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The customer experience today hinges on one necessary, important factor: ✨personalization ✨. That’s tailored products, services, and even interactions for every single customer. Personalization keeps customers happier, which makes them much more inclined to open their wallets.
So if personalization is so great, why isn’t everyone doing it? Well, it’s way more time-consuming and much, much harder than you think. You need solid data, but you also need to balance your use of personal information with respect for your customers’ privacy.
Tough balance for a marketer to strike, but you’re not alone. Bloomreach is here to help. They just held The Edge Summit (first in Miami, then in London) to show how they can help you take personalization to the next level.
Take a peek at the pop-up that got really personal.
Big bag, bigger personalization
Come on in, the water’s warm—and the shopping bag is absolutely gigantic. Yep, Bloomreach kicked off their Edge Summit in Miami with a shopping bag you could actually walk inside to get the full personalization experience.
Powered by Shopify, the giant yellow shopping bag pop-up showed how personalization can be done on a larger scale. With one step into the pop-up, visitors could see customized swag everywhere. No generic tote bags—just shelves and shelves of co-branded merch from a capsule collection to create a unique experience you won’t find anywhere else.
On the rear wall, guests were greeted by a TV playing a highlight reel of Bloomreach and Shopify customer brands and products. The TV was surrounded by (you guessed it) even more goodies so attendees could see Bloomreach and Shopify’s premium brands come to life straight from the screen. Think of this highlight reel as ambient personalization. It’s a subtle (but surprisingly effective) way of making sure your brand gets seen.
Now for the biggest question on the crowd’s mind: How do I get my hands on the sweet swag at this pop-up? The answer: a spin-to-win experience, with a chance to score a gift card to one of Bloomreach and Shopify’s premium brands. The fan faves included Cotopaxi, Patagonia, and Third Love in Miami and Brewdog, Alohas, and Superdry in London. These gift cards demonstrate how you can easily show that you know your customer (by offering them something that fits their tastes and preferences based on the brands they love most).
The main takeaway from this giant yellow shopping bag pop-up? Personalization is about way more than slapping a name on an email. It’s about creating an experience that feels curated, relevant, and, most importantly, pretty dang fun.
Mic drop at the main stage
On the main stage, Raj De Datta, CEO and co-founder of Bloomreach, looked at what was coming up in the world of AI.
In short? Agentic personalization is here, and it’s kicking up customer experiences up a notch (or ten). Thanks to AI agents, everything can be tailored to individual preferences and behaviors, with no human micromanaging required. And with the announcement of Bloomreach Affinity, the campaign creation process will soon be automated.
Sounds sweet, right? But of course, all these AI innovations lead to the big question: What happens to marketers? De Datta’s take: Marketers get to do the fun stuff now, like strategy and creativity.
This point was highlighted by Greg Hoffman, the former CMO at Nike, who showed that the biggest Nike campaigns were all driven by human emotion and creativity. And now, with AI taking care of the manual work, marketers will be able to focus even more on making their big ideas a reality.
That’s why Joe Strolz, the VP of Global Support at Shopify, is building a “culture of AI” at the company. Employees are encouraged to use AI to build, resulting in a new tool (built by non-engineers!) that streamlines support.
The pop-up also served as an opportunity for attendees to learn about the technology integrations between Bloomreach and Shopify.
Bloomreach also gave a little sneak peek of an upcoming launch: Personify, a Bloomreach app Built for Shopify. With Personify, merchants will be able to bring Bloomreach-powered personalization to life directly within their Shopify admin panel.
A lot was covered on the main stage, but all of it tied to one key point: consumer expectations are sky-high, and AI agents might be exactly the help you need to meet those demands.
The proof is in the pop-up
In Miami and London this year, Bloomreach did way more than just talk about personalization. They brought personalization to life, through giant yellow shopping bags and insightful keynote addresses, to really show retail professionals just how engaging personalization can be and how it can transform the entire customer experience.
With the right tools, like Bloomreach’s Engagement, Discovery, and Clarity (and soon, Affinity), you can personalize the entirety of your customer experiences and strategically create standout shopping moments for all your brand’s fans, big and small.
The main thing the Bloomreach Edge Summit made clear: Personalization is no longer optional. It’s essential.