Shoppers are overwhelmed by modern shopping. Brands that personalize their experience in new and innovative ways will win their attention—and their business.
Brands are facing significant challenges in 2025:
- A third of shoppers are trying new brands, making customer loyalty harder to maintain.
- There are approximately six times as many brands vying for consumer attention on Shopify alone compared to 2019, according to data pulled from Shopify and BuiltWith.
- Three-quarters of consumers are abandoning their carts because they feel overwhelmed by options.
With growing competition and changing shopping behaviors, personalization is critical for success.
But delivering truly personalized experiences to every customer has remained out of reach for many brands. Manual segmentation and rule-based workflows can only take personalization so far.
We’re at an inflection point. Artificial intelligence has evolved to help brands scale personalization effectively, and Rich Communication Services (RCS) Business Messaging is poised to transform mobile messaging with richer, more interactive brand experiences directly in customers' text messages.
But how do consumers feel about all this? We asked 3,300 consumers across the US, UK, and Australia to find out what shoppers want from brands in 2025. The results reveal a clear desire for personalized experiences that adapt to individual needs—and when done effectively, these personalized approaches drive higher engagement, more conversions, and lasting customer loyalty.
The Consumer Trends Report: The State of Personalized Marketing in 2025 provides actionable insights on how brands can deliver the personalized experiences consumers want—and drive better business results in the process.
Here’s a sneak peek into three key findings from our research.
The future of marketing is true 1:1 personalization
Irrelevant marketing messages hurt your performance. 81% of consumers are likely to ignore marketing messages that aren't relevant to them, and 1 in 4 say receiving a generic message makes them less likely to purchase.
But consumers reward brands that deliver relevant experiences with increased purchases and loyalty.
When we asked consumers what makes them most likely to continue shopping with a brand, three factors rose to the top:
- The brand remembers their preferences.
- The brand makes relevant product suggestions.
- The brand remembers their past interactions.
What's more, 90% of shoppers want more personalized communications in some form than they're already getting, and 96% say they're likely to purchase when receiving at least one type of personalized message—like back-in-stock notifications, loyalty point reminders, or product recommendations based on their past purchases.
This highlights an opportunity for brands to increase engagement through personalization, but delivering these experiences at scale requires sophisticated technology.
Manual segmentation and rule-based workflows simply can't account for the full complexity of individual customer preferences. AI-powered solutions like Attentive AI™ can analyze vast amounts of customer, product, and brand data to tailor messages to each subscriber's unique interests, shopping history, and engagement patterns—making true 1:1 personalization finally possible.
Product discovery needs to be easier
Finding the right products should be effortless, but it's become a frustrating experience for shoppers.
Our research shows that finding products more easily is the #1 factor that would improve consumers’ shopping experience.
The solution extends beyond improving site navigation and adding search functionality. Consumers want brands to proactively help them discover relevant products based on their preferences and behavior.
When brands get this right, shoppers respond by opening their wallets:
- 77% of consumers say they're likely to purchase from a brand when they get relevant product recommendations
- 53% say product recommendations based on their shopping history is the most helpful type of non-promotional content they could receive
- 41% say finding exactly what they want without searching is the top factor that makes them likely to purchase
To deliver relevant product recommendations, brands need to activate their customer data. AI can amplify your efforts by predicting what products each customer is likely to want and surfacing it in relevant marketing messages. Conversational AI can supplement this by guiding product discovery through natural language.
And consumers are open to brands using AI to improve their shopping experience. 77% of all respondents—and 88% of Gen Z and Millennials—find value in AI-powered brand experiences. They say it makes finding products easier and simplifies shopping.
RCS will transform mobile messaging
A transformation to mobile messaging is coming—and consumers are eager for the enhanced shopping experiences on the horizon. RCS Business Messaging will transform how brands engage with subscribers by bringing app-like features to text messaging.
Text messages today are limited to basic text, images, and links. RCS will add more dynamic and useful brand interactions to text threads, allowing shoppers to:
- Swipe through curated product recommendations with carousels
- Add products to their cart with distinct CTAs
- Make purchases through an in-message browser
- Track orders with visual updates
- Chat with customer service through verified conversations
- Share preferences through interactive buttons
Our research shows consumers are ready for these enhanced capabilities. 95% of consumers expressed interest in at least one RCS Business Messaging feature, and 90% said they're more likely to make a purchase when interacting with at least one of these capabilities.
While RCS isn't widely available yet as of Q1 2025, early results are promising. Subway saw 140% more conversions during an early RCS campaign test compared to their SMS version.
Start mapping out how RCS can be incorporated into your long-term messaging strategy. Brands that prepare early will be well-positioned to deliver the enhanced experiences consumers want when RCS Business Messaging becomes more broadly available.
There’s more: Get all six key insights in the full report
Our research reveals clear opportunities for brands to transform their marketing through personalization, AI, and emerging technologies like RCS.
The full 2025 Consumer Trends Report contains even more data and context on the key insights we discussed, plus three additional insights:
- Earning customer trust is the prerequisite for delivering personalized experiences.
- Cohesive experiences across SMS and email drive impact.
- Right-timing maximizes engagement.
Learn what else consumers expect from brands in 2025: Download the full Consumer Trends Report: The State of Personalized Marketing in 2025 to get all six key insights and transform your marketing strategy.
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