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Every November, we all reset, think, and look ahead…for the new fiscal year.
The Riley team spent a week in New York meeting CROs, CFOs, and COOs over pastries and strong coffee, and a few themes became unmistakable.
The teams preparing best for 2026 are rethinking how they understand customers, redesigning the way experiences unfold, and modernizing how they forecast growth.
Here are the shifts shaping that momentum.
Most customer models were built for a world that moved slower. Today, motivations shift daily, context changes hourly, and intent forms in moments.
Teams leaning into 2026 are adopting dynamic identities—living profiles that continuously update from:
This mindset expands the core question from “Who is this customer today?” to “Who is this customer becoming?”
It’s a more precise, more durable foundation for growth.
Example
A large DTC beauty brand is shifting from age-based segments to “state-based identities” like Renewal Mode, Exploration Mode, or Replenishment Mode, updated hourly based on browsing depth, refill patterns, and on-site gestures. This boosted replenishment reminders by double digits because the system anticipates the customer’s future need rather than waiting for a cart to empty.
Personalization used to focus on content changes. The most forward-thinking leaders are taking it a step further by shaping the order of the experience, not just the elements inside it.
They’re designing adaptable micro-journeys, typically 3–5 steps, that respond instantly to real-time behavior.
Same assets, different sequence — and the sequence becomes the differentiator.
Why this works:
Sequence builds momentum.
Momentum drives decisions.
Decisions drive revenue.
The impact compounds quickly, especially for teams that operate across multiple channels.
Example
A hospitality brand routes high-intent visitors into a three-step micro-journey (offer → comparison → upgrade), while casual browsers enter a gentler four-step path (inspiration → highlights → availability → offer). Both flows use the same assets — but the order is what lifts revenue.
Forecasting now benefits from a lens that goes beyond expected revenue and focuses on the speed of movement within the funnel.
Customer acceleration highlights:
Leaders adopting this view gain earlier visibility into opportunities, variances, and market shifts. It’s forecasting built for reality, not for last quarter’s conditions.
Examples
A CPG brand tracks acceleration in product discovery across retailer sites and TikTok bursts. Sudden spikes in discovery speed allow them to forecast short-term sell-through with surprising accuracy, even before POS data updates.
A B2B SaaS company uses changes in demo-to-proposal velocity to guide pipeline decisions. Faster movement signals that messaging is aligned with market conditions; slower velocity signals platform-induced headwinds (algorithm changes, paid traffic dips, etc.).
Across every conversation, one pattern stood out:
The strongest teams are building systems that move with customers.
They are:
This creates a richer, more responsive foundation for hitting growth goals in 2026 - one that matches how people actually behave across channels, platforms, and moments.