Despite all the hype around hyper-targeted marketing, a new report shows most UK consumer brands are still failing to deliver the personalised experiences shoppers expect.
According to SAP Emarsys’ latest Consumer Products Engagement report, launched today at the brand’s Personalisation Masterclass event, only 44% of UK consumer product marketers believe their campaigns are effectively personalised. And shoppers agree — just 44% say they feel like they’re getting tailored experiences when browsing or buying, even though 61% say personalisation helps them choose what to buy.
This mismatch has been dubbed the “personalisation gap,” and SAP Emarsys is now introducing a new metric to help brands close it: the Customer Engagement Maturity (CEM) score. The score assesses how prepared a brand is to deliver next-level personalisation, spanning channel mix, data usage, and AI capabilities.
Email is still relevant
Email remains the go-to channel for engagement, used by 44% of brands. Live chat (16%), social media (13%), and SMS (13%) are gaining traction, especially among younger audiences.
The report also lays bare the struggles many marketers face behind the scenes. While 86% say personalisation will be a key differentiator in 2025, just 28% of marketers from low-maturity brands feel confident using customer data effectively. For high-maturity brands, that number rises to 56%.
SAP Emarsys says its customer engagement solution offers a way out of the chaos, enabling brands to use adaptive, AI-powered tools to deliver meaningful, profitable customer journeys.
One of the brands ramping up with personalisation efforts with SAP Emarsys is Krispy Kreme. The doughnut chain saw a 53% spike in lead generation and stronger engagement across all touchpoints.
“There’s a clear gap between what consumers expect and what marketers feel able to deliver,” said Sara Richter, CMO at SAP Emarsys. “Brands like Krispy Kreme that close this gap by embracing the ‘Engagement Era’ and scaling personalisation effectively will be the ones that earn true customer loyalty.”
Vaibhav Suri, eCommerce marketing executive at Krispy Kreme, added: “It’s really easy to understand. The amount of data that we’re able to extract from SAP Emarsys, and the data dashboards as well, are super helpful for us to then analyse and implement new journeys or really optimise our current ones.”