You’ve talked about taking a multi-pronged approach to personalisation at Sainsbury’s. Can you explain what that looks like in practice?

Absolutely. For us, personalisation is about delivering real value to customers across different parts of the business. On the food side, we’re already bringing that to life with millions of Your Nectar Prices weekly at Sainsbury’s. But our brands across the group face different challenges in each vertical and we need to consider this when defining what personalisation needs to look like.

That’s why we focus on customer obsession as a core principle throughout the business. We connect our insights and analytics teams with our technology and CRM functions, trading and commercial with customer data and digital marketing. By working together, we can plan the right level of personalisation for customers. At the heart of this is centralising our data. Once you do that, you can use it to create a consistent customer experience – whether that’s through inbound or outbound channels. The strategic partnership we kicked off with Microsoft last year is a prime example of how we’re thinking about elevating customer experiences through data and collaboration. It’s a journey, but it’s one we’re committed to.

How have you aligned technology and engineering with this personalisation agenda?

Since joining Sainsbury’s Argos, one of the big shifts I’ve been fortunate to participate in has been closer alignment between Tech and Marketing. It’s not just about building things quickly, it’s about being clear on why we make certain decisions, whether we build or buy solutions and ensuring the right stakeholders are engaged right from the start.

We’ve set up targeted cross-functional steering groups, which really helps us focus on customer outcomes and make expedient decisions. That collaboration has been key in overcoming barriers that used to slow us down.

Loyalty is obviously central to your strategy, especially with the Nectar scheme. How do you approach loyalty differently across your businesses?

You can’t apply a blanket approach. Nectar is incredibly strong with Sainsbury’s and Argos, but the frequency of shopping and the rationale for shopping are very different between the two.

Loyalty has to go beyond points or discounts. It comes from customers feeling that they’re getting what they need from us. With Sainsbury’s, we have a deep understanding of what customers want and that creates strong engagement. On the general merchandise side, it’s a different dynamic, so we need to tailor the experience accordingly.

You mentioned the importance of a consolidated customer view. How are you approaching that challenge?

This is a big focus. One of our strategic aims is ‘Save and invest to win’ – delivering this requires efficiency across the board and the ability to make the right decisions for the customer as effectively as possible. As with any large enterprise, as we’ve grown some silos and separation of capability has happened. What we’re working on now is ensuring that we bring that back together and future-proof the business in this rapidly changing technology landscape.

How far have you got with it?

We’re mature in many areas, but the landscape is evolving so rapidly and so it’s important to always be looking to the future. Ultimately though this starts with the customer: what makes a difference for them and what we can do to unlock that difference, and then building out the architecture from there. The goal is to understand what different teams need from that setup to deliver for the customer and make sure it’s usable across the business.

How are you connecting the in-store experience with Nectar and personalisation?

We’re investing heavily in technology to make this possible. The recent launch of Your Nectar Prices on tills is a huge step forward for enabling personalisation of the physical shopping experience.

Additionally, we’re empowering our colleagues by sharing more real-time data and insight on key processes, saving time and driving sales by ensuring that we have maximum availability for customers. That way, we can create meaningful experiences that bridge digital and physical shopping.

Finally, what’s the ‘reason to buy in’ for customers – why should they choose Sainsbury’s?

It comes down to relevance. Customers want to know why signing up with us benefits them. Personalisation is a big part of that; making sure we give them the right offers, the right products, at the right time.

But we also have to balance that with macro factors. Things like seasonal changes or economic pressures inevitably drive customer behaviour. That’s why we also focus on being an industry leader in sustainability, leading the market on colleague pay, while bringing both exceptional range and value to our customers.