How AI Is Transforming Personalisation Into Individualisation
As customers expect more from the shopping journey — across lifestyle, luxury, beauty and fashion — brands are using automation to create more relevant, individualised experiences. BoF sits down with Klaviyo’s CMO Jamie Domenici to explore how brands can move beyond standard personalisation.
In an era of economic uncertainty, fashion and beauty brands are increasingly focusing on making customers feel recognized and valued, in order to stand out in a crowded market. According to Klaviyo's The Future of Consumer Marketing 2025 report, 74% of consumers expect personalized experiences from brands, while 66% desire to feel understood.
These expectations elevate the bar for brands from simply acknowledging a customer to truly understanding their individual preferences. In the luxury segment, established US clients particularly value VIP memberships and loyalty programs, as highlighted in BoF and McKinsey & Co's The State of Fashion: Face to Face With Luxury Clients 2026 report.
The challenge for brands lies in recreating that personalized touch at scale, especially as consumers seamlessly transition across channels such as social media, brand websites, email, apps, and in-store interactions. A one-size-fits-all approach to customer relationship management (CRM) is no longer sufficient. Brands must now comprehend the individual behind the data and employ this knowledge to shape every consumer touchpoint.
Jamie Domenici, chief marketing officer at CRM platform Klaviyo, emphasizes the importance of capturing all customer data and interactions, stating, "You need to know your customers for a lifetime."
AI proves most effective when grounded in robust customer data. Klaviyo's latest product connects data across platforms and AI tools, enabling brands to transition from personalization to individualization. The next generation of AI-powered CRM focuses on using data and automation to provide the right experience or content to the individual at the right time and through the right channel, fostering a genuine emotional connection between the brand and the customer.
As the BoF-McKinsey report indicates, emotional connection is the primary driver of luxury desirability in both the US and China.
To delve deeper into the shift from broad personalization to personalized individualization, BoF interviewed Domenici regarding how Klaviyo assists brands in creating more meaningful touchpoints using AI. Domenici explains that while campaigns and segments have been used for years to deliver targeted messages, they still lack true one-to-one personalization.
Individualization, on the other hand, aims to create campaigns tailored to the individual, utilizing AI to understand when a customer is likely to buy, their purchase history, and preferences. By leveraging this information, brands can act swiftly and at an individual level, marking a significant shift from traditional personalization methods.
Written by urgent.news from Business of Fashion's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.