Most digital marketing today isn’t about reaching more people — it’s about being relevant to the right ones.

That’s where personalization comes in.

Personalization in digital marketing means using what you know about a customer — their behavior, preferences, or history — to tailor what they see. Instead of showing the same message to everyone, you adjust the experience to feel more individually relevant.

At its best, personalization doesn’t feel like marketing. It feels helpful.

What Personalization Looks Like in Practice

A simple example is product recommendations.

ASOS does this well. Spend a few minutes looking at sneakers, denim, or a favorite brand and you’ll notice something later — similar items start showing up again. Sometimes it’s on the homepage. Sometimes it’s in an email. Even your saved size can quietly shape what appears first.

It doesn’t feel random when you see it happening. It just feels like the site remembers what caught your attention, which makes browsing a little less frustrating.

According to McKinsey, companies that excel at personalization generate 40% more revenue from those activities than average performers, showing how meaningful relevance can be for business performance.

Personalization works because it reduces friction. Customers don’t have to dig as hard to find what suits them.

Why Automated Contact Strategies Matter in E-Commerce Retail

Personalization at scale isn’t possible without automation.

Retailers can’t manually follow up with every shopper, so automated contact strategies handle that work. These systems trigger messages based on behavior and timing.

Some common examples in retail:

• Abandoned cart emails

• Browse reminders after someone checks out a product

• Back-in-stock alerts

• Check-in emails when a customer hasn’t visited in a while

ASOS leans on these pretty heavily. Look at a few items and leave, and there’s a good chance you’ll hear from them later. Same thing if something you wanted sells out — you might get a heads-up when it’s available again.

They’re not just sending random promotions. The messages usually connect to something the shopper actually did.

Automation helps retailers stay relevant throughout the customer lifecycle.

Why This Actually Matters

Automated contact strategies do two important things:

1. They keep brands present without overwhelming customers

2. They make communication more relevant to each shopper’s stage

A first-time buyer shouldn’t get the same message as a loyal repeat customer. Automation helps manage those differences.

Takeaway for Entrepreneurs

Personalization is about relevance. Automation is about delivering that relevance consistently.

When the two work together, customers feel understood instead of targeted. That’s the foundation of relationship marketing in digital environments.

If you’re interested in how post-purchase experiences influence loyalty, I wrote about that in my post on winning back customers after buyer’s remorse.