The great retail consolidation of the last decade of the 20th Century and the resulting concentration for the field that now exists in 2025 created incredible efficiencies in scale as well as pricing and assortments unheard of in previous eras of fragmentation.
But it also created a sea of sameness that has plagued large retailers forced to create merchandise that appeals to the broadest audience -- and often the lowest common denominator. And while some larger retailers have talked about regionalization or localized merchandising the fact of the matter is that it had been more talk than realization.
That is, until now. Thanks to better data, the need to meet smaller customer bases that have bypassed their stores and even AI which gives them incredible technology that never existed before, companies across the retail landscape have gotten much better at personalization and individualization.
Here are just some of the things being done today in this field, though there are certainly many more examples.
- Amazon, which has been better than most at mining its customer purchasing data to make recommendations, is now testing a new initiative called Amazon Interests that uses generative AI to make recommendations based on the hobbies and activities of its customers, not just their purchases. Customers enter their interests under a new tab on their Amazon home page and then Amazon provides suggestions on products that might be fit. They can also get updates when new products that might be of interest show up. Amazon is expected to roll out Interests nationally later this year.
- Ikea is opening a new store in San Marcos, TX this spring, one of its smaller format locations that will feature a “local living” section of products tailored specifically to residents of the area. The giant Swedish home furnishings chain said the merchandise in the store will “reflect the unique everyday needs of the San Marcos community.”
- Golden Goose, the uber-trendy Italian footwear brand, has opened a new store in the equally-uber-trendy Meatpacking District in lower Manhattan that features a product personalization area called The Co-Creation Bar. Shoppers can pick patches, charms, pins, brooches, and other elements to personalize their pieces, and they can also distress, embroider, or even hand-paint their Golden Gooses. It’s the brand’s fourth store in the U.S., but the first to feature this personalization area. The Nike store uptown on Fifth Avenue also gives shoppers the opportunity to personalize their footwear on the spot, though not to this extent.
- The Vitamin Shop has opened shop-in-shop areas in five of its stores -- more are on the way -- that devote at least 200 square feet to merchandise from companies that are headquartered in or at least have strong presences in the same area. The CEO calls these shops “game changers.”
Changing the game or not, the movement to localize more stores is gaining momentum across a variety of sectors and product categories. The biggest retailers will continue to dominate and even get bigger. But at least some of them are learning how to play small-ball retail too.
