What: Brands and retailers must move beyond age-based segmentation, using behavioural and transactional insights to personalise retail media and build lasting customer relationships.

Why it is important: Recognising the limits of demographic targeting enables brands to deliver more relevant, service-oriented experiences that foster loyalty across generations.

Retail media has grown in targeting precision, but a persistent blind spot remains: it can identify who a shopper is, but not how they have learnt to shop. Age-based segmentation stops at date of birth. What shapes purchasing behaviour is habit, accumulated experience, and a relationship with brands and advertising built up over time. Transactional data addresses this gap. Records of what shoppers buy, how often, and in what context offer a richer foundation for personalisation than demographic or declarative data. Analysed at scale, this data reveals which signals each profile responds to, when a shopper is likely to switch to a competitor, and how to reach them in a way that feels relevant rather than intrusive. Different generations tolerate advertising differently, but the driver is habit and exposure rather than age alone. Retail media strategies that prove most durable will be those that build brand preference over time, not those that simply trigger a purchase. 

IADS Notes: Forbes in January 2026 and BCG/WWD in October 2025 had already identified the limits of demographic targeting, noting that cross-generational shopping patterns are eroding the value of age-based segmentation. The case for transactional data is well supported by practice: MBS in July 2025 and Retail Detail in June 2025 documented retailers using loyalty and purchase histories to deliver personalised campaigns with measurable results. McKinsey in June 2025 and Inside Retail in December 2025 found that advertising tolerance is shaped more by experience with digital formats than by generational identity, with Gen Z particularly attuned to relevance and authenticity. Internet Retailing in June and December 2025 tracked the sector's move from broad activation toward curated, integrated campaigns designed to build brand value over time. Journal du Net in April 2026 and Retail Detail in June 2025 reinforce the argument that retail media performs best when it functions as a service rather than an interruption. 

Reconsidering the generational experience in retail media