Marketing campaign calendars built around what brands want to say have become increasingly disconnected from what customers actually want to hear. The traditional campaign calendar assumes customers follow a neat, linear path that aligns with our marketing messages. But the truth is, they don’t.
Despite the promise of AI and innovative tooling to transform customer data into meaningful experiences, most retailers still operate like campaign factories. We’re still seeing teams churn out endless creative briefs and design iterations that don’t deliver results on customer engagement.
In fact, the average revenue per message for these batch-and-blast campaigns sits at just 4 cents. Compare that to automated, event-triggered journeys pulling in 94 cents per message. That’s a 23x difference we can’t ignore anymore.
At the end of the day, batch campaigns aren’t just an inefficient chase for revenue; they’re a major driver of burnout among both audience and teams. The good news is that agentic AI can now absorb the busywork and help marketing teams scale true 1:1 personalization.
At Iterable, we work with major retailers making the transition from campaign-based to moments-based marketing. The shift represents a complete rethink of how retail marketing operations function.
The question I discussed in the webinar, Beyond the Batch: How Retailers Are Moving to Intelligent, Event-Driven Messaging, isn’t whether to make this change, but how quickly you can adapt to it.
Embracing Intelligent, Event-Driven Journeys in Retail
Does this sound familiar? You spend months building a Black Friday and Cyber Monday campaign only to watch the launch underwhelm. The cadence is fixed, the messages are the same for everyone, and real signals such as price-drop interest or repeat browse spikes get ignored because they don’t fit the schedule.
The result is fatigued audiences, burned-out teams, and mediocre lift. It’s time to scrap the static calendar and start again with a responsive, behavior-led plan that adapts in the moment rather than waiting for Monday.
“When you’re working through a blast calendar, it’s a new project every week, every day.”
~ Matt Feuer, Director of Retention, The Maze Group
Here’s the thing: Blasting more messages might drive a minor boost in short-term revenue, but at what cost? Customers are churning at record rates based on impersonal and high-frequency messaging from brands—meaning LTV is declining. In moments-based marketing, we set up intelligent journeys once.
Look at Fabletics. We helped them design a simple welcome journey that evolves based on customer engagement. Here’s how it works: A customer takes a product quiz through our platform that shows they’re looking for new running shorts. The system captures those preferences instantly and, instead of blasting a generic “50% off” message, sends a personalized notification about those shorts they’ve been eyeing. We can also direct them to a physical store where the item is actually available. It’s a full omnichannel engagement.
Intelligent systems that recognize where customers are in their journey and respond accordingly drive huge efficiency gains. Instead of constantly reinventing the wheel, retail teams can ultimately focus on optimization and learning.
Why Fear of Change is Stalling Retail Growth (and How to Get Unstuck)
Clinging to legacy platforms might feel safe, but it keeps growth out of reach. These legacy systems often have complex and technical intricacies that make it difficult to uncouple.
The real fear among retailers is more about losing time. A slow, brittle implementation stalls growth for quarters, which is why some teams choose to stay with the “devil they know.”
But modern martech has evolved dramatically. Today’s platforms offer composable solutions with schemaless data ingestion so you see value in months, not years. Iterable implementations, for example, start driving results in about 3–6 months.
My suggestion is that you should look for marketer-friendly tools that simplify data pipelines and reduce complexity, both of which will enable a smoother migration.
Overcoming the Barriers to 1:1 Retail Engagement
Personalization is a widely used buzzword, but retailers struggle to execute it at scale due to both tangible and intangible barriers. With a platform that leverages agentic capabilities to deliver scalable personalization that tackles both, you can hit the moments-based sweet spot with personalized campaigns based on real-time data.
Tangible Roadblocks: Unifying Data and Enabling Real-Time Action
| Data Silos | Solution |
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Customer information remains scattered across platforms. For example, purchase history could be in one system and email engagement somewhere else entirely. Accessing both requires engineering intervention and limits marketers’ agency. |
The answer here isn’t another customer data platform that creates yet another silo with duplicate storage costs and maintenance. You need a platform with seamless data activation that unifies information from any source instantly. |
| Lack of Real-Time Data | Solution |
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Legacy systems compound this problem by lacking real-time data processing capabilities. By the time batch processes run overnight, the moment has passed, and customers have moved on. |
Modern cloud-native architecture enables instant decisioning based on current behavior, not yesterday’s data. |
Intangible Hurdles: Framework, Transparency, and the ‘Creepy Line’
| Lack of a Framework | Solution |
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Too many retail marketing teams operate without a true north star when it comes to personalization. Personalization isn’t just about using dynamic fields or first names—it’s about relevance, timing, and utility. Without a structured approach, teams default to surface-level tactics that feel generic, not genuine. |
Start with a maturity assessment. Run a quick audit of your program to evaluate your gaps and pain points. For example, if > X% of messages are still batch-and-blast and revenue leans on one-off campaigns, begin by building the data foundation. Then prioritize the next steps, such as real-time behavioral triggers, decisioning, and finally agentic orchestration. |
| The “Creepy Line” | Solution |
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We’ve all felt it: that moment when a brand knows just a little too much. The “creepy line” is that invisible boundary where personalization shifts from helpful to intrusive. And it’s not just a gut feeling—research shows customers will disengage if a brand crosses it. |
Transparency is your best defense. Build personalization on signals your customers willingly provide, like actions they’ve taken, preferences they’ve shared, or values they’ve signaled. And most importantly, ensure every message delivers clear value. If it doesn’t help the customer, it’s probably helping you too much. |
Answering Your Top Retail Marketing Questions
How do I know if my team is ready for moments-based marketing?
Start by assessing the health of your marketing data. Clean, real-time behavioral data is the foundation of moments-based marketing. Audit your data hygiene, identity resolution, and event tracking to ensure you’re capturing the signals that matter. If your team can activate these signals through dynamic segmentation and triggered workflows, you’re ready to move beyond batch-and-blast.
What makes moments-based marketing possible at scale, and why now?
The answer is agentic marketing. Agents take autonomous action on behalf of the marketer, based on predefined rules or predictive models. They leverage user behavior and historical data to make real-time decisions, such as who to target, when to send, what channel to use, and how to optimize engagement. Iterable’s agentic intelligence (Nova) is embedded directly into the platform to execute complex tasks—like suppressing unengaged users, adjusting send times, or routing through the right channel—autonomously in the moment when it matters most. This is the fundamental shift from tools that require constant setup to systems that operate on intent.
What are some good KPIs for measuring AI impact?
To measure AI effectiveness, go beyond traditional metrics like open and click rates. Track your automation rate (percent of triggered vs. batch messages), model accuracy (predictive scores, churn models, etc.), and efficiency metrics like time saved on content generation or targeting. AI’s true power lies in increasing both customer relevance and team productivity.
Retail’s Moment Is Already Here
The old-school campaign calendar can’t keep up with today’s consumer expectations. Modern shoppers don’t wait for launch dates—they act on impulse, context, and need. That’s why moments-based marketing isn’t a future trend—it’s the new competitive baseline.
The real question isn’t if you’ll adopt it. It’s how soon you’ll build the infrastructure to lead. The brands winning today aren’t just launching campaigns—they’re building systems that recognize and respond to every signal, in real time.
| Ready to make the shift? Check out The New Era of Moments-Based Marketing for a complete guide on evolving old retail marketing approaches into personalized cross-channel experiences. |
