Why Buyer Intelligence is the Next Competitive Edge: How Veer AI is Helping Retailers Sell Like Amazon

Amazon has set the gold standard for personalized marketing — recommending products you didn’t even know you wanted, at the exact moment you’re ready to buy. For smaller retailers, that level of targeting always felt out of reach.

Fatima Khamitova, co-founder and CEO of Veer AI, is changing that. Her marketing SaaS platform gives retailers the same data-driven personalization power as Amazon — without the massive budgets or in-house data science teams.

Veer AI’s journey offers a blueprint for how buyer intelligence can turn retention marketing from guesswork into predictable growth — and how SaaS founders can apply those same principles to win in competitive markets.

Lesson 1: Buyer Intelligence Levels the Playing Field

Fatima’s career began in investment banking, but it was her love of data, analysis, and patterns in buyer behavior that eventually pulled her toward marketing AI. Her mission:

• Take the type of deep buyer insight that Fortune 500 retailers use to increase customer lifetime value.

• Make it accessible and actionable for small and mid-sized retailers — the ones without $5M AI budgets.

Your takeaway: If your buyers are telling you what they want through their actions, but you’re not capturing and acting on that data, you’re losing deals you could have kept.

Lesson 2: Start With Manual Buyer Discovery Before Automating

In Veer AI’s early days, there was no polished product.

• The team manually analyzed customer data in Excel and Google Data Studio.

• They worked closely with early customers to understand real buying patterns, not just stated preferences.

By the time the front-end platform was ready, they knew exactly which insights moved the revenue needle — because they’d proven it manually first.

Agency insight: In web design, sales enablement, and retention strategy, don’t rush to automation. Map your buyer journeys manually, find the key conversion moments, and then scale with tech.

Lesson 3: Education Converts Better Than Selling

One surprising growth channel for Veer AI? Retention marketing webinars.

• These sessions teach retailers how to use data to bring customers back more often.

• They’re hosted with industry groups like Toronto’s Fashion Zone to reach warm audiences.

The result: Prospects come into sales calls already understanding the value of buyer intelligence — making the close faster and smoother.

Your takeaway: Whether you’re selling SaaS or services, the best “pitch” is showing your buyer a problem they didn’t know they had, then walking them through the solution.

Lesson 4: Target Segments Ready for Retention, Not Just Acquisition

Veer AI learned quickly that their ideal clients weren’t the smallest retailers — those companies were still focused almost entirely on new customer acquisition. Instead, their sweet spot was brands that:

• Had already automated acquisition channels like paid ads.

• Were ready to shift focus toward increasing repeat purchase rates and lifetime value.

Positioning insight: The best buyers aren’t just those who need your solution — they’re the ones with the bandwidth, budget, and mindset to act on it now.

Lesson 5: Buyer-Centric Growth Requires Empathy

When the pandemic hit, retail clients were dealing with supply chain breakdowns, store closures, and uncertain futures. Veer AI didn’t push harder for sales. Instead, they focused on:

• Providing free education on retention tactics.

• Helping clients stabilize before upselling technology.

That empathy built trust — and trust became a driver for post-pandemic client acquisition.

Agency takeaway: In any sales cycle, showing you understand the buyer’s current priorities (even if they’re not you) earns a level of access that competitors won’t get.

The Buyer Intelligence Playbook for SaaS & Tech Growth

1. Manually map buyer behavior before investing in automation.

2. Educate first, sell second — use content and events to build readiness.

3. Segment for readiness, not just need — go after buyers primed for action.

4. Lead with empathy when external forces change buyer priorities.

5. Tie retention strategy to real-time data so you can adapt instantly.

Why this matters for SaaS founders and tech companies: Your buyers are leaving clues in every click, purchase, and interaction. The companies that capture and act on that intelligence — across their website, marketing, and sales process — will win more deals, retain more customers, and grow faster without overspending on acquisition.