Holiday Loyalty for Retailers: AI-Powered Mobile Strategies for Black Friday & Beyond

For retail businesses, the holiday season — and Black Friday in particular — represents one of the most critical times of the year. During this period, brands are offered a  unique opportunity to engage a large volume of shoppers, many of whom are fixed in the conversion mindset and actively looking for the best deals from favourite and new brands. 

However, the value of the holiday season stretches beyond this initial sales spike – it’s an invaluable time to foster loyalty that extends well into the new year and beyond. According to recent research by SAP Emarsys, half of US consumers will stay loyal to the brands they purchase from during Black Friday. This means that a successful holiday strategy can turn first-time buyers into repeat customers, building a foundation for long-term growth.

If your brand wants to capitalize on this potential, you need a mobile-first, personalized, and omnichannel approach. In this article, we’ll share key insights into how you can use omnichannel mobile to reach your customers wherever they are, with memorable experiences that keep them coming back. 

Creating an omnichannel holiday marketing strategy

For holiday shoppers, the experience matters just as much as the deals. This holiday season, your customers expect seamless connections across physical and digital touchpoints — whether they’re browsing on a website, using a mobile app, engaging on social media, or visiting one of your stores. 

With an omnichannel holiday marketing strategy, you can create a unified experience that ensures every interaction feels connected and consistent.

A strong omnichannel experience means customers can switch between channels effortlessly. For instance, a customer might discover a product on Instagram, add it to their cart via the mobile app, and complete the purchase in-store. By integrating your data and synchronizing all touchpoints, your brand can make it easy for customers to pick up where they left off, without losing their place or encountering disruptions.

Key strategies for building an omnichannel experience:

• Seamless navigation and checkout: Prioritize easy-to-navigate mobile and online interfaces with streamlined checkout processes, making shopping quick and convenient on any device.
• Consistent branding and messaging: Maintain a cohesive brand voice and visuals across platforms, from in-app notifications to social media, reinforcing a strong brand presence.
• Personalized engagement: Use data to deliver tailored experiences across channels. This could mean offering product recommendations based on recent searches or providing exclusive in-store offers based on previous online interactions.

Creating a unified, personalized experience like this makes your shoppers feel recognized and valued at every step, helping you to win their trust, drive sales, and foster long-term loyalty. 

While omnichannel holiday marketing strategies are powerful, they require strong data and technology integration. For more insights into overcoming common challenges, check out The Omnichannel Guide to Retention & Loyalty.

Mobile apps have become an essential touchpoint for retailers, especially during high-stakes shopping events like Black Friday. 

The numbers are there to back it up, too. SAP Emarsys research shows that 55% of consumers use mobile apps for their Black Friday shopping, making mobile-first engagement a key driver for retail success. By investing in mobile-first strategies for your holiday marketing, you get a direct line to your customers that’s available anytime, anywhere, allowing for seamless, real-time interactions.

However, engaging customers through mobile apps goes beyond accessibility. It’s about creating relevant experiences that resonate with their unique interests. 

By offering exclusive incentives, personalized offers, and a streamlined purchasing process, your brand can create high-value interactions that encourage shoppers to return. Data shows that 69% of shoppers are more likely to use an app if offered rewards, and 49% would increase usage if they receive personalized messages. This means that incentives and personalization aren’t just bonuses — they’re essential for customer retention in the mobile space.

Your customers want to feel seen, and they want their individual preferences to be understood and acted upon.

For this reason, personalization is a powerful tool for building customer loyalty. With AI-driven technology, your brand can deliver tailored experiences that resonate with individual customers, standing out from competitors and fostering long-term relationships. 

According to SAP Emarsys research, 26% of consumers express greater loyalty to brands that personalize their marketing to reflect personal preferences. By using AI to drive these interactions, brands can create deep, lasting connections that go beyond the holiday season.

Key tactics for AI-powered personalization:

AI enables brands to implement a range of effective personalization strategies, such as:

• Personalized product recommendations: Suggest products based on each customer’s browsing history and previous purchases.
• Tailored offers: Deliver holiday deals relevant to the customer’s shopping habits, like curated electronics discounts for tech-savvy shoppers or seasonal promotions on apparel for fashion enthusiasts.
• Real-time customer segmentation: Group customers based on behavior, preferences, and interactions, allowing for targeted and timely messaging.

These tactics ensure each customer receives a relevant experience, showing that the brand understands their unique interests and values them individually.

The value of data-driven customer engagement

AI-powered customer segmentation goes a step further by helping brands engage customers in real time, based on their specific behaviors and preferences. By analyzing purchase history and browsing patterns, AI enables you to anticipate customer needs. You can send both timely product recommendations aligned with each customer’s shopping habits, and relevant promotions based on real-time interactions and interests.

Data-driven approaches like this not only increase customer engagement and conversions during the holiday season, but also build the foundations for long-term loyalty. Why? Because customers are more likely to return to brands that deliver meaningful, personalized experiences at every touchpoint.

For many brands, Black Friday isn’t just about driving higher sales volumes — it’s an opportunity to turn first-time buyers into loyal, repeat customers. By implementing ongoing customer engagement strategies, retailers can nurture relationships with Black Friday shoppers long after the initial purchase, ultimately fostering long-term loyalty.

Post-purchase email campaigns

A powerful way to maintain momentum is through post-purchase email campaigns. These follow-up emails keep customers engaged with content that:

• Thanks customers for their purchase
• Invites feedback to show you value their opinion
• Offers complementary product suggestions based on recent purchases

This approach not only keeps the brand top of mind but also enhances the post-purchase experience – an essential step to building trust and encouraging future purchases.

Personalized product recommendations

Personalized product recommendations are another effective tactic for engaging customers after Black Friday. By analyzing a shopper’s purchase history and browsing data, your brand can send:

• Tailored recommendations that align with their preferences
• Exclusive offers that feel relevant and timely

Data-driven, personalized recommendations like these keep your customers engaged and make it more likely they’ll return to your brand for future purchases.

Loyalty programs

Finally, implementing a loyalty program can be an impactful way to reward Black Friday shoppers and keep them engaged throughout the year. A well-designed loyalty program can:

• Offer exclusive perks, rewards, and discounts
• Provide early access to future sales
• Encourage customers to become brand advocates

Loyalty programs give customers additional reasons to choose your brand, increasing their lifetime value and reducing churn.

As Black Friday brings in a surge of customer data, brands can capitalize on these insights to create meaningful, data-driven experiences throughout the customer lifecycle. By continuously engaging with customers through personalized interactions and targeted offers, brands can turn holiday buyers into loyal, year-round customers.

Looking for examples to inspire your holiday marketing strategy? Discover how these leading brands are leveraging innovative tactics to win customers – and keep them coming back:

ALDO: Fashioning a unified omnichannel experience

Challenge: ALDO, a global fashion retailer, needed a cohesive omnichannel strategy to meet evolving customer expectations and provide a seamless experience across all touchpoints.

Solution: By integrating SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement and SAP Commerce Cloud, ALDO unified its e-commerce, in-store, and mobile platforms. This integration offered real-time inventory visibility and a 360-degree view of customer interactions, enabling personalized marketing across channels.

Results: ALDO achieved a consistent and tailored customer experience, fostering increased loyalty during peak shopping periods like Black Friday as customers engaged with the brand across multiple touchpoints.

[Read their story]

Feel Good Contacts: Enhancing customer retention through personalization

Challenge: Feel Good Contacts, a UK-based online retailer for contact lenses and eyewear, set out to improve customer retention and engagement, especially through mobile.

Solution: Partnering with SAP Emarsys, Feel Good Contacts implemented automated, personalized customer journeys — such as welcome sequences and abandoned cart reminders. The brand also integrated mobile app engagement as a key focus.

Results: Feel Good Contacts saw a 26% year-over-year revenue increase from these personalized campaigns. Additionally, 24% of monthly orders were placed through the mobile app, demonstrating the effectiveness of a mobile-first strategy in building customer loyalty.

[Read their story]

As the holiday season approaches, the opportunity to create lasting customer relationships has never been greater. To stand out in a crowded market, brands must prioritize mobile-first engagement, personalized offers, and seamless omnichannel consistency.

Whether through tailored promotions, omnichannel shopping experiences, or loyalty programs, the key to success lies in creating a unified, customer-centric approach.

Now is the time to evaluate your holiday marketing strategies. With Emarsys, you can implement personalized, AI-powered campaigns that drive customer loyalty and ensure your brand remains top-of-mind throughout the year. Take the first step towards building long-term success this holiday season by exploring Emarsys solutions today.