In its latest report co-authored by Gartner, Criteo brings the best practices and technology solutions marketers and retailers are utilizing to create a seamless, personalized customer experience.

Heightened customer expectations, declining loyalty, compressed margins and an explosion of consumer choice have created a viciously competitive digital commerce environment for retailers and marketers.

“Customer journey analytics might start with tracking users and optimizing customer experience across devices. However, the big challenge for marketers and retailers is connecting what’s happening in-store with what’s happening online to create a unified, seamless experience,” said Dirk Henke, Managing Director Eastern Europe & MEA, Criteo.

Criteo’s latest research on the ‘State of Cross Device Commerce’ found that more than half (52 percent) of online retail transactions in GCC now involve two or more devices. Therefore, retailers and marketers that are not equipped to follow their customers as they switch from desktop to smartphone and tablet only get a one-dimensional view of the customer journey.

Enhancing the insights, retailers and marketers have of their customers, demands a user-focused approach to emerging technologies. Technologies that enable brands to seamlessly recognize and personalize the engagement of each consumer across all their devices, apps and favorite websites will continue to define the frontiers of advancing holistic customer experience.

“The risks retailers and marketers face from operating in closed ecosystems and having only a fragmented view of their customers shopping journey goes far beyond not being able to optimize online campaigns – they also risk present competitiveness and future profitability,” added Mr Henke.

Gartner predicts that by 2020 smart personalization engines used to recognize customer intent will enable digital businesses to increase their profits by up to 15 percent.