Australia – Australian retailers are accelerating investments in AI, personalisation and retail media, but many still lack the customer data foundations needed to turn those ambitions into real-time customer experiences, according to new research.
The Inside Digital & eCommerce 2026 report from Arktic Fox, Six Degrees Executive, and Amperity found that while 89.1% of retailers consider personalisation strategically important, only 10% believe they have the mature capabilities needed to deliver it effectively.
Just 12% said they were fully confident their customer and product data foundations were ready to support AI-driven use cases.
The report, based on responses from more than 100 Australian marketing, digital, ecommerce and retail media leaders, points to a widening gap between AI ambition and execution readiness.
“Retailers and brands understand where the market is heading, particularly as AI reshapes how consumers discover, evaluate and purchase products,” said Teresa Sperti, Director, Arktic Fox. “However, many organisations are still operating across fragmented customer data, disconnected systems and siloed teams, making it difficult to turn customer signals into connected, real-time engagement.”
More than 80% of retail leaders said their identity resolution and single customer view capabilities are still developing, while 73.3% described their martech and data ecosystems as only partially integrated.
The challenges extend to omnichannel experiences. According to the report, 83.7% of retail leaders said their ability to enable seamless movement across channels remains underdeveloped, while 77.1% reported immature capabilities in delivering integrated fulfilment and returns experiences.
Retailers identified AI-powered product content creation, search optimisation and AI-driven personalisation as top priorities over the next 12 to 18 months.
Meanwhile, 57.8% plan to invest in customer data platforms, making CDPs the sector’s leading martech investment priority.
The report also highlighted growing concerns around retail media measurement. While 52.9% of consumer brands plan to increase retail media spending in the coming year, only 4.9% said they have high trust in retail media networks, and 73.2% cited difficulties measuring return on investment.
“Brands are under growing pressure to prove business impact, but many still struggle to connect digital engagement, in-store behaviour and customer outcomes in a consistent and privacy-safe way,” said Billy Loizou, Area Vice President for Asia Pacific at Amperity.
The findings suggest that while retailers are moving quickly to adopt AI and prepare for emerging trends such as agentic commerce, many still need to address fragmented data and measurement challenges before they can fully deliver on those investments.
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