5 ecommerce personalization trends to watch in 2025

In the last decade, ecommerce has transformed the retail world.

Previously, businesses relied on face-to-face interactions and repeat customers for sales. Today, in the age of online shopping, businesses need innovative ways to stand out and build personal connections with their customers.

By delivering relevant, targeted content and experiences, businesses can boost conversion rates, increase order values, and strengthen customer loyalty. But what's the most effective approach?

We’ve rounded up some of the top trends in ecommerce personalization to help you understand what to look out for and how to best connect with your customers in 2025.

What is ecommerce personalization?

Ecommerce personalization is the process of tailoring the online shopping experience to individual customers. This can be done in a number of ways, like displaying personalized product recommendations or targeted messages based on customer behavior, browsing history, and previous purchases.

Understanding these customer needs and preferences helps businesses create a seamless shopping journey and relevant digital experience that drives higher conversion rates, increases average order value, and builds lasting customer loyalty.

1. Omnichannel ecommerce personalization

Omnichannel ecommerce has evolved from a nice-to-have into an essential strategy for building lasting customer relationships. Whether they’re completing the purchase online or in-store, customers expect unified experiences across platforms.

But what exactly is omnichannel ecommerce personalization?

It means delivering personalized experiences across all channels — websites, SMS, email, in-store, mobile, and more. This includes tailored product recommendations, personalized offers, customized emails, targeted advertisements, and beyond. The result is a cohesive customer experience that feels personal at every touchpoint.

Composable content platforms like Contentful power omnichannel experiences by separating the frontend (presentation layer) from the backend (content and data) systems. This allows businesses to personalize content for each user without the need to create separate landing pages for different audiences or visitors. For example, you can use data from your CRM, CDP, data warehouse, or other platforms to display relevant products, exclusive discounts, content, and messaging that align with previous interactions.

2. Privacy-first personalization

As people become more conscious and intentional about the brands they interact with online, shoppers prioritize those they can trust with their personal information. They carefully consider data collection methods and how companies use their personal data. This has led to the emergence of privacy-first ecommerce personalization.

This approach relies on zero-party and first-party customer data — information submitted directly by users with their full consent, rather than purchased from third-party sources. This method enhances privacy protection and improves accuracy since customers provide the data themselves.

Privacy-first companies focus on collecting only essential data needed for personalization. This approach protects customer privacy while building trust and loyalty.

Anonymous visitor personalization is gaining momentum as another privacy-focused strategy. It personalizes the shopping experience without requiring account creation or login. By understanding visitor behavior and preferences across multiple channels, retailers can provide relevant personalized experiences to increase purchase likelihood.

Privacy remains a top priority for customers in 2025. Ecommerce businesses that deliver secure, personalized experiences using only necessary data will build stronger customer relationships.

3. Continuous optimization

Like other marketing strategies, personalization works best with ongoing refinement. Experiments, A/B tests, audience insights, customer interactions, and evolving marketing goals shape your personalization success, making continuous improvement essential.

However, analyzing, monitoring, and adjusting campaigns and experiments traditionally requires significant time and resources.

As AI and machine learning become more capable and accessible, continuous optimization becomes more automated. AI-native personalization platforms like Ninetailed analyze large datasets and create feedback loops that automatically refine experiments and personalized experiences based on interactions, audience insights, and experiences. This ongoing optimization provides additional context for personalization, improving efficiency and effectiveness.

In 2025, with AI advancement and changing customer expectations, ecommerce brands must prioritize continuous optimization of their personalization efforts.

4. Price personalization

Price personalization involves testing and personalizing product pricing strategies. This includes evaluating different price points, testing design elements like fonts and sizes, determining optimal pricing placement in the customer journey, and running targeted promotions. Companies use customer purchase history, browsing behavior, and other data points to segment their audiences for price personalization. This helps businesses optimize their pricing structure and offer personalized deals that encourage purchases.

While price personalization presents challenges in setup and management, and requires careful consideration to avoid customer concerns about differential pricing, it can effectively drive sales and strengthen customer loyalty when implemented thoughtfully.

5. Image personalization

As ecommerce continues to grow, businesses are looking for new ways to personalize the shopping experience and stand out from the competition. While personalized written content, like call to actions, copy, and product recommendations are effective ways to better connect with customers, image personalization is a great way to set brands apart from the rest.

Image recognition technology allows companies to identify specific colors and patterns within product images. They can then personalize visual elements like banners and product photos to resonate with their audience. Common applications include:

• Using customer photos for personalized product pages,

• Adding complementary images to product recommendations, or

• Offering visual search tools for image-based product discovery.

With generative AI, businesses can enhance their image personalization efficiently. Rather than coordinating photoshoots or manually editing visuals for different segments, companies can use GenAI tools to easily create and adapt images for personalization campaigns. Some applications include:

• Displaying products on location-specific backgrounds,

• Creating multiple promotional banner variants for testing, or

• Showing different product views based on the customer's journey stage.

While generative AI's personalization potential continues to expand, one thing is clear: image personalization will become more prevalent and effective as AI tools evolve.

The future of ecommerce personalization

As we move through 2025, personalization will continue to play a major role in ecommerce. From privacy-conscious data practices to AI-powered optimization, the tools and strategies for creating personalized experiences are more sophisticated and accessible than ever. By embracing these trends, businesses can build stronger connections with their customers and stay competitive in an evolving digital marketplace.

The key to success lies not just in adopting these technologies, but in using them thoughtfully to create meaningful, trustworthy experiences that truly serve customer needs. As personalization capabilities advance, the businesses that focus on balancing innovation with customer trust will be best positioned to thrive.

Get in touch with sales to learn how to deploy ecommerce personalization at scale with Contentful and Ninetailed.

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