After years of digital transformation, Freedom Furniture has hit the accelerator. With a fivefold increase in SKUs and a renewed focus on omnichannel strategy, the retailer needed a search solution that could keep up. Enter Coveo’s AI-powered search, a tool designed to serve up fast, relevant results in real time—without overwhelming customers with choice paralysis. The system only went live for customers just before Christmas, but early data is promising: return visits are climbing, and average order values are up. Now, as Freedom preps for the next phase—an overhaul of its marketing tech stack—Digital GM Paula Mitchell is deep in the trenches of an RFP process that could complete a five-year transformation journey. So, what’s driving this shift? And what’s next for one of Australia’s biggest home retailers? Let’s unpack it.
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CDP Payoffs and Pitfalls: Australian brands are slashing customer acquisition costs, gaining behavioural insights, and getting ready for AI in their customer data tech but the devil hits in implementation
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CDP payoffs and pitfalls: Australian brands slash customer acquisition costs, gain behavioural insights, AI-readiness via CDPs – but PTSD for some
Customer Data Platforms (CDPs) were martech’s next big thing, promising unified customer views, slashed acquisition costs, and a golden ticket to AI-powered personalisation. Has reality live up to the hype? Two years on from a CDP deep dive, Mi3 circled back to the brands that were knee-deep in implementation to see how theory translated into practice. The verdict? Worth the effort but with some caveats around complexity, fragmented profiles and robustness – or otherwise – of data architecture. In short, never expect plug and play. Compare Club, Southern Cross Austereo and University of Tasmania weigh in on what they learned, and where next.