Email and SMS remain foundational channels for retailers. But as marketing teams plan for 2026, a growing realization is taking hold: even the most advanced Email Service Providers (ESPs) can only act on customers they already know.

That limitation is becoming increasingly costly.

As cookies disappear and consumers move fluidly across devices, as much as 95% of website traffic remains anonymous. High-intent shoppers browse, compare and exit without logging in, leaving marketing teams unable to engage them in real time. In practice, this means sophisticated orchestration is being applied to a shrinking portion of total demand.

The next generation of marketing technology doesn’t replace the ESP. Instead, it extends it. By pairing orchestration with identity resolution and real-time intelligence, brands can recognize more people, act on live intent signals and deliver messages when they are most likely to convert.

What ESPs still do well — and where they stop

ESPs continue to play a critical role in managing journeys, sends and reporting for known users. Once a customer is identified, they remain powerful tools for orchestrating communications at scale.

The challenge is that ESPs were never designed to solve identity at scale or interpret fragmented, real-time behavior across devices and sessions. When identity is missing, even the strongest ESP stack struggles to recognize anonymous visitors, connect cross-device behavior or trigger messages based on live intent rather than pre-set rules.

Over time, these gaps compound. As fewer users are identifiable, triggered programs become less effective, batch campaigns increase and engagement begins to erode. The result is often higher unsubscribe rates and diminishing returns, despite increased effort.

Why identity changes performance

When identity resolution and AI-powered decisioning are layered onto an ESP, performance improves in ways that are material, not marginal.

Rather than relying on static rules and fixed delays, marketers gain the ability to dynamically determine who should receive a message, when it should be delivered and which channel is most likely to perform. Reach expands significantly, often by three to six times, because high-intent anonymous visitors become addressable.

Brands using identity-driven decisioning consistently see higher conversion rates, increased revenue per send and improved audience growth, without increasing message volume. The advantage comes not from sending more, but from sending smarter.

Triggered messaging isn’t as mature as many think

Many brands consider themselves advanced because they run triggered campaigns. In reality, most are operating at early stages of maturity.

Static cart and browse abandonment programs, even when deployed across email and SMS, remain limited to known users and rigid rules. More advanced journeys may incorporate behavioral data, but still exclude the majority of anonymous traffic.

True maturity emerges when identity resolution expands reach and AI determines timing, channel and content in real time. At this level, triggered messaging becomes adaptive rather than prescriptive, allowing performance to improve continuously as intent signals change.

The identity readiness question

Before evaluating new orchestration features, retailers should ask a more fundamental question: Are we identity-ready?

Here are some questions to ask:

• Can we recognize users who haven’t logged in?
• Do we connect behavior across devices?
• Can we trigger messages from live behavior — not just past actions?
• Are we expanding reach without increasing send volume?
• Can identity activate both owned and paid channels?

As privacy changes accelerate, these limitations will only become more pronounced.

What a 2026-ready stack looks like

A future-ready marketing stack doesn’t require ripping and replacing existing systems. Instead, it should preserve current ESP investments while expanding who can be recognized and reached.

Platforms like Wunderkind act as an intelligence layer alongside the ESP, enriching identity, powering real-time decisioning and activating messaging across owned and paid channels. Orchestration, creative control and reporting remain where teams already work — but what the ESP can see and act on changes dramatically.

As 2026 approaches, the brands that win won’t be the ones sending more messages. They’ll be the ones who finally understand who they’re reaching and when to act.