[April 30, 2025]

Retailers Deploy Visual Media to Deliver Personalized, Immersive Experiences Online and In-Store, Cloudinary Global Survey Reveals

Retailers are using visual media intelligently to create the frictionless, personalized online and in-store experiences that consumers love, according to global research out today from Cloudinary. A full 93% of retailers estimated that personalization alone delivers anywhere from 50-400% improvement in business outcomes. Crucially, the survey also revealed that technology adoption has matured to the point where retailers feel able to prioritize multiple consumer trends and preferences, like accessibility, sustainability and immersive experiences like virtual try-on and 3D. Explore the results here.

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Cloudinary Global Survey: The Trends Reshaping Retail

Personalization driving 4X improvements

An overwhelming 88% of retailers said that personalization was critical to their digital strategies. A major reason for this is that consumers today shop on a wide range of devices that vary by country, in different languages and currencies, and over vastly different bandwidth levels.

Cloudinary's research also revealed that the majority of retailers have employed automation to handle personalization: 67% dynamically adjust content for factors like language, currency, browser and device; 65% for geographic location; and 50% optimize content quality for bandwidth.

As retailers personalize experiences to reach more audiences, accessibility is also a top priority. Key accessibility measures retailers are taking include optimizing content for screen readers (62%), adding alt text for images and videos (57%), and providing closed captions (56%). Animpressive two-thirds of retailers feel prepared for the European Accessibility Act (EAA).

Leveling up performance and accessibility for diverse audiences allows retailers to deliver seamless experiences to more consumers. This explains why nearly all retailers (93%) estimated significant improvements of up to 4X from personalization.

Next-gen digital experiences have arrived

As retailers are less focused on playing catch-up to manage the essential 'housekeeping' of personalization, they are freed up to prioritize work on building the immersive, visually-rich experiences that delight and engage their customers. Cloudinary's survey reveals that in 2025 retailers are prioritizing video (62%), virtual try-on (53%), AR/VR (46%) and 3D (36%). The visual information these experiences provide help customers make faster, better-informed decisions and also substantially reduce the financial and environmental cost of returns.

Sustainability matters

Despite consumers' valuing friction-free experiences and fast delivery, they also demand sustainability. That, along with cost-savings, makes sustainability a high priority for most retailers with 62% tracking energy consumption and adopting eco-friendly digital practices. These include optimizing media delivery for lower energy consumption (50%), recycling or repurposing digital content (47%), reducing redundant asset storage (46%) and tracking and reporting carbon footprint from digital tools (41%).

Digitizing the In-Store Experience

One of the most exciting revelations is that retailers are now applying ecommerce best practices to digitize the in-store experience and reduce in-store friction. The Cloudinary survey found that 66% of retailers use QR codes for product details and promotions; 64% leverage mobile apps for in-store navigation and assistance; and 32% are deploying AR to create in-store experiences online.

According to Cloudinary SVP of Marketing, Wanda Cadigan, "For the last several years retail has been battling several external factors, from the effects of Covid to supply chain challenges. Today's global survey paints a refreshingly optimistic picture, showing retailers of all sizes coming through this adversity, not only rising to the technical challenges of delivering highly personalized and digitized experiences online and in-store, but also raising the bar by prioritizing video and next-gen experiences like virtual try-on and 3D."

To learn more about and prepare for the European Accessibility Act (EAA), download Cloudinary's free guide here.

Methodology

The Cloudinary Global Retail Survey 2025 was conducted by an independent research firm, Researchscape International, with 448 retail workers in specific departments in 14 different countries surveyed online between February 20 and March 17. To qualify for the survey, respondents' organizations had to have more than 1000 images and more than 100 videos on their website and/ or mobile app.

About Cloudinary

Cloudinary is the image and video platform that enables the world's most engaging brands to deliver transformative visual experiences at global scale. More than two million users and 10,000 customers, including Adidas, Bleacher Report, Etsy, Fiverr, Grubhub, Minted and Paul Smith rely on Cloudinary to bring their campaigns, apps and sites to life. Backed by an ecosystem of more than 300 partners, integrations and plug-ins, Cloudinary's AI-powered image and video solutions offer a single source of truth for brands to manage, transform, optimize, and deliver engaging visual content to anyone, anywhere. As a result, brands across all industries are seeing up to a 203% ROI with benefits including faster time to market, higher user satisfaction and increased engagement and conversions. For more information, visit www.cloudinary.com.

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