In-store Touchpoints Are More Relevant Than Ever

Leveraging AI for localization and personalization

While digital is an important component of a retail marketing strategy, Dhariwal is excited about the opportunity to use the store itself as a canvas for speaking to consumers and driving brand growth.

“We see around 54% of our consumers who will go to the digital site, whether it’s the app or the web, and then purchase in-store within 48 hours,” he said. “There’s a lot of fluidity there in terms of the way that the consumers are behaving, but we have to be there at those different touch points and make sure that we’re giving consumers access to our products.”

Looking ahead, Dhariwal expects automation and AI to play a role in helping CVS improve its merchandising decisions, provide more localization at the store level, and add more personalization to the Extra Care program and other assets.

“It’s changing very rapidly. I think we’re at the forefront of that, and being part of the retail media network really gives us an opportunity to actually push the agenda and push innovation across the organization.”