Marketing teams in retail are busier than ever, juggling customer engagement, managing multi-channel campaigns, analyzing performance, and personalizing interactions across countless touchpoints.
That’s a lot.
Doing all of this manually isn’t simply practical; it is virtually impossible to scale.
That’s where they need the power of retail marketing automation.
Retail marketing automation empowers brands to streamline repetitive tasks and deliver personalized experiences effortlessly. With automation, retailers can:
- Enhance customer experiences
- Boost operational efficiency
- Increase conversions
The result? Happier customers, smoother operations, and increased sales.
In this guide, we’ll cover the essential retail marketing automation tools, showcase examples, best practices, and how you can get the most out of Insider.
Whether you’re just starting to automate marketing or looking to scale your strategy, this article will help you build smarter, more efficient retail marketing workflows that keep your marketing engine running smoothly.
What is retail marketing automation and how does it work?
Retail marketing automation is all about using the power of automation to streamline and automate repetitive marketing tasks. That is, things like email campaigns, SMS messaging, social media outreach, and customer segmentation.
Essentially, it helps retail brands send the right message to the right customer, exactly when they need it most.
With automation, retailers can create hyper-personalized customer experiences without the manual hassle. Here’s how it works –
- Personalized customer journeys. Automation platforms leverage AI to deliver tailored product recommendations and targeted content. This makes customers feel seen and valued.
- Campaign management. Retailers can automate critical marketing workflows – welcoming new customers, re-engaging inactive ones, or nudging loyal customers toward an upsell.
- Data-driven insights. Automation software collects and analyzes data in real-time. This provides actionable insights that marketers can use to fine-tune campaigns and boost customer satisfaction.
The result is a unified brand voice and consistent messaging, no matter where your customers choose to engage.
For example, retail marketing automation can trigger timely reminders about items left in a cart or send personalized offers based on previous purchases.
These are great ways to boost conversions and strengthen customer relationships, without extra manual effort.
To help you find the right solution for your business, we’ve compiled the top 5 marketing automation platforms. Let’s take a look at them:
1. Insider
Insider brings together the most extensive set of personalization and automation capabilities for websites and mobile apps, as well as for channels like email, SMS, push notifications, and WhatsApp.
Our platform has been ranked among the top solutions in various categories, including –
Thanks to the wide range of capabilities and native channels, over 1200 brands like Adidas, Vodafone, and Lexus use Insider for various use cases like:
- Automating flows and campaigns across all customer touchpoints from a single place using Architect, our cross-channel customer journey builder.
- Maximizing their marketing efforts and budget by consolidating their stack. Instead of using a bunch of different automation and personalization tools for each channel.
- Increasing engagement, conversions, and revenue by automatically personalizing every customer touchpoint. Including their websites, mobile apps, email, SMS, WhatsApp, push notifications, and more.
- Getting an accurate 360-degree view of all their customers’ interactions, behaviors, and preferences by consolidating their data into our Actionable Customer Data Platform (CDP).
2. Braze
Braze is a comprehensive customer engagement platform. It supports a range of channels, including email, SMS, WhatsApp, and push notifications. It offers basic on-site and in-app personalization features.
Braze is used by many retail brands, from Glossier to Vivid Seats and SoulCycle, for customer engagement and marketing automation.
In terms of retail automation, Braze has a tool called Canvas Flow that comes with many features for building and automating cross-channel campaigns.
3. Salesforce Marketing Cloud
Many large retailers use Salesforce Marketing Cloud to unify customer data, personalize messaging, and increase conversion rates.
Salesforce Marketing Cloud combines various products for:
- Customer data aggregation (CDP).
- Cross-channel campaign orchestration.
- Data visualization and reporting.
- Marketing and sales automation.
- Content management.
- Loyalty management.
- Account engagement (powered by Pardot).
- And more.
These tools can be used to automate routine tasks and campaigns across channels like email, SMS, social media, and push notifications.
4. Adobe Experience Cloud
Adobe Experience Cloud brings together a set of tools for use cases like automation, personalization, content management, journey orchestration, and more. When it comes to automation, the most important products in this stack are:
- Marketo Engage helps B2C and B2B marketing and sales teams automate various tasks, nurture leads, build audience segments with the help of AI, and personalize their communications.
- Adobe Campaign helps marketers create and manage cross-channel campaigns.
- Adobe Target is an A/B testing, personalization, and automation solution.
Retailers like Dick’s Sporting Goods, Walgreens, and Coles use Adobe Experience Cloud to understand customer journeys and personalize engagement in real time. This further boosts loyalty and sales.
5. HubSpot Marketing Hub
Marketing Hub is HubSpot’s main offering for marketing teams. While it’s not built specifically for retail brands, its complete automation capabilities are worth exploring. As a marketing automation solution, Marketing Hub offers:
- A visual board for creating conditional workflows.
- Various email, live chat, and on-site automation features.
- Workflow automation capabilities via integrations with their internal sales tools (like their CRM) and third-party solutions.
5 examples of retail marketing automation
Before we dive in, note that you can build all of these workflows with Insider, #1 AI-native omnichannel experience and customer engagement platform. Our solution offers:
- A flexible marketing automation tool for 12+ channels. You can use it to build automated workflows with a simple drag-and-drop editor across your website, mobile app, email, SMS, WhatsApp, and more.
- AI-powered features that save you time and optimize your workflows. These include send-time optimization, next-best channel selection, A/B test winner auto-selection, and more.
- A plethora of workflow templates for tons of use cases and industries. Each template can be easily customized to your needs without any coding.
Now, let’s explore the retail marketing automation examples:
1. Recovering abandoned carts
Cart abandonment remains one of the biggest problems in the world of ecommerce. Any marketing team that’s looking to maximize its budget and revenue should constantly be looking for ways to get cart abandoners to complete their purchase.
Insider helps you do this by automatically creating segments of cart abandoners. And letting you easily add cart items to your emails, push notifications, and messaging channel communications.
You also have ready-made cart recovery templates for different channels. These templates are easily customizable. So, you can adjust their colors, branding, and other elements without any coding – or even changing the HTML.
Here are a few of the channels that our clients use to recover lost carts:
1. Email and SMS are the most widely used combination of channels by retail brands worldwide. Slazenger used both channels to build cart recovery campaigns that produced a 49x ROI in eight weeks (we’ll discuss their use cases later in this guide).
2. WhatsApp is an underutilized but extremely powerful channel for recovering potentially lost revenue. Picniq used it to achieve an 80% open rate and a 5x ROI on their cart abandonment campaigns.
3. Web push notifications can be incredibly powerful and cost-effective compared to traditional channels (like email and SMS). Marks & Spencer used push notifications to achieve a 15.1% cart recovery rate, compared to the 3% industry average for abandoned cart emails.
2. Confirming orders and purchases
Transactional flows are a must for any online business. That’s why most ecommerce platforms and content management systems (CMSs) have built-in automated email workflows that trigger immediately after a successful transaction.
However, you don’t need to limit yourself to email. For example, with Insider, you can also send confirmation messages on channels like SMS and WhatsApp. Again, we have plenty of templates to make the process easier. Like the WhatsApp message template shown below.
All you need to do is set our journey builder to trigger your emails or messaging channel communications immediately after a successful purchase event.
Then, you can build strategic follow-ups for promoting other products after a set amount of time (as we’ll discuss in a bit).
3. Sending targeted price drops and inventory alerts
These workflows are powerful for targeting users on the verge of making their first purchase, as well as those with a high discount affinity.
Since Insider automatically collects data about each user’s interests and preferences, you can use that information to trigger emails, push notifications, or SMS and WhatsApp messages whenever:
- Products that users have been browsing are back in stock.
- Products that users have shown interest in get a price reduction.
In both cases, your messages have a much higher chance of engaging new customers as they’re based on their needs, interests, and preferences.
At the same time, you can get even more targeted with our AI-powered predictive segmentation. Specifically, you can use our platform to only target customers with a high discount affinity who are much more likely to respond to a price drop alert.
This tactic also guarantees that you’re not wasting discounts on people who might’ve bought a product at its regular price.
4. Upsells and cross-sells
Upsells and cross-sells can help you drastically increase key metrics like average order value (AOV), customer lifetime value (CLTV), and customer retention. That’s why you should find strategic places during the customer lifecycle to implement upsell and cross-sell workflows.
For example, you can build marketing automation workflows that automatically:
- Suggest products that are frequently purchased with the one currently in the customer’s cart. This can be done with a good product recommendation engine that analyzes browsing and purchase history (as well as real-time behaviors) to deliver relevant recommendations across landing pages and channels (like email).
- Employ this same strategy, but on a channel like SMS or WhatsApp. Wait a few days or weeks after a customer has completed their first purchase.
- Generate upsell and cross-sell opportunities by offering discounts on customers’ registration anniversaries, birthdays, or other important events.
5. Pre- and post-purchase feedback
With the cookieless marketing era upon us, teams need to rely much more heavily on zero- and first-party data gathered directly from customers. That’s why it’s crucial to have workflows in place for collecting that information at various stages of the customer journey.
The classic way to do this is by sending a post-purchase email survey that asks customers to rate your product and the overall experience. This can also be done on messaging channels like SMS or WhatsApp, depending on your customers’ preferences.
One way to take this tactic to the next level is by using AMP emails. The AMP technology lets customers answer surveys directly in the email, without having to go to your site or app.
Retail marketing automation best practices
Now that you’ve checked all the tools you need and examples to get inspiration, here are some retail marketing automation best practices to keep in mind.
1. Ensure data accuracy for effective segmentation
Incomplete data can spell disaster for your marketing automation efforts. This eventually leads to poor targeting, wasted resources, and frustrated customers.
Accurate, high-quality data is essential because it directly influences your ability to segment audiences effectively, personalize customer experiences, and deliver relevant messages.
When data quality suffers, segmentation gets messy. Customers may receive irrelevant offers, duplicate communications, or even contradictory information. This may potentially erode trust and damage your brand’s reputation.
The solution? A systematic approach to data management. Retailers need a robust data platform that consolidates, cleans, and maintains data accuracy consistently.
That’s exactly where Insider steps in. Insider offers a unified data platform that ensures your customer data stays accurate, up-to-date, and actionable.
With Insider, retailers can:
- Centralize data from diverse sources such as website analytics, social media interactions, and customer feedback.
- Automate data quality checks to prevent errors before they impact customer communications.
- Gain comprehensive visibility into customer behaviors and preferences, with accurate segmentation and personalized experiences at every touchpoint.
Prioritizing data accuracy means your marketing automation efforts become precise, powerful, and genuinely effective. Ultimately, you end up achieving happier customers and stronger business outcomes.
2. Tailor messaging to behaviors and preferences
Effective retail marketing automation hinges on understanding and responding to the specific needs and behaviors of your customers. That’s where customer segmentation comes in.
By categorizing customers based on their behaviors, preferences, demographics, and psychographics, you can craft highly targeted and personalized messages that resonate.
The challenge, however, is keeping these segments dynamic, adapting to evolving customer behaviors. Shoppers today are constantly changing.
Rigid segmentation risks quickly becoming outdated. A robust automation platform like Insider helps you:
- Dynamically update segments in real-time as customer behaviors shift.
- Identify and respond to new customer needs quickly, and improve relevance and engagement.
- Leverage detailed insights from multiple channels to continuously refine segmentation and keep messaging sharp and effective.
With dynamic segmentation, your messaging stays consistently relevant. Results? Improved customer satisfaction, increased loyalty, and stronger overall marketing performance.
3. Adhere to data protection regulations
Retail marketing automation must adhere strictly to data protection regulations like GDPR, ensuring customer data is handled responsibly, transparently, and legally.
Noncompliance can result in severe penalties, lost customer trust, and lasting damage to brand reputation.
Here’s how best-in-class automation solutions like Insider ensure compliance:
- Explicit consent management. Automatically collect and manage clear and documented consent from customers. Thus, only willing recipients receive your communications.
- Transparent data usage. Clearly communicate how customer data is collected, used, and stored, i.e., building customer trust through transparency.
- Data minimization and accuracy. Collect only essential data, keeping it precise, and allowing easy updates from customers to maintain compliance and campaign effectiveness.
- Automated rights management. Easily manage data access, rectification, and deletion requests. This enhances customer experience, ensures legal compliance.
- Security and accountability. Protect customer data through advanced security measures, regular audits, and real-time breach detection. Making it easier to demonstrate accountability during compliance audits.
- Cross-channel consistency. Ensure uniform compliance across all marketing channels (email, SMS, social media, and more), creating a seamless and secure customer experience.
By prioritizing compliance, you build lasting customer trust and position your brand as responsible, reliable, and respectful of customer privacy. Ultimately securing long-term loyalty and success.
4. Run multivariate tests to optimize every element of your retail campaigns
A/B testing helps you understand exactly what resonates with your audience, whether it’s a subject line tweak or a full-blown journey change.
Take a simple welcome email, for example. You might want to test whether adding an emoji boosts open rates:
- Path A: “Welcome to Pets R Us! Discover the Best for Your Pet”
- Path B: “🐾 Welcome to Pets R Us! Discover the Best for Your Pet 🐶”
Trigger the test, split your audience, and track open rates, click-throughs, and conversions.
Over time, these small experiments compound into major wins, and fine-tune your campaigns based on what actually performs, not what you assume will.
But what if you no longer have to wait until after the test to learn what’s working?
It might sound like a dream, but with Insights Agent, it’s already happening.
These agents help you measure results and optimize them in real time. Additionally, they spot campaign risks and underperforming variants before they drag down performance.
With proactive triggers and anomaly detection, you can adjust campaigns on the fly and ensure your customer experience stays on point.
And once you’ve found a winning variant?
Insights Agent makes it easy to scale that success across journeys and channels. With the power of Agentic and Gen AI, Insights Agent helps you scale high-performing strategies and boost engagement—without lifting a finger.
Pair that with Insider’s A/B Testing Winner-Autoselection, and you can simply level up your optimization game.
5. Use predictive analytics to understand customer behavior
Success in the retail industry requires anticipating customer needs before they realize them. Predictive analytics moves beyond traditional reporting; it’s proactive and helps you strategize for future trends and behaviors.
If you’re working with a platform that offers AI-powered predictions, you’ll also get valuable predictive characteristics.
Such as likelihood to purchase, likelihood to engage on a specific channel, discount affinity, potential spending, and more.
With Insider’s predictive AI, you’ll get valuable insights like likelihood to purchase, channel engagement predictions, discount affinity, and projected customer spend.
These insights help you focus resources effectively. Your marketing hits the mark every time.
Our AI-powered predictive analytics gives you exactly that capability by:
- Forecasting demand: Predicting customer buying patterns accurately.
- Dynamic pricing: Automatically optimizing prices based on market demand.
- Personalized experiences: Crafting individualized recommendations that resonate deeply.
- Improving Operations: Reducing inventory waste and optimizing stock levels.
6. Regularly review and update your automation workflow
A big trap in marketing automation is the “set it and forget it” mindset.
Too often, teams build intricate workflows, then assume those automations will effortlessly run forever.
The problem? Markets evolve, customer preferences shift, and what worked perfectly last quarter can quickly lose its spark today.
The fix is simple but often overlooked: regular workflow audits.
When you pull your team into one central platform, collaboration gets smoother instantly. Marketing, product, and design teams see the same real-time information. Result? Everyone’s aligned, approvals happen quicker, and updates are transparent.
But simply unifying your team in one place isn’t enough; continuous optimization is key.
Regularly optimizing your automation strategy matters because market conditions never stay static. Audiences also move quickly. Competitors make moves, trends shift, and customer expectations evolve.
Along with that, marketing technology is keeping up with this drastic change. New tools appear regularly, bringing better features and efficiencies. Regularly checking in ensures your workflows stay in sync with current market demands.
Here’s how to keep your automation workflow relevant and efficient and maximize your ROI
- Review your KPIs often. Do regular check-ins to analyze engagement rates, conversions, and other critical metrics. Early detection of issues lets you pivot quickly and stay effective.
- Spot areas for improvement. Dig into the data when metrics dip. Identify what’s off – whether outdated messaging, stale audience targeting, or ineffective workflow logic.
- Make small, smart adjustments. Use insights from your reviews to tweak messaging, refine targeting criteria, or restructure nurturing sequences. Minor changes driven by data often yield major results.
- Test everything. Lean into A/B testing to validate new ideas. Experimenting with your content, timing, or audience segments helps you discover what truly resonates.
- Stay feedback-driven. Actively seek feedback from your team, customers, and industry experts. Use this feedback to refine your workflows and stay ahead of trends.
What sets Insider apart as the #1 retail automation solution
Retail marketing automation is crowded, confusing, and full of big promises.
But Insider stands apart by solving the three core challenges every retail marketer faces: fragmented data, clunky workflows, and personalization that’s hard to scale.
Our platform unifies customer insights from CRMs, CMSs, APIs, analytics tools, even offline sources to create rich, 360° customer profiles.
That means no more data silos, and no more guessing.
Insider is built for fast-growing mid-sized and enterprise retailers looking to automate and personalize across every touchpoint—from websites and mobile apps to email, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger, and more.
Powered by advanced AI segmentation, Insider predicts what your customers want, how much they’re likely to spend, the best channels to reach them, and who’s at risk of churning.
The result? Sharply targeted messaging that actually performs.
With automation across 12+ channels, Insider delivers personalized recommendations, timely promotions, and relevant reminders at scale.
And thanks to our library of pre-built templates, plug-and-play integrations, and hands-on support, launching campaigns is fast and painless with no IT bottlenecks or long ramp-up time.
Ready to see how Insider can simplify your marketing and drive real results?
Schedule a demo or explore our interactive demo hub to experience it for yourself.
