5 Common Points of Friction in Retail (& How to Overcome Them)

The retail experience shouldn’t feel like a struggle… for your customers or your marketing team.

But it often does. Small points of friction add up fast: siloed systems, out-of-sync inventory, irrelevant campaigns. You spend time and budget crafting journeys that should work, only to lose customers somewhere between click and checkout.

If your goal is frictionless retail, you’re not alone. According to our latest AI in Retail Report, 44% of consumers say most of the marketing emails they receive aren’t relevant. And that’s just one example of the disconnect between what retailers deliver and what shoppers expect.

The good news? These points of friction are fixable, and in many cases, AI is already making that happen.

Here are five of the most common friction points in retail today, and how your brand can overcome them with smarter data, more connected journeys, and the right tools in place.

Your customers don’t think in channels. They shop wherever it’s easiest, whether that be browsing on their phone, researching on desktop, and making the final purchase in-store. 

When those experiences feel disconnected, it creates unnecessary friction.

• Disconnect 1: Maybe a shopper adds something to their online cart, heads to your store to try it on, and finds it’s out of stock. 
• Disconnect 2: Or they return a product in person, only to keep receiving emails promoting that exact item. 

These kinds of mismatched experiences make your brand feel impersonal and they chip away at trust.

To deliver frictionless retail, your systems need to work together. When your e-commerce platform, loyalty program, point-of-sale system, and marketing tools are integrated, every channel feels like part of the same journey.

Your customers want to feel understood. When your messages miss the mark, by showing the wrong products, arriving at the wrong time, or repeating something they already bought, it feels like you’re not paying attention.

According to our latest AI in Retail Report, 44 percent of consumers say most of the marketing emails they receive are not relevant. That’s a clear signal that basic segmentation is no longer enough. Customers expect personalized communication that reflects their behavior, preferences, and stage in the journey.

This is where AI makes a real difference. With the right data and automation in place, you can predict what customers want next and deliver it before they even ask. That means showing the right product to the right person, at the right time, and doing it at scale – true omnichannel marketing magic in action.

Nothing frustrates a customer faster than thinking a product is available, only to find out it isn’t. Throw a trip from their home computer to the store to buy the item into the mix, and that frustration only grows. Whether they are shopping online or checking local stock before visiting a store, your customers expect accurate, up-to-date information, so when that information is wrong or missing, it creates friction that can end the journey on the spot and lose you a long-term customer.

Real-time inventory visibility is essential for delivering seamless cross-channel experiences. Services like buy online, pick up in store, local pickup, or easy returns rely on your ability to track and sync inventory across every location.

Without that foundation, it becomes difficult to offer the kind of flexibility and convenience your customers expect.

Your customers expect support that feels personal, not generic. But when service teams lack access to complete customer data, the experience often falls short.

Imagine an online agent who can’t see your purchase history, recent returns, or loyalty status. Instead of resolving your issue quickly, they have to ask repetitive questions or escalate the case. What should be a smooth interaction turns into frustration, leaving customers feeling like just another ticket in the queue.

Modern customer service needs to be fast, consistent, and context-aware. That means connecting data across every touchpoint so agents have the full picture in front of them and can respond with empathy and precision.

When your customer, product, and campaign data live in separate systems, it becomes nearly impossible to create the kind of seamless experience your shoppers expect. These silos cause gaps in communication, inconsistent messaging, and irrelevant offers, all of which create friction.

What customers notice most is inconsistency. An offer that ignores their latest purchase, a recommendation that doesn’t fit, or a message that feels out of sync creates friction and undermines trust. Data silos are often the root cause of these disconnects.

So, how do you break down those silos? 

• Integrate your tech stack: Connect your commerce platform, POS, CRM, loyalty program, and service tools so they all speak the same language.
  Create a single customer view: Consolidate transactional, behavioral, and engagement data into one profile, accessible across departments.
• Automate with intelligence: Use AI to act on that unified data in real time, predicting intent, triggering relevant campaigns, and personalizing journeys at scale.
• Leverage open integrations: Choose a platform that can plug into your existing systems and centralize the data without requiring a full rebuild.

Learn how today’s leading retailers are closing the personalization gap, earning customer trust, and using AI to deliver faster, smarter, and more connected experiences. Get the insights and benchmarks you need to take engagement to the next level.