This combination of needing to quantify and prove return, and that return needing to be immediate, is what prevents something much slower to attribute, such as customer loyalty or engagement, from really getting off the ground.

Personalisation improves customer experience. However, because it is a slower form of measurement, the money is invested more at the top of the funnel than at the bottom.

“What happens when you [invest in data collection] is the percentage of identified customers goes up dramatically. That opens up a whole range

“Unless a customer has a long-standing relationship with the retailer that is trustworthy and loyal, they will be reluctant to give them anything, even their email address.

personalisation measurement is imbalanced in favour of the organisation because revenue is the most frequently cited benefit and so brands expected that

For brands, they feel as though every last individual needs tracking to the nth degree, with all their preferences needing to be understood, and then, and only then, can brands say they are personalising.

as Alex Williams of M&S pointed out to me: “If a customer spends more with you (in a retail context specifically), isn’t this creating value for them?”

Customers want personalisation, that much is true; we’ve been down that road. But customers are downright sceptical about providing their data to be personalised with. This inner conflict creates what the industry commonly refers to as the “Personalisation-privacy Paradox”.

When I asked the majority of CEOs and business leaders why they can’t reach the personalisation paradise we all see in our dreams, data and technology seemed to come out on top.