Overwhelmed by Digital Data Management?  Here’s how Retailers can build better Experiences

Let’s face it: digital data is daunting, and many organizations will repeatedly hear the phrase “we didn’t tag for that” while trying to build better experiences for consumers.

In the retail sector, digital data is the most important and valuable dataset to solve for. With so many confusing topics out there around things like a “cookieless future,” it can be difficult to think pragmatically about how to best advance and utilize digital data effectively, in the long term. To assist with that, we thought we would provide some approaches to think about.

Do you know who your consumers are when they aren’t logged in?

One of the biggest challenges that retailers face is solving for anonymous website visitors.

If a consumer isn’t logged in and their identity is unknown, what do you do next? Seeing only a portion of a customer’s journey is a missed opportunity for personalization and creating a memorable experience. This construct of digital identity has suffered setbacks within many traditional solutions due to browser changes and local regulations.

However, there is an incredible amount of value in being able to build profiles about anonymous users. People who aren’t logged in but are showing interest in products or activities can be helpful if they return to the site or app on that device later. The inability to persist an anonymous profile beyond 7 days also means that campaign attribution will lack the accuracy needed to truly understand which investments are making the most impact to the bottom line.

The solution lies within another very confusing topic: first-party data platforms. The truth is that a platform claiming to be first-party does not mean they can build anonymous profiles beyond 7 days.  See for yourself: simply pull up the Safari privacy tools on your own website and look at the solutions being blocked. If they are on that list, then they can only build a profile for 7 days before it resets, as a best-case scenario.

There are better options out there, and digging into the existing capabilities of your tech stack for digital identity will inevitably allow you to better assess the path forward for your business. This will lead to more complete customer profiles—better data and a more memorable customer experience.

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Have you ever been told “we didn’t tag for that?”

Tagging in digital to capture data has become too cumbersome. It’s simply a process that is never complete, never accurate, and always under construction. If you’re spending more time wrangling data instead of using it, that is a telltale sign to rethink your approach. Solutions that rely on tagging won’t cut it when you want better and more accurate data in real-time to build better experiences.

Tagging-free technology solves for missing data by automatically capturing all consumer interactions across all sites. However, you need to really dig into what “tagging free” means, as many vendors may try to confuse you until the contract is signed. To combat this, dive deep into the available solutions, speak with customers using the platforms, and move beyond the marketing speak of the vendors and into the real-world applications to better understand what’s real and what isn’t.

What does your reporting stack look like?

It’s absolutely essential for retailers to report on progress in real-time and have the ability to pivot investments when the results are clear.

Reporting is generally a commodity, as there are a million different solutions available, but what really matters is control of that data. With the rise in governance and compliance challenges, sending your consumer data to platforms that are third-party in location (i.e., outside of your organization) is becoming a risky endeavor. Understanding your data flows, integrations, and where the ownership and control of that data resides is critical for the future.

Today’s consumer demands personalized, 1-to-1 experiences with the retailers, and if they don’t like the experience, they tend to explore other options with different brands. Addressing these three topics upfront will take you a long way forward in responding to the demands of your consumers and better optimizing your investments.

Although digital data can feel daunting, there is a path forward—and that path becomes clearer if you start to think differently and evaluate your data strategy against the potential limitations of your existing tech stack limitations.

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