Black Friday / Cyber Monday 2025 is officially behind us (ouch, our wallets!), and this year’s numbers tell a remarkably consistent story: retailers who leaned into personalized, relationship-driven clienteling outperformed everyone else. Across the Endear platform alone, retailers generated $15 million in attributed sales, sent 2.2 million messages, and increased their clienteling outreach by 24% year-over-year. These results aren’t simply impressive, but cement the reality that revenue follows personalization.

To understand how top-performing retailers achieved these outcomes, we analyzed activity across more than 1,200 retail locations in 22 countries. The findings reveal clear patterns in how customers now expect to engage with brands during the most competitive shopping period of the year.

Let’s dive into the latest data to see what worked, and how your retail brand stacks up to your competition.

Perhaps the most striking insight from this year’s BFCM is how dramatically personal clienteling channels outperformed traditional marketing. When a customer received a personal message from a store associate (whether a true 1:1 outreach or an automated-but-personalized note) they were 30 times more likely to make a purchase than customers who received a brand marketing email or SMS blast. With marketing messages hovering at an estimated 0.05% conversion rate, compared to 1.65% for clienteling, the gap is no longer something retailers can ignore.

Even within clienteling, a hierarchy of impact emerged. Channels that enable real-time or conversational engagement drove the strongest results. Live Chat led all channels with a 7.33% conversion rate, followed by WhatsApp at 3.37%, SMS at 1.87%, and email at 1.52%. These numbers illuminate a central truth: the closer a channel gets to replicating a true human interaction, the more likely a customer is to convert.

This dynamic makes intuitive sense. During BFCM, consumers are flooded with generic promotions, countdown timers, and “last chance” subject lines. What they aren’t flooded with is a real person saying, “Hey Chloe, I found something you might love. - Emily, your personal rep” The retailers who used their most personal channels for high-intent moments such as VIP previews, restock alerts, last-minute gifting guidance, saw outsized returns because their messages cut through the noise.

A second major theme from this year’s BFCM is that engagement, not message volume, was the strongest predictor of conversion. Messages that led to real conversations (those in which a customer replied and the associate responded) converted as high as 13.16%, compared to just 1.49% for one-way email broadcasts. That is nearly a 9x difference, driven solely by whether the message sparked dialogue.

This underscores a fundamental misconception retailers still have about clienteling: it is not simply “another channel” for outbound promotions. It is a relationship-building engine. A reply indicates curiosity, intent, and trust, which are three ingredients no marketing automation platform can generate on its own. It takes a human touch, which is sorely lacking these days in retail. The retailers who saw the strongest engagement outcomes consistently used messages that invited responses. They asked questions, requested preferences, offered alternatives, suggested items based on size or style history, and followed up thoughtfully.

Just as importantly, they trained teams to prioritize the conversation once it started. Speed, relevance, and tone matter. A thoughtful exchange with a familiar associate can create a sense of service that rivals the in-store experience and often surpasses it.

Beyond channel performance, some campaign types clearly outperformed others, offering valuable lessons for Q4 planning in future years.

The strongest results came from appointment follow-ups, which generated a remarkable 17.20% conversion rate. This was more than ten times the average. Customers who book appointments already signal intent and trust, but what moved the needle was the follow-through. Even shoppers who purchased during an appointment continued to buy when they received personal recommendations and check-ins from the associate they met with. These campaigns demonstrated that an appointment is not the end of a sales moment, but the beginning of a deeper relationship.

Another standout category was outreach to high-value new customers. Campaigns targeting new shoppers with above-average initial order values converted at 11%, nearly seven times the norm. These shoppers behaved like VIPs in waiting: motivated, curious, and receptive to tailored communication. Meanwhile, existing VIPs also performed well, maintaining a 3.66% conversion rate, further proving that loyal customers stay loyal when communication remains personal and timely.

Finally, post-purchase outreach (eg. thank-you messages, care tips, and 30-day follow-ups) continued to show meaningful impact, driving a 3.77% conversion rate, or 2.3x higher than average. These campaigns succeed because they reach customers at a moment of emotional connection. A shopper who just purchased is still engaged with the brand and open to guidance, recommendations, and natural add-ons. When a human associate reaches out with genuine attention, the likelihood of a second purchase rises dramatically.

If one theme defines this year’s BFCM clienteling data, it is that personalization is now a competitive moat. Retailers who succeeded were not the ones who sent the most messages. No, they were the ones who sent the right messages through the right channels to the right customers. They understood that intimacy matters, replies matter, and segmentation matters. They recognized that attention is now earned through relevance, not reach.

Looking ahead, the gap between retailers who embrace clienteling and those who rely exclusively on broadcast marketing will only widen. As more brands adopt personalized outreach and invest in associate-led communication, customers will increasingly come to expect the level of care that clienteling provides.

The question is no longer whether you should invest in clienteling. It is whether your team can afford not to.

For a deeper dive into the data, charts, and campaign examples from this year’s peak season, download the full Endear BFCM Clienteling Recap here.