January 28, 2026
Does Retail Even Know What Personalisation Is Anymore?
Retail loves the word personalisation. It appears in strategy decks, earnings calls, and vendor pitches with near religious consistency. And yet, when shoppers actually show up, most are still treated like interchangeable visitors passing through a digital storefront.
Amperity’s new 2026 State of Personalization in Retail report reveals not whether personalisation works (it clearly does) but whether retailers are actually delivering anything worthy of the label.
Why Does Personalisation Still Feel So Generic?
Eighty-three percent of Americans say personalised shopping matters to them. Only 8% say they do not want retailers to remember their preferences or past purchases. Gen Z wants personalisation even more: more than 30% say it is very important when deciding where to shop. So why does more than half of the market still feel unseen?
Fifty-seven percent of shoppers say their experiences remain generic, despite retailers insisting they are personalising at scale. Even worse, 79% say brands regularly get it wrong through mistimed offers, irrelevant messages, or outreach that arrives after the moment has already passed.
Respondents cite timing as more important than cleverness. Most shoppers expect personalisation to happen in real time, not hours or days later. Only 20% say speed does not matter to them. The rest say that if a brand “knows” them, it should act like it now, not after the window to influence a decision has closed.
Acting in real-time can be highly beneficial for brands. Namely, 74% of Americans are more likely to purchase when they receive a genuinely personalised offer or recommendation. Nearly 70% say they are more likely to buy if a retailer adjusts offers instantly while they browse.
The Risk Is Being Pointless
Retailers are holding back on personalisation out of fear of going too far, even though the data shows customers are far more frustrated by irrelevance than by being recognised.
Not a single Gen Z or millennial respondent said truly personalised messages would make them less likely to purchase. The danger is pretending to personalise while delivering the same recycled messaging everyone else sees.
The issue also lies in frequency. Fifteen percent of shoppers did not receive a single offer in the past month that felt tailored to them. Another 15% received more than five. The rest experienced something sporadic and forgettable, just enough to claim personalisation exists, but not enough to make it matter.
Loyalty Now Depends on Recognition
When retailers get personalisation right, shoppers notice. Sixty percent say they are more loyal to brands that demonstrate they “know” them. Millennials respond most strongly, emphasising that loyalty is earned through relevance, not accumulated through time.
Despite constant channel experimentation, shoppers remain conservative about where personalisation belongs. Email is still the preferred place for tailored offers, followed by websites and mobile apps. Social platforms rank far lower than many retailers assume.
As for AI, consumers are pragmatic and almost 50% want future personalised experiences delivered through a mix of human associates and AI assistants. Not AI for novelty’s sake, but AI that helps brands respond faster and with more precision.
The report leaves retailers with an awkward question to answer going into 2026. If customers want personalisation, technology exists to deliver it, and revenue clearly follows when it works, what exactly is stopping most brands from doing it properly?
