Overview
For Albert Heijn, Christmas is one of the most important commercial moments of the year. It’s also one of the most competitive periods in Dutch retail, with every supermarket competing for attention, preference, and share of wallet. However, for Albert Heijn, it’s not only about commerce, it’s also about earning a place in people’s celebrations: helping Dutch families bring the magic of Christmas to life.
Together with Merkle, Albert Heijn reshaped its owned channels into a personalized Christmas experience. By combining deep audience segmentation, inspirational content, and a carefully phased omnichannel journey, Albert Heijn strengthened Christmas sentiment, increased engagement, and reinforced its position as a preferred destination for holiday shopping. Throughout the season, Albert Heijn created more than 6.5 million customer contact moments, each one tailored to the shopper receiving it.
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6.5M+
customer contact moments generated -
69.8%
peak open rate across Christmas emails
The challenge
Christmas is a demanding season for retailers with millions of diverse customers. For Albert Heijn, the core challenge was clear: how can a single Christmas campaign remain consistent in message and brand experience while still feeling personally relevant to each shopper?
The ambition behind that challenge was to strengthen Albert Heijn’s position as the retailer consumers think of first when planning their Christmas celebrations. The goal was not only to drive sales, but also to inspire customers and demonstrate that Albert Heijn offers everything needed for each Christmas moment, from breakfast and lunch to gourmet evenings and festive dinners.
Meeting that ambition is difficult because customer needs vary significantly during the holiday season. Families with children, price-conscious shoppers, premium food enthusiasts, vegetarians, online grocery shoppers, and other customer groups each approach Christmas in their own way, so a message that resonates with one group may miss the mark with another.
The approach
Merkle and Albert Heijn developed a personalized Christmas communication strategy built around relevance, inspiration, and timing.
Starting the journey earlier
Instead of focusing communication only in the final weeks before Christmas, the campaign started during the Sinterklaas period. This created more time to gradually build anticipation and establish Albert Heijn as the go-to destination for the festive season.
The phased journey spanned email, app messaging, and digital banners. It ran alongside Albert Heijn's broader Christmas campaign on television, social media, and other channels.
Personalization at scale
Existing customer insights were used to create highly relevant experiences for different customer groups. Communications were tailored based on factors such as:
- Ecommerce versus non-ecommerce customers
- Dietary preferences (vegetarian, vegan, meat and fish)
- Holiday personas such as gourmet enthusiasts and premium "Excellent" shoppers
Creating engaging experiences
Customers received a combination of festive inspiration, recipes, product recommendations, and promotional offers that helped them prepare for the upcoming holidays.
To stand out from traditional retail emails, the campaign introduced animated visuals and “unboxing”-style interactions. These invited customers to explore the content and discover products, recreating the excitement of opening gifts on Christmas morning.
The design prioritized accessibility, with layouts optimized for both light and dark mode.
Five coordinated Christmas moments
The campaign ran five major email touchpoints, supported by app messages and digital banners.
The journey began with Disney and Albert Heijn Christmas collectibles, followed by the "Big Bang" launch of the Christmas season. Later emails focused on festive menus, recipe inspiration from Allerhande, and final Christmas purchases of hero products, gourmet selections, and festive essentials.
Each touchpoint had a distinct role while building one consistent Christmas story.
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The outcome
The campaign generated more than 6.5 million customer contact moments during the Christmas period.
Performance consistently exceeded internal benchmarks:
- Open rates between 63.1% and 69.8%, compared to a benchmark of 58.8%
- Positivity rates between 68% and 88%, compared to a benchmark of 64%
- All Christmas emails outperformed the previous Christmas campaign
The flagship "Big Bang" email drew 28.6% of its clicks from the Christmas TV commercial and 26.3% from promotional content, successfully balancing emotional inspiration with commercial performance.
Ecommerce customers consistently showed higher engagement levels than non-ecommerce audiences, confirming the effectiveness of the personalized audience strategy.
Client impact
By combining early-season engagement, deep segmentation, inspirational content, and a coordinated omnichannel approach, Albert Heijn turned its owned channels into a key driver of the Christmas experience.
Customers received relevant inspiration for their specific holiday needs, while Albert Heijn maintained a consistent festive brand experience across all touchpoints.
