The state of retail communication: What consumers want and where the industry is going

Retail communication strategy needs to move fast if you want to keep pace. From high consumer expectations and never-ending touchpoints to technological shifts like the rise of artificial intelligence – blink and you’ll miss something. 

As a retailer, you aren’t just blasting out messages about the next sale. You’re personalizing experiences, updating customers on orders, and protecting privacy – all while providing helpful service and support on multiple channels. That’s a lot to keep in mind. So, is your retail brand keeping up? 

New research from Sinch reveals what consumers around the world want from retail communication as well as how the industry is adapting to change. 

In early 2025, Sinch conducted a global survey of 2,800 consumers to find out more about their preferences, expectations, and frustrations around the messages they receive from brands. We also surveyed over 400 business leaders in retail. 

Many of those findings are available in our report, The state of customer communications. However, we collected so many interesting insights, we’re shining the spotlight on retail in a dedicated report, The state of retail communications. 

We’ll explore key findings from the retail report in this article. First, we’ll look at what more than 400 retailers told us about how they’re approaching customer communication in 2025. 

Your role may put you in charge of a certain type of retail communication. Marketers are focused on engaging messages while operations try to keep customers informed, cybersecurity works to keep users safe, and support strives for satisfied customers. 

In the end, it all needs to work together as part of a retail communication experience. Let’s start with some of the roadblocks retailers are facing. 

When we asked hundreds of retail business leaders to select their three biggest customer communication challenges, cost emerged as the most significant problem.  

More than 40% of respondents selected the cost of customer communication as a challenge, and that makes sense. Retail brands must keep up with consumers who demand a connected experience across multiple channels. You can’t choose just one. You’ve also got to balance shrinking marketing budgets with communication strategies to control costs by making retail operations reliable and efficient. 

While all of this adds up, customer communication is a necessary cost of doing business.

A lack of personalization (35%) and integration challenges (34%) were the next biggest communication challenges. 

Retailers need to integrate communications with systems such as CRMs and billing. They may also need to integrate communication channels with customer-facing applications. Plus, to provide a cohesive customer experience, those channels should also be connected to each other. 

The state of retail communications reveals that, while more than half of respondents say they are “fully integrated,” improving integration is a 2025 priority for 46% of retailers.  

Lack of personalization can be challenging because people are no longer impressed with seeing their name in an email or text message. Sinch’s consumer survey results show us your customers expect more: 

Retailers must deliver highly relevant messages to shoppers while respecting the privacy of customers who’d rather not have their data used in this way. 

Opportunities to enhance retail personalization using AI are opening the door to even more personalized customer communications. But how are retail brands using AI, and are consumers ready for it? 

Sinch’s research found around 97% of retailers are already using AI in customer communications. Personalization is one of the top use cases for retail AI, but retailers are also using data and AI together in other ways: 

Artificial intelligence can also fuel conversational commerce in retail. Sinch’s survey findings show 96% of retailers use conversational commerce to support customer communication.  However, only 38% say they use an AI solution that acts as a personal shopping assistant. 

While our research suggests there is hesitation to interact with AI (especially among older generations), it’s clear that many shoppers see value in using AI chatbots that help them find what they really want. 

A combined 71% of consumers say they’d view product recommendations from a retail AI chatbot as helpful if the suggestions made sense. 

Consumers aren’t always this willing to engage with AI. Other survey findings suggest that only around 42% would feel comfortable interacting with an AI chatbot trained on brand’s support documentation. However, more than half of consumers would trust AI to give them shipping and delivery updates. 

Rich communications services (RCS) represent an emerging messaging protocol that could be a major opportunity in retail communication. That’s because RCS for Business lets brands deliver engaging, trustworthy messages directly to the native messaging app on consumer smartphones. 

For retailers, that could include anything from abandoned cart messages with suggested replies, to interactive, personalized shopping guides.

Sinch’s industry survey found 75% of retail respondents were familiar with RCS and its capabilities and more than half of those believe it will be a game-changer. However, the research also found that just 26% of retail brands are using RCS for customer communication. Results show 35% plan to adopt RCS as a channel in 2025. 

Awareness, enthusiasm, and usage of RCS in retail seem to be lower than other industries Sinch surveyed. For example, 49% of financial services respondents claim they are already using RCS, and 71% of technology industry respondents describe it as “game changing.” 

The somewhat lackluster retail results surprised many communication experts at Sinch. That’s because there are so many opportunities to use RCS to build trust and increase engagement among shoppers. We’ve had some impressive customer success stories in retail, including European retailer Picard, which saw a 42% increase in engagement with RCS for Business. 

An extremely effective tactic for improving retail conversion rates is the abandoned cart message. We asked consumers to select from three mobile message options and the majority said the RCS for Business version delivered the most engaging experience. 

While 54% of consumers chose the RCS abandoned cart message with an image carousel and suggested actions/replies as most engaging, less than a quarter selected the SMS or MMS options. 

The state of retail communications report includes findings that show you how to keep consumers engaged, informed, safe, and happy. 

That’s what Sinch calls “the four pillars of customer communication.” It’s a simple yet impactful framework that categorizes the ways you deliver meaningful messages throughout the customer experience: 

1. Engaged communications: These are the marketing messages, promotions, and personalized experiences that keep shoppers interested in your retail brand. 
2. Informed communications: These are the customer updates and transactional messages that let people know about orders, shipments, accounts, and more. 
3. Safe communications: These messages typically provide security and privacy by verifying account access through methods like one-time-passwords (OTPs). 
4. Happy communications: These include the conversations people have with customer service over digital channels. The messages answer questions and offer support before and after they make a purchase.

Marketing messages are a key component of the retail customer communication experience. From attracting first-time customers to encouraging repeat purchases, promotional messaging drives business results. 

Email continues to be a popular place to receive promotional communications. 77% chose their email inbox as an ideal place to receive promotions. While email is a common and convenient place for marketing communications, many consumers want to choose where they receive those messages. 

Sinch’s research shows 58% of people want the ability to select the best communication channel when they sign up to learn about deals from a retail brand. Plus, more than 1 in 10 consumers want to choose more than one channel for promotions. 

Sinch also asked consumers to rate how interesting (or engaging) they found different types of retail promotions. There were high levels of interest for all sorts of offers but these three options were most likely to be ranked as “very interesting.”

1. Free shipping (58%) 
2. Price drops (51%) 
3. Rewards/loyalty points (43%)

40% or more also found BOGO offers, coupon codes, and percentage discounts to be “very interesting.” Of course, every contact list of shoppers is different. Retailers should test offer types and messaging to find out what engages their customer base. 

Customer updates are part of retail operations and logistics that include important communications about order fulfilment, which keep consumers informed. 

Speed, deliverability, and accuracy are three key factors connected to reliable transactional communication. Here are some key takeaways from Sinch’s research: 

_{*Findings come from separate Sinch research on consumer preferences for Black Friday/Cyber Monday communication.}

Retailers are also turning to AI to help keep consumers informed. The retail industry survey revealed that close to 48% use AI to help deliver real-time shipping and delivery updates. This is a convenience many consumers want. 

That includes not just proactive communications powered by AI, but also the ability to ask an AI chatbot about the status of an order. More than half of global consumers trust AI to answer those types of questions accurately. 

Another aspect of informational communication addressed in the report is deliverability. Your customers won’t be informed if messages never reach them or land in spam. Ensuring good deliverability of customer updates is essential.

It isn’t just healthcare and financial accounts that need protecting. There is plenty of sensitive information behind the logins for online retail accounts and applications. Retailers must focus on fraud prevention as much as any other industry, and secure (?) customer communications can help keep people safe. 

The first line of defense against fraudulent activity involves verifying a customer before they log in. A username and password are no longer enough protection. That’s why many brands also use one-time passwords (OTPs), multifactor authentication (MFA), and other methods such as Sinch Flash Call®, which confirms users with an unanswered call to their smartphone. 

Even though these extra steps can sometimes be a hassle for people, most appreciate the protection. Our survey found nearly half (49%) of consumers say these verification measures make them feel safer. Another 27% call them a “necessary inconvenience.” 

Beyond verification messages, retailers need consumers to trust that their brand’s messages are safe to open and engage with. Yet, our study found 53% of consumers recall getting a message in the last year that seemed suspicious – even though it was legitimate. 

This is another area where RCS for Business will help. Verified senders can send mobile messages that prominently display their brand name, official logo, and a badge/checkmark confirming their identity.

Those elements do seem to increase trust in messaging among consumers. A combined 79% of global consumers say logos and checkmarks make them more likely to trust that a message is safe. 

Becoming a verified sender is the first step towards taking advantage of everything RCS for Business has to offer your retail communications. Find out how to set up your verified sender profile, step by step.

Retailers spend a lot of time acquiring and converting consumers. But the effort you put into providing service and support is also important if you want to earn trust and keep them coming back. 

Email often tops the list of preferred channels for brand communication. The percentage of consumers who prefer email for pre- and post-purchase support conversations, however, is smaller than preferences for promotions and updates. 

While 31% of respondents chose email as the preferred channel, live chat with a human representative (22%) and the voice channel or a call center with a live agent (19%) were the next two most popular options. 

Just 8% of consumers said they want to use a mix of channels for support. But in reality, this is often how it tends to happen. For example, a customer service issue could begin with a chatbot, get transferred to a live agent using the voice channel, and end up getting resolved via email. 

What’s most important to your customers is that they get the help and answers they need in a timely manner. What bothers your customers is having to repeat their problem every time they change communication channels. 

That’s more than 80% of consumers who’d have a decidedly negative reaction to rehashing information during support conversations. Only 5% said they wouldn’t mind doing so while 14% simply expect it to happen. 

Connecting retail communication channels helps you deliver a more cohesive and efficient support experience. That’s what omnichannel customer service is all about. Information flows seamlessly between AI chatbots and live agents as well as from channel to channel. And that’s an excellent way to keep people happy. 

If you’re wondering how your retail communication strategy can keep up with consumer demand and the latest technological developments, Sinch is ready to partner with you. 

Find out more about how Sinch’s solutions for retail can enhance your messages in meaningful ways. That could include an omnichannel support solution like Contact Pro, easy to implement verification APIs to keep customers safe, or engaging consumers with an AI-powered retail chatbot.