Reach consumers based on how and where they shop with Experian Audiences

Why does retail marketing need more than broad targeting?

Retail marketing needs more than broad targeting because consumers no longer discover products in one place. Consumers move between social platforms, streaming TV, search engines, online marketplaces, and physical stores, often within the same purchase cycle.

Online marketplaces like Amazon have become the primary research channel for 51% of consumers across the US, UK, and Canada, while social media now leads product discovery for 73% of Gen Z and 67% of millennials. Discovery is distributed, and it varies by generation.

Channel presence alone doesn’t solve this complexity. Retailers need to understand:

• How consumers engage across channels
• Where they shop
• What categories they prioritize
• How much they are likely to spend

To help retailers align strategy with how consumers discover and spend, we outline three core retail audience signals to consider and show how economic and seasonal signals shape activation decisions.

Three retail audience signals marketers should use

Retail performance is shaped by how consumers engage, where they shop, and what they buy.

Experian Audiences help retailers consider all three signals together; channel engagement, retail channel loyalty, and purchase behavior, to build more informed activation strategies.

You can find the full taxonomy paths in the appendix.

What this signal represents

Channel-defined retail engagers reflect consumers whose media habits shape how they discover products. In a fragmented environment, engagement behavior often determines where attention, and response, is most likely to occur.

Social platforms in particular play an outsized role in discovery for younger consumers. More than two-thirds (67%) of U.S. consumers aged 16–24 say they have learned about a product through social media videos in their feeds. Younger cohorts, including Gen Z and Millennials, rely more heavily on digital platforms, both social and streaming, as part of their discovery and engagement behavior compared with older generations.

Different consumers respond to different channels. Engagement signals help retailers prioritize the channels where attention is already established.

Experian Audiences you can activate to reach channel-defined retail engagers:

1. Baby Boomers
2. Broadcast Cable TV
3. Generation Z
4. Streaming First Cord Cutter Households
5. TikTok Users
6. TV Ad Acceptor Households

What this signal represents

Purchase environment loyalists reflect consumers who are defined by where they shop; whether online-only, in-store, or somewhere in between. A majority share of consumers (45%) still shop primarily in stores, while online sales still represent a growing share of overall retail activity, reflecting the ongoing importance of both physical and digital channels.

Many shoppers follow a hybrid path to purchase, with 55% visiting a retailer’s website before going to a physical store and 25% accessing it while shopping in-store, reinforcing the importance of omnichannel understanding.

Mobile location and retail visitation signals help identify these purchase environment loyalists by connecting digital engagement to real-world shopping activity. By observing where consumers physically shop, in addition to how they browse online, retailers can segment audiences based on demonstrated channel loyalty.

Experian Audiences you can activate to reach purchase environment loyalists:

1. Big Box Shoppers
2. Department Store Luxury High Spend Spenders
3. Discount / Dollar Stores: Frequent Spenders
4. Frequent In Store Buyer Households
5. In-Store vs. Online: eCommerce Diehards
6. Big Box and Club Stores: Amazon Frequent Spenders

What this signal represents

Purchase-driven retail planners reflect what consumers buy, and what they are likely to buy next. Past purchase behavior remains one of the strongest predictors of future spending. Research shows that repeat customers account for roughly 40% of a retailer’s revenue on average, despite representing a smaller share of total customers. These signals allow retailers to prioritize consumers based on demonstrated category demand and discretionary spend.

Experian Audiences you can activate to reach purchase-driven retail planners:

1. Frequent Children’s Product Buyers
2. Health and Nutrition Buyer Households
3. High Spending Beauty Buyers
4. High Spending Electronics and Appliance Households
5. Housewares and Home Decor Buyer Households
6. Sporting Goods Frequent Spenders

How to layer retail audiences for stronger performance

Retail marketers can layer retail audiences for stronger performance by bringing together engagement, shopping behaviors and purchase patterns, these signals are most effective when layered.

A household might discover products through social or streaming, prefer to purchase primarily in-store, and over-index on specific categories like beauty, apparel, or electronics. Considering these dimensions together allows retailers to align creative, channel mix, and timing with both shopping mindset and spending capacity.

For example:

• Combine Streaming First Cord Cutter Households with eCommerce Diehards to prioritize digital-first campaigns.
• Layer Social Media Heavy Users with High Spending Beauty Buyers to align discovery environments with demonstrated category demand.
• Pair Department Store Luxury High Spend Spenders with discretionary category buyers for premium launches.
• Activate Discount / Dollar Stores: Frequent Spenders alongside Frequent Children’s Product Buyers during key seasonal moments.

By combining channel-defined retail engagers, purchase environment loyalists, and purchase-driven retail planners, retailers can move beyond single-variable targeting and build campaigns grounded in how consumers engage, shop, and spend.

Prioritizing growth in a polarized spending environment

Prioritizing growth in a polarized spending environment starts with recognizing how concentrated retail spend has become, with roughly 20% of consumers accounting for nearly 60% of total spending. At the same time, more shoppers are trading down to discount formats and private labels, including households earning over $100,000 annually.

Retailers must defend premium margin while competing for value-driven share, often within the same campaign window.

Defending and growing high-value consumers

Higher-spending consumers can be identified through income tiers, investable asset indicators, premium credit card usage, and elevated category-level spend. These signals support premium product launches, loyalty reinforcement, and cross-category expansion.

Prioritizing these audiences helps retailers protect margin and focus investment on consumers driving disproportionate revenue.

Competing in a value-driven environment

Deal seekers, coupon users, discount frequenters, and predictive bargain shoppers represent meaningful share opportunities.

Targeted promotional strategies allow retailers to compete on value without eroding premium positioning among higher discretionary tiers.

When are retail audiences most receptive to outreach?

Retail audiences are most receptive to outreach with seasonal retail moments that influence urgency and purchase intent, making timing as important as targeting.

Back-to-school and family-driven spend

Back-to-school season concentrates on spending among consumers with children. Frequent children’s product buyers and mall visitors often show increased activity during this period. Retailers can align apparel, electronics, and supply campaigns with these signals to capture concentrated demand.

Prime Day, promotional peaks, and deal behavior

Major promotional events such as Prime Day and Black Friday drive heightened engagement among deal seekers, coupon users, and discount frequenters. Layering purchase predictors with value-oriented audiences helps retailers focus promotions on consumers most likely to respond.

Holiday promotions

Holiday periods often combine premium gifting with value-driven deal activity. Luxury department store shoppers and high discretionary category buyers may respond to premium creative, while discount shoppers prioritize event-driven promotions. Seasonal signals help retailers time outreach around predictable shifts in shopping behavior.

What sets Experian Audiences apart?

Our syndicated audiences give you an advantage across channels, offering both scale and accuracy:

• Experian’s 4,000+ syndicated audiences are available at over 200 leading activation platforms, including programmatic, social, TV destinations, and can be curated alongside premium inventory through Curated Deals.
• Reach consumers based on who they are, where they live, and their household makeup. Experian ranked #1 in accuracy by Truthset for key demographic attributes.

Explore some of our Partner Audiences that complement Experian Audiences across key retail use cases, with flexible activation through Experian’s data marketplace or leading activation platforms.

Alliant

• Brand Propensities > Kids Products > Happiest Baby Buyer Propensity
• Social Propensities > DIY and Crafts > TikTok – DIY Influencers

Attain

• Transaction Data > Past Purchases > Retail > Online Marketplaces
• Retail > Home Improvement > The Home Depot

Kontext

• In-Market > Health & Beauty > Personal Care > Cosmetics > Makeup > Lip Makeup
• Shoppers > Home & Garden > Kitchen & Dining > Kitchen Tools & Utensils

Need a custom audience? Reach out to our audience team and we can help you build and activate an Experian audience on the platform of your choice.

Want to activate an Experian Audience on Meta, Pinterest, Snap, TikTok, or on a platform not listed above? Contact us today.

For a full list, download our syndicated audiences guide.

Activate in commerce-driven environments

Retail audience strategies are most effective when deployed in environments where discovery and purchase converge. Experian’s retail transaction and predictive audiences are available through our data marketplace and can be combined with partner data to build tailored segments aligned to category spend, shopping mindset, and channel receptivity.

These audiences can be activated across commerce-driven and social environments, including Amazon, TikTok, and Curated Deals, allowing brands to align precision targeting with high-intent retail environments. By connecting audience intelligence to where consumers are actively browsing and buying, retailers can move from a segmentation strategy to measurable performance.

Reach the right audiences for your industry

Reach consumers based on real-world retail behavior with Experian Audiences

From social-driven discovery to in-store visitation and category-level spend, retail growth is shaped by behavior. Experian Audiences help retailers reach consumers using signals tied to how they actually engage, shop, and spend, supporting programs aligned with real-world retail patterns.