How Can Retailers Avoid Marketing Fatigue and Inspire Deeper Shopper Loyalty?

Marketing and loyalty are oftentimes intertwined for retailers, especially in an era where inboxes and SMS folders are overflowing with offers from dozens — if not more — of individual retailers and brands.

A comprehensive report issued by Optimove seeks to tackle questions surrounding marketing relevance in retail, as well as its impact on customer loyalty more broadly.

“Consumers do not reward brands for sending fewer messages. They reward brands for sending relevant ones,” the report authors begin.

“This report shows that relevance, not frequency, is the primary driver of purchase intent, trust, and long-term loyalty. When marketing aligns with customer needs and behavior, engagement increases, even as message volume rises. When it does not, value erodes quickly. Irrelevance and repetition actively destroy value. Customers interpret repeated or generic offers as a signal that a brand is not paying attention. The result is not just annoyance, but disengagement, opt-outs, and lost revenue. Tolerance for irrele-vant messaging does not translate into buying behavior,” they add.

Notable data points from the report include:

• Relevancy is necessary: More than half (57%) of those polled said that they get too many offers already, and therefor relevancy is key, while just over one-fifth (21%) indicated that they don’t mind if irrelevant offers are delivered, since it widens their purchase options. An overwhelming majority (89%) do end up buying from retailers that send multiple (yet relevant) offers, while just under two-thirds (65%) say the same about multiple irrelevant offers, a 24-point gap.
• Repetition can drive shoppers away (and to a competitor): A whopping 83% of those surveyed stated that they had unsubscribed from brands which had repeatedly sent offers “over and over,” while just under half (46%) suggested they were more likely to subscribe from retailers who put forth repeated promos for the same product. Other top reasons to unsubscribe reinforce this and the previous point — being spammed with generic content at 17%, being sent promos unrelated to a shopper’s interest or past purchases at 18%, and too much communication regardless of relevance (19%).
• It’s just bad timing, that’s all: Nearly all shoppers polled said that they experience poorly timed messages. And of these, a majority (53%) said they receive these from brands — perhaps surprisingly, political messages came in second place, at 35%. “Poor timing is one of the clearest signals that a brand isn’t operating with real-time data. Even if the right message loses impact if it arrives at the wrong moment, for instance, after purchase, mid-issue, or disconnected from the original intent,” the authors note.
• Personalization — creepy or incitement to buy?: Pretty interest divide here, with personalized recommendations from brands in messaging eliciting a 68% endorsement from respondents, who said they were more likely to buy after getting these sorts of messages in their inboxes. By contrast, just 12% said there was a decreased chance of a buy after getting a customized message. Pulling back to a broader view, 60% of shoppers see personalization as generally helpful, while just under a quarter (22%) describe it as “creepy.”

“In today’s environment, loyalty is not emotional affinity alone; it is behavioral economics,” said Pini Yakuel, founder and CEO of Optimove, in a press release.

“Consumers reward brands that respect their time and attention with relevance. When communication is accurate and intentional, loyalty becomes a revenue multiplier. But when brands default to messaging volume, they accelerate churn. The brands that win will be those that orchestrate every interaction with context and discipline,” he added.