Your Personalization Strategy is Probably Basic—Here’s How to Fix It

Is your personalization strategy just “Try this [related product] too!”? Then it’s time to ditch the Mad Libs.

With the amount of customer data businesses can now collect, it’s easier than ever to move beyond generic journeys and surface-level recommendations. And according to Deloitte, personalization leaders see 28% higher customer satisfaction ratings, 24% higher customer engagement rates, and 17% higher average order values.

So why do so many brands’ personalization efforts stall out at filling in the blanks? Because they aren’t taking the next step to get truly personal: activating behavioral data.

Top brands like Neiman Marcus and Sephora are using behavioral data to achieve uncanny personalization, augmenting in-person hospitality and creating omnichannel experiences that set a new bar for customer relationships. Read on to learn more about what behavioral data is, how they're using it, and how you can too.

Going beyond recommendations

Let’s be clear: Personalization isn’t just about greeting someone by name, remembering what’s in their cart, or guessing at a related product they might like. That has the aura of personalization, but none of the substance.

Real personalization is crafting every interaction—every ad, page, product, and message—to provide tailor-made value to the customer. It doesn’t just see them—it serves them in a seamless and specific way, reflecting how you value the customer back to them.

According to a McKinsey & Company study, 71% of consumers expect companies to provide personalized interactions, and when these expectations aren't met, 76% report feeling frustrated. ​

To build stronger customer relationships through personalization, you need more than words—you have to show your customers that personal value. If your personalization doesn’t do that? Your customers may start wondering if they should keep valuing you.

The path to true personalization: Behavioral analytics

For digital businesses, creating personalized experiences can’t be done entirely, well, personally. You need data, and the right kind of data: behavioral data.

Less mature personalization programs rely mostly on surface-level data: personal information shared by the customer, a list of products or services a customer engages with, or transactional data. These “whats” are a good start, but without the context of “how” or “why” customers are interacting with certain elements, your personalization efforts are likely to misunderstand what they want—leaving you back in the impersonal zone.

For example, say you're an outdoor online retailer, and you personalize by sending reminders to customers who show interest in a product but haven't bought it yet. A customer comes to your shop, spends about ten minutes looking at two products, and later adds just one of them to to their cart. Do you send them a reminder for the other?

With surface-level data, you probably would. But with behavioral data, you'd account for buying patterns rooted in what the items actually were: in this case, mountain bikes. The customer had been comparing them, and when they decided which to get, they came back to purchase it. A popup about the other mountain bike wouldn't just be unhelpful—it'd be impersonal.

This may sounds good in theory—and delightfully, it's good in practice too. Here's how two top brands have revolutionized their personalization strategy with behavioral data.

Neiman Marcus: Scaling the human touch

Luxury retailer Neiman Marcus has long delivered high-end, personalized service—but now, they’re using data and AI to take that to the next level, without sacrificing the human element.

The company uses data and technology to perfectly tailor each interaction along this path:

• Smarter inventory through AI: Neiman Marcus’ inventory is guided by AI/ML tools that track data from their and competitors’ customers to help each location keep on-trend and popular items in stock.
• Empowered associates with unified profiles: Sales associates at Neiman Marcus have always been expected to remember frequent customers’ preferences and tastes, but with the brand’s CONNECT app that creates centralized shopper profiles, every associate can provide white-glove service to every individual.
• Personalized looks, backed by tech: Customers can get an individualized look built around a single product thanks to the AI/ML-powered Neiman Marcus App and the stylist or associate who further personalizes the recommendation based on customers’ saved style and brand preferences.

These are all jobs Neiman Marcus sales associates and stylists could do on their own, and that’s intentional: Leadership isn’t trying to replace its workers, but rather augment their capabilities. By giving each associate access to a wealth of customer data and guidance to help them make the most of it, Neiman Marcus has managed personalization at scale that maintains and even empowers the human touch of their staff.

Sephora: Making omnichannel omnipresent

Beauty retailer Sephora sets the standard for omnichannel personalization. Whether you shop in-store, online, or in the app, the experience is tailored, seamless, and helpful—right when it matters.

Here’s how they do it:

• Smart in-store experiences: Because the brand realized many in-person shoppers pull out their phones to look up recommendations or reviews, its app uses localization data to sense when customers are entering a store and pre-load relevant information like a store map and can’t-miss sales.
• Makeovers that follow you home: Customers who receive an in-store makeover with a Beauty Advisor can easily find the products their associate used later because each is scanned into their account and shared via email and the app.
• Informed associates with full customer context: Beauty Advisors have access to 360-degree customer profiles so they can greet customers by name and give product recommendations that account for customers’ past preferences and purchases.

Sephora has done the hard work of breaking down data silos and building a single source of truth for each customer. That unified profile powers personalization at every touchpoint—digital or physical.

How to use behavioral data for personalization that converts

To achieve personalization like Neiman Marcus and Sephora, it takes more than just collecting data—you need to organize, understand, and activate behavioral data in a way that drives value for your customers at every touchpoint. The steps below offer a practical roadmap to help you move from intention to execution, so you can personalize with precision and purpose.

• Know where to focus: Define your business goals and identify the moments in the customer journey that matter most. This will help you prioritize what to personalize first—and why it matters.
• Get your data in order: Create a data taxonomy to help you easily see what you have and where you have it. If you don’t have a data governance initiative to ensure data quality and access while building out a framework that will support the growth of your data program, you won’t be able to scale your personalization efforts.
• Build a single source of truth: Use identity resolution to build a single view of each customer across all channels. A unified customer profile turns chaos into context—and establishes the demographic and behavioral attributes that let you segment your customers anywhere.
• Ask users what they need to improve the experience: Don’t guess—ask. Use surveys, in-app prompts, or NPS responses to hear directly from customers. Pairing feedback with behavioral insights helps you spot gaps and prioritize personalization that matters.
• Let AI do the heavy lifting: Once you’ve segmented customers by how they act, you’re ready to get the most out of predictive analytics tools. AI/ML-driven algorithms can make sense of the journeys customers take and, after watching how new customers interact with your brand, guide them down the paths most likely to convert them and keep them loyal.

When you combine focus, clean data, direct feedback, and the power of AI, personalization becomes more than just a tactic—it becomes a competitive advantage. You’ll be equipped to meet customers where they are, tailor each interaction, and anticipate what they need next.

At scale, that's your personalization strategy moving from basic to breathtaking.

Let’s get personal

Whether you’re focused on supercharging one-to-one interactions or making each customer’s digital journey unique, every personalization effort starts with a clear view of the data you need and how you’re going to use it. Amplitude can help. Whether you need a new tool to help with data collection, management, and governance, or you’re just looking for more insights, we are personalization experts.