What is retail marketing automation?
Retail marketing automation helps brands use shopper data, AI, and campaign orchestration to deliver relevant engagement across ecommerce, in-store, loyalty and app channels, automatically and at scale.
Why Retail Marketers Are Under Pressure Today
70%
of online carts are abandoned, putting revenue at risk
81%
of younger shoppers switched brands, exposing fragile customer loyalty
86%
of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience, making poor experiences costly
What HCL Unica+ Solves for Retail
Explore below how HCL Unica+ helps retail marketing teams act across shopper journey stages, from acquisition and purchase conversion through repeat buying, loyalty, and retention.
Experience-Led Engagement
86%
of buyers are likely to pay more for better, more relevant customer experiences.
Make Every Shopper Interaction Worth Another Visit
Shoppers browse in-store, compare online, check availability, and read reviews before buying
As experience shapes every decision, generic engagement puts revenue at risk.
With Unica+, your teams can:
- Optimize shopper engagement in real time across store, app and web.
- Orchestrate adaptive journeys that respond to live behavior across every channel.
- Ask our AI assistant why performance shifted and get instant campaign recommendations.
Abandoned Cart Recovery
70.22%
average cart abandonment across online retail checkout journeys.
Recover Ready-to-Buy Shoppers Before Cart Intent Fades
Shoppers build baskets, compare options, and leave before checkout.
Recovery must trigger while purchase intent is still active.
With Unica+, your teams can:
- Spot cart intent early and trigger recovery journeys before shoppers leave.
- Launch recovery campaigns in minutes using proven, reusable templates.
- Optimize offers in real time by basket value and frequency rules.
Repeat Purchase Growth
50%
of e-commerce revenue can come from repeat customers, making retention a major growth lever.
Make the Next Reorder Feel Timely, Not Accidental
After the first purchase, customers enter a critical reorder window.
Timely follow-up turns one-time buyers into repeat revenue.
With Unica+, your teams can:
- Use behavioral segmentation to identify replenishment moments from purchase history.
- View the customer’s digital behavior and create real-time hyper-personalized triggers.
- Build journeys that recommend refills, bundles, or subscriptions per customer.
Loyalty-Led Revenue
81%
Gen Z and millennial shoppers switch brands regularly, raising the cost of weak loyalty.
Protect Loyalty Revenue Before Shoppers Switch Brands
Loyalty members can earn points and receive offers yet still switch brands.
Every interaction must reinforce a reason to stay.
With Unica+, your teams can:
- Use Segmentation Agent to find audiences by propensity and loyalty tier.
- Build loyalty journeys that adapt as shoppers browse, buy or disengage.
- Apply suppression, eligibility and frequency rules before every campaign goes live.
Trusted Data Activation
$4.45M
average cost of a data breach, making customer data governance essential for retail trust.
Activate Shopper Data Without Putting Trust at Risk
Retailers hold valuable data across loyalty, ecommerce, stores, and digital behavior.
Mishandling it threatens both customer trust and long-term value.
With Unica+, your teams can:
- Activate unified shopper data through CDP with consent and governance controls.
- Keep every campaign, journey, and real-time decision explainable and policy-aligned.
- Govern personalization across campaigns, journeys and real-time decisioning from one platform.
Walk Through Retail Customer Moments
Choose a focus area, explore real customer signals, and see how Unica+ turns each one into timely action.
Protect margin with HCL Unica+
Shopper viewed the same item 3 times, searched for a promo, but the margin is low.
When strong intent meets discount risk, HCL Unica+ applies shopper context, margin rules, and AI arbitration to protect conversion without unnecessary discounting.
Actions:
- Capture repeat-browse intent in real time
- Apply margin and inventory guardrails
- Test offer-free conversion paths first
- Use MaxAI Optimize Agent for arbitration
Recover checkout with HCL Unica+
A full-price basket reached checkout, but delivery cost was checked twice and pickup ignored.
When delivery costs block checkout, HCL Unica+ identifies the friction and guides shoppers towards a better fulfilment path before intent fades.
Actions:
- Detect delivery-fee hesitation during checkout
- Prioritise pickup and lower-cost fulfilment
- Surface eligible nearby store options
- Suppress unnecessary blanket discount offers
Guide purchase with HCL Unica+
Shopper compared 2 premium items, revisited reviews 3 times, but added neither.
When comparison signals reveal uncertainty, HCL Unica+ combines shopper context and product signals to guide a more confident purchase decision.
Actions:
- Identify comparison-stage behaviour across sessions
- Combine review, specification, and intent signals
- Deliver guided decision content automatically
- Let MaxAI Offer Agent rank options
Recover intent with HCL Unica+
Shopper checked local stock, entered store 2 hours later, but preferred variant was unavailable.
When store intent meets inventory friction, HCL Unica+ connects stock, location, and visit signals to keep the purchase journey moving.
Actions:
- Connect stock checks with store visits
- Confirm intent using consented location signals
- Offer ship-to-home or alternate stores
- Resume journeys after store exit
Save pickup revenue with HCL Unica+
Click-and-collect order was ready, but pickup slipped by 1 day with no reschedule.
When pickup stalls, HCL Unica+ detects the missed window and adapts the recovery journey to protect the order and customer experience.
Actions:
- Detect missed pickup windows automatically
- Offer rescheduling, lockers, or alternatives
- Stop reminders after confirmed pickup
- Let MaxAI Journey Agent adapt recovery
Extend in-store value with HCL Unica+
Shopper purchased in store, then searched matching items online that evening.
When store purchases and digital behaviour connect, HCL Unica+ activates relevant cross-sell journeys without over-contacting the shopper.
Actions:
- Unify POS and browsing signals
- Trigger relevant cross-sell journeys
- Apply consent and frequency guardrails
- Let MaxAI Creative Agent tailor variants
Protect loyalty value with HCL Unica+
Member is 1 purchase from upgrade, but a clearance campaign is still queued.
When a member approaches an upgrade, HCL Unica+ replaces conflicting promotions with loyalty-aware engagement that strengthens long-term value.
Actions:
- Detect approaching tier-upgrade thresholds
- Suppress conflicting clearance campaigns
- Prioritise next-tier benefit messaging
- Optimise contact frequency across channels
Grow replenishment revenue with HCL Unica+
The usual product is due for reorder, but the shopper viewed something new.
When reorder timing and new interest overlap, HCL Unica+ balances replenishment and discovery to grow repeat revenue.
Actions:
- Predict replenishment windows from purchase history
- Add live browsing and interest signals
- Launch refill-plus-discovery journeys automatically
- Let MaxAI Offer Agent balance paths
Reduce churn risk with HCL Unica+
High-value shopper is inactive 45 days, with emails unopened but push still allowed.
When a valuable shopper goes quiet, HCL Unica+ combines inactivity, value, and purchase context to select the strongest recovery path.
Actions:
- Combine inactivity and value-risk signals
- Add purchase and return context
- Shift outreach to preferred channels
- Let MaxAI Insights Agent explain risk
Proven Impact Across Retail Customer Journeys
x10
increase in transactions from abandoned cart engagement
+20%
boost in operating profit in a large US-based retailer
40%
conversion on cross-sell campaigns
*Outcomes indicative from early-adopter benchmarks
Trusted Perspectives
The age of random applications of AI, automation, and data is over, as customers and marketers alike have heightened expectations for engagement, rich with intentionality and notable outcomes. CMOs and their teams deserve marketing technologies that meet this new era of intelligence head-on with platforms that deliver context and understanding of both the customer and the business, drawing from data and insights from across the organization and across the digital and physical reality of the customer.”
Liz Miller
VP & Principal Analyst, Constellation Research
With HCL Unica+, we're entering a new era, one that enhances marketers' capabilities thanks to AI, all at the service of our customers' satisfaction. The change in UX/UI enables marketing teams to focus on the performance of their campaigns, with a global and efficient vision.”
Thomas RICOUX
Head of Marketing, Digital & Customer Relationship, MACIF - Leading French Insurance Company
HCL Unica+ is an extremely interesting evolution in the MarTech landscape. It represents a step change in the field of CX, a cutting-edge approach built on top of the most mature Marketing Automation platform ever created, designed by marketers for marketers.”
Timothy Biddiscombe
Chief Executive Officer, Purple Square
Ready to Turn Shoppers Into Loyal Customers?
