Keeping it relevant and authentic: engaging consumers along the purchase journey

In an era where shoppers are overwhelmed by content, channels, and choices, capturing attention through authentic connections and earning loyalty has become both more difficult and more vital. Marketers can no longer rely on volume or frequency alone. Instead, the brands and retailers that stand out are those that engage with personalisation, precision, and purpose.

As part of our continuing series on key trends from the 2025 Retail Innovation Forum in London, this post explores opportunities for seamlessly engaging consumers through innovative loyalty, retail media, and customer experience strategies. Here are five themes to incorporate into your human-centered marketing strategies:

1. 1. AI-generated content continues to contest consumer trust, summons the growth of curated communities

      AI-generated content, AI-influencers, and agentic engagement automation are flooding digital channels, leading to an undoing of customer engagement mechanisms that have supported the funnel over the past decade. Surveys report that ~45-60% of all digital content is already produced using AI, with some projecting that, within the next 12 to 18 months, the percentage of content produced with AI could exceed 90%. Social media and the battle for walled garden inventory is being replaced by the rise of curated interest-based communities (interest media).

      Opportunity is ripe to cut through this noise by creating the right communities suited to your target consumers (e.g. Discord channels, consumer advisory panels, reward communities, in-person events), tracking consumer dialogue (e.g. social listening), and engaging the right voices (e.g. social influencer marketing).

   2. Shopping journeys are changing, making seamless personalisation more complex

      Consumers expect every touchpoint to reflect not just who they are, but where they are in their journey. They don’t want to be “marketed to”, they want to be understood in a seamless way. Relevance today is about capturing and interpreting every signal along the journey: understanding what shoppers are looking for, what they value, and what they’re ready for next. This shift demands a move from reactive targeting to predictive engagement. The toolkit for seamless engagement today includes innovation such as tracking real-time signals on a marketplace, capturing audio or even emotion analytics in stores, streamlining natural language shopping prompts like “something to wear for a summer wedding”, or identifying post-purchase moments to reinforce loyalty.

      This is especially important as AI-assisted discovery becomes mainstream. Over 50% of U.S. consumers plan to use generative AI for online shopping in 2025¹.To stay relevant, brands and retailers must ensure their content, recommendations, and product information are structured in ways these new tools can understand and respond to.

   3. Retail media opportunities are ripe and ready for those who understand their customers

      Whether you are an omnichannel regional grocer, a brick-and-mortar convenience store chain, or a digital-native marketplace, you can now benefit from the retail media opportunity as a means of delighting your brand partners while improving customer loyalty. Different AI-based tools coupled with human experts and sales are available to fit the unique profiles of every retailer, support selection of most appropriate ad inventory, and engage the right brand partners. Retailers can benefit from both direct monetisation (e.g. via dunnhumby’s Retail Media Platform) and cross-retailer aggregated monetisation (e.g. via dunnhumby’s partnership with the Rippl Network).

      At the same time, brands are shaking up their trade budgets for insights-informed engagement opportunities in distribution and media channels which matter the most for their target consumers. The tasks of understanding your target consumers (insights), allocating the budget to the right engagement channels (trade fund optimisation), and tracking the journeys for incrementality (activation and measurement) are deeply integrated. Ultimately, the key to winning in retail media is understanding that one size does not fit all and working with experts to find the right match between your strategy, your customers, the tech ecosystem, and trusted execution partners.

   4. New engagement channels create opportunities for authentic consumer connections

      Innovation in retail media is expanding far beyond the traditional placements like banners and display ads. From AI-enhanced receipts and digital touchpoints in-store, to synchronised video game activations and voice-assisted commerce, marketers are finding new ways to connect with consumers in moments of naturally high attention.

      These emerging channels allow for rich, personalised storytelling at underutilised points in the customer journey. For example, engaging customers right after a purchase can open the door to loyalty offers, tailored product recommendations, or brand messaging that feels timely and relevant.

      But with these new formats comes a responsibility: just because you can show up, doesn’t mean you should. Messaging must feel native and valuable, not intrusive. Poorly timed or irrelevant content risks turning high-attention moments into negative brand experiences.

   5. Consistency builds trust across a fragmented journey

      In an omnichannel world, consistency across every interaction is essential for trust. Whether a customer sees a product on a retailer’s website, in an ad, through an AI search, or in-store, the message, tone, and offer must align. Inconsistencies, such as conflicting prices, misaligned promotions, or off-brand messaging, erode credibility. In fact, research by Lucidpress shows that consistent brand presentation across channels can increase revenue by up to 23%²

      To achieve this level of alignment, brands must prioritise coordination across teams and systems. This means centralising product content, standardising messaging frameworks, and investing in tools that ensure brand assets are accurate, timely, and adaptable.

      AI can play a powerful role in supporting this effort. Machine learning models can flag pricing or data discrepancies across channels. Natural language processing can ensure messaging stays on tone and on brand. And AI-powered insights can highlight areas where inconsistency may be harming performance, giving teams a chance to refine and realign in real time.

As consumer expectations rise and attention spans shrink, the future of customer engagement isn’t just about doing more, it’s about doing it better in channels where it matters. Relevance, authenticity, and consistency are the pillars of meaningful connection. And with the right mix of data, AI, and human insight, brands and retailers can turn everyday interactions into lasting loyal relationships.

Innovation insights powered by the dunnhumby Retail Innovation Network

These insights were collected by gathering feedback from our Retail Innovation Network, the fastest growing global open innovation programme for retail technology leaders. We would like to thank contributing panelists and showcase participants, including Steve Shepherd (dunnhumby), Atul Singh (The Shelf), Tash Grossman (Slip), Greg Stevens (Osmos), Tom McKenna (Ocula Technologies), Brandon Warshaw (InStore.AI), Max Sinclair (Azoma f.k.a. Ecomtent), and Simon Hay (Synerise).

To receive insightful thought leadership and engagement, explore joining the Retail Innovation Network, the fastest growing open innovation networks in retail, for free at dunnhumby.com/ventures and find out more about the next Retail Innovation Forum in Bentonville at dunnhumby.com/retail-innovation-forum.

1 https://www.emarketer.com/content/over-half-us-consumers-will-use-genai-online-shopping-this-year
2 https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbesbusinesscouncil/2021/08/20/building-brand-recognition-through-your-content-and-bi-tools/