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When Google announced it was delaying its plan to block third-party cookies from Chrome to 2023, many companies took a step back. Rather than using the additional time to get ready for what was to come, we in fact saw brands revert to ‘business as usual’.
As a result, the foot has been taken off the gas in terms of moving towards cookieless solutions, ATS and ID solutions. However, this is expected to drastically shift over H2 2022 as we approach next year’s new deadline.
Encouragingly, I think the conversation around third-party cookies is shifting too as the pace grows. I’m hearing more companies discuss the benefits of first-party owned data, and how, from a data collaboration perspective, there are far superior ways to creating better outcomes for customers.
Over the past 24 months retailers have jumped on these benefits, and have turned them into something really exciting. Whether it’s Tesco’s Clubcard or Sainsbury’s’ Nectar 360, we’ve seen big retailers mine an incredible amount of data on shopper behaviour and characteristics, as well as actual basket purchases.
This holistic view of a supply chain provides the knowledge to create better experiences for shoppers, as well as enabling retail to have complete transparency over what is entering and leaving its physical and online stores
But first-party owned data doesn’t have to be just reserved to big brands. Even smaller retailers should consider how to optimise its use of customer data. My advice would be to start with three basics questions to ask yourself:
- What am I doing with the data the business collects?
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- Consider where in the customer journey this takes place, and where it is stored
- What value can the data provide to customers and to the business?
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- Consider the challenges you are currently face, and where greater insights might be helpful – for example mapping busy times of commerce to staff accordingly or restock popular items
- Where would I benefit from exchanging first-party owned data with other companies?
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- Creating a holistic customer journey and their profile requires a multitude of data points. No one single business can do this in isolation
- That’s why LiveRamp set up Safe Haven to provide privacy-conscious and configurable collaboration across organizations and external partners