Immersive retail faces ROI test as retailers seek measurable results

Data helps track whether campaigns change customer behaviour.

Retailers are looking beyond customer engagement to measure whether immersive experiences drive sales and change behaviour, according to industry leaders.

Speaking at a panel discussion at the Retail Asia Summit 2026 in Singapore, Leah Howatson, general manager for international markets at Castlery, said the furniture retailer has pulled back on curated events after finding they did not justify the investment.

"It tells such a great story and it builds a really deep relationship, but it's just not scalable," Howatson said, adding that the events took a long time to organise, were hard to fill, and produced content that did not connect with customers online.

Castlery instead prioritises an omnichannel approach. She said Singapore is more than 70% offline, whilst the UK is fully online and the US more than 90% online.

Customer carts sync between the website and stores, so a shopper who browses online can be served by a sales assistant in store, and a cart built in store can be sent to the customer to buy later.

Joanne Soh, head of consumer marketing and e-commerce at The Shilla Duty Free, said any experience can become costly theatre if it is not paired with a conversion touchpoint.

She cited a Zootopia character meet-and-greet at Changi Airport last Christmas, which was combined with gamification across terminals to bring shoppers into stores.

Henry Christian, head of loyalty, marketing and partnerships at Metro Singapore, said new concepts should start from a customer problem rather than a product, pointing to Sleep Lab.

The lab was launched on World Sleep Day on 15 March, which is built around helping shoppers sleep better rather than only selling mattresses.

Metro tracks input metrics, such as whether people are talking about a concept and whether brands want to participate, alongside sales as the output metric, he said.

“Just whipping up discounts is the easy way to attract customers,” Christian said, describing discounting as a shortcut.

Metro instead seeks to understand what customers value, determine whether the concept changes their behaviour and assess whether the benefits are sustainable.

Service also remains central to what Metro wants to be known for, including through its new concepts, he said.

Ben Wong, general manager for Southeast Asia and Hong Kong at Adyen, said the impact of a bad experience outweighs that of a good one. He recommended retailers measure checkout speed, checkout conversion, and cross-channel spending.

Rajiv Singh, head of retail media network at FairPrice Group, said data-led campaigns can shift behaviour. In a campaign with Singapore's Health Promotion Board, FairPrice moved 12% of about half a million shoppers buying selected products to lower-sodium equivalents. Singh said the board is now doubling the campaign's scale.

FairPrice has also deployed about 3,000 smart trolleys across selected outlets, with a wider rollout planned for 2027. The trolleys guide shoppers to products and serve personalised offers through the FairPrice app.

Singh said artificial intelligence can bring speed and scale, but only if the fundamentals are sound. "We must make sure that the fundamentals [are] proper, otherwise you're just putting lousy stuff at scale," he said.

The panel was moderated by David Zhang, regional market insight manager for services, channels, consumers and economies at Euromonitor International.