it respects human connection,” Jaime explains. “Rather than looking to replace the role of its Beauty Advisors, Sephora emphasizes their importance by maintaining their position as trusted experts who empower customers through natural and engaging conversation even in AI form. It’s an approach that will ensure the brand experience remains personal, informed, and trusted.”
Keeping Pace with the Speed of Culture
Virtual experts powered by generative AI enable a more personalized online experience while also satisfying the desire for speed and convenience that customers’ hectic lifestyles demand. Physical retailers must compete with their online channels in agility, reacting just as rapidly to trends and customer needs as their digital teams so they can move at the speed of culture.
Algorithm-driven social media apps have revolutionized the turnover of cultural trend cycles. It has also built a customer base used to their individual tastes being reflected in their feeds as if by magic. Not only has this accelerated the speed of culture and led to the introduction of micro-trends, but it also means customers can now be split into tribes with shared interests and mindsets rather than categorized solely by demographic.
Understanding the ways customers can be defined by their cultural engagement allows physical stores to play to their strengths and use their footprints to foster community. Wayfair and New Balance have both invested in expansive flagships to provide ample space for emotional interactions and memorable experiences; Dutch Bros Coffee is differentiating itself in a competitive industry by maintaining the positive energy of its well-trained team; and Anthropologie is shifting to a strategy that includes engaging in-store activations rather than taking a purely digital approach.
In-store “third place” experiences take stores from purely transactional spaces into places designed for gathering, whether that’s by offering on-site food and beverage options, exercise classes, or interactive styling sessions. These inclusive and accessible shopping experiences build community and encourage authentic social commerce by inspiring customers to share posts to their networks.
Conquering the Multiverse
The retail multiverse offers a wealth of opportunities, but it can also be an overwhelming proposition. Brands hoping to capitalize on every channel and every customer interaction are setting themselves up for failure. Implementing an ambitious personalization plan is similarly rife with pitfalls. The secret to successful omnichannel synergy is incremental change.
“It’s best to start small with manageable projects that yield measurable results, rather than aiming for a utopian brand vision that may never become a reality,” Jaime advises. “Working with a strategic partner that has expertise in emerging technology and customer experience can help you identify what’s achievable in the short and longer term and prioritize actions based on their potential impact.”
In the AI era, prioritizing business-to-human connection is the only way forward.
Innovative tools can help you build brand consistency across the retail multiverse, remain agile in a fast-moving marketplace, and provide personalized experiences online and in-store but true community, trust, and loyalty rely on human curation.
It is only in understanding individual shopping missions and the customer’s emotional state at every stage of the purchase journey that personalization can be introduced in ways that feel intuitive, not invasive. And those nuances require the human touch, no matter how well you’ve trained your AI agents.
As Jaime puts it, “the future is omnichannel, customer-centric, and deeply personal.”
Jaime Bettencourt
Jaime Bettencourt, SVP of Global Account Management and Marketing at Mood Media, is an accomplished senior-level sales and marketing leader with a proven ability to achieve double-digit revenue growth, recognized for designing world-class customer experiences for leading lifestyle and retail brands. She has a robust track record for leading teams and leveraging custom, complex in-store marketing, media, and technology solutions for Fortune 100 clients in the retail space. Throughout Jaime’s 20+ years in the experiential industry, she’s been in various marketing, branding and sales leadership roles and has worked with global organizations to enhance in-store experiences through targeted brand initiatives and marketing strategies supported by customer insights and analytics.
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