The digital advertising landscape faces challenges with the phase-out of third-party cookies and increasing online customer acquisition costs. Yet, in-store retail media presents a significant opportunity, projected to reach $100 billion by 2026. Retailers often overlook their greatest asset: in-store customers. Physical stores can now gather valuable first-party data, offering a chance for both retailers and CPG brands to succeed.
Companies like Walmart Connect and Kroger Precision Marketing successfully use these strategies, accessible to any retailer looking to monetize in-store traffic and build direct customer relationships that digital-only businesses can't achieve.
For retail marketing managers, CPG brand leaders, and in-store media operators, understanding these tactics is key to growth. This article provides a concise list of effective first-party data strategies to apply now, detailing methods to convert foot traffic into known customers with practical steps. Establish a strong data foundation beyond the cookiepocalypse.
In the post-cookie era, requesting too much information from new customers can be off-putting. Progressive profiling collects small data pieces over time, building a detailed customer profile with less friction.
This method increases sign-ups and improves data quality by asking for information at relevant moments, benefiting retailers and CPG brands in converting visitors into loyal customers.
The basic idea is to begin modestly and establish trust. Initially, request an email for a receipt or discount. Later, when they revisit or scan a QR code, ask for their birthday or preferences to personalize offers. This approach respects customer privacy and yields better quality data.
Key Insight: Progressive profiling transforms data collection from a transaction into a relationship. By delivering value at each step, you earn the right to ask for more information, building a robust first-party data asset based on trust.
To effectively implement this first-party data strategy, focus on a clear value exchange and strategic timing.
Start Simple: Begin with just 2-3 essential fields, like email or phone number, to welcome customers.
Track Customer Steps: Identify moments to request more info, such as after a purchase or joining a loyalty program.
Offer Clear Benefits: Address "what's in it for me?" with incentives like exclusive deals or birthday gifts.
Use Behavioral Prompts: Request information when it's most relevant, such as after viewing multiple items.
Test for Best Results: Try various questions and timings to find what gathers the most data effectively.
Marketing automation platforms like HubSpot and Marketo introduced technology for businesses to use dynamic forms that identify returning visitors, offering new questions for efficient data collection.
While first-party data is gathered through user behavior, zero-party data involves direct and transparent collection from customers. This data, coined by Forrester Research, includes preferences, purchase intentions, and personal context willingly shared by customers. It is based on direct communication and trust. Unlike inferred data, zero-party data is clear and precise, enabling brands to offer personalized experiences. For brands seeking deep relationships, it is the ideal form of customer insight, paving the way to appreciated personalization.
The diagram below illustrates the typical flow for capturing this valuable data, turning a simple interaction into a powerful personalization engine.
An engaging quiz prompts customers to share preferences, fueling ongoing personalized marketing and product suggestions.
The goal is to make sharing information feel conversational rather than like a survey. For instance, Sephora's "Beauty Insider" quiz collects customer data to recommend suitable products. Similarly, Stitch Fix uses a detailed style survey to gather data before sending any products.
Key Insight: Zero-party data flips the traditional data collection model. Instead of brands taking data, they are earning it by providing immediate, tangible value in a transparent exchange that empowers the customer.
To effectively implement a first-party data strategy, focus on motivating customers through a valuable exchange.
Engage with Gamification: Use interactive quizzes and polls for enjoyable data collection. For example, a grocery store could offer a "Dinner Personality" quiz to understand cooking habits.
Provide Immediate Value: Offer instant benefits like personalized recommendations, shopping lists, exclusive content, or early product access in return for data.
User-Friendly Preference Centers: Let customers easily manage their data and preferences through a simple dashboard.
Conversational Approach: Use chatbots and interactive messages to ask relevant questions, enhancing customer experience without intrusion.
Utilize In-Store and Packaging Touchpoints: QR codes on packaging or displays can connect customers to mobile quizzes or surveys, integrating physical and digital data collection.
In the fragmented retail environment, unifying data from e-commerce, mobile apps, loyalty programs, and in-store POS systems is challenging. A Customer Data Platform (CDP) centralizes and integrates this data to create a unified customer profile.
For CPG brands and retailers, a CDP links separate data into a coherent customer narrative, identifying the same individual across platforms. This enables omnichannel personalization, crucial for engaging modern shoppers.
A CDP consolidates all customer data into a single source, collecting real-time first-party data from websites, CRMs, and in-store transactions. It links various interactions to individuals and forms detailed audience segments, enabling retailers like The Home Depot to connect online browsing with in-store purchases for targeted marketing campaigns that boost sales both online and offline.
Key Insight: A CDP is not just a database; it's an activation engine. It democratizes access to unified customer profiles, empowering marketing, sales, and service teams to deliver consistent and personalized experiences across all channels.
Implementing a CDP involves a phased approach for success.
Start with Strategy: Define key use cases before choosing vendors. Let goals like reducing cart abandonment or increasing loyalty guide your technology selection.
Emphasize Data Governance: Set policies for data collection, storage, and privacy. Centralizing customer data requires adherence to data security best practices.
Focus on Quick Wins: Begin with high-impact, low-complexity projects, like targeting high-value customers who haven't made a purchase recently.
Ensure Data Quality: Implement processes to clean and standardize data, ensuring customer profiles are accurate.
Plan for Scalability: Select a platform that can integrate with future data sources and marketing channels as your strategy evolves.
Observing customer behavior offers unfiltered insights essential for personalization. Behavioral data tracking, as a first-party strategy, captures user interactions with digital platforms to understand intent and preferences beyond demographics. By monitoring clicks, page views, app usage, and more, retailers and CPG brands gain valuable information on product interest and engagement without direct questioning.
The main idea is to convert actions into insights. By monitoring a user's activity on your site or app, you can understand their purchase journey. For example, Amazon's recommendation system relies heavily on tracking behavioral data to predict future interests.
A CPG brand can identify popular recipes on their site to guide product development and content marketing. A retailer can study online browsing habits to retarget users with in-store pickup promotions, connecting online and offline experiences. This approach converts digital signals into actionable insights.
Key Insight: Behavioral data reveals customer intent in its purest form. While customers tell you what they think they want, their actions show you what they truly value, providing a more accurate basis for effective first-party data strategies.
To effectively use behavioral data, you need strong tracking tools and a clear analysis plan.
Event Tracking: Track significant events beyond basic views using tools like Google Analytics 4, Mixpanel, or Amplitude.
Heatmaps and Session Recordings: Use Hotjar or Crazy Egg to get visual data on user interactions to spot UX issues.
Behavioral Segments: Group users by actions, such as "frequent browsers," or "high-value cart abandoners," for targeted campaigns.
Trigger-Based Automations: Use behavioral data to initiate automated marketing, like sending emails after specific user actions.
Data Audits: Regularly check for tracking accuracy and clean data to ensure reliable insights.
In today's competitive landscape, merely sending communications isn't sufficient. Optimizing email and SMS engagement involves turning these channels into interactive conversations by closely monitoring customer interactions to gather insights into their preferences and behaviors, and delivering highly personalized content.
This strategy is effective for retailers and CPG brands aiming to establish direct relationships and lessen dependence on third-party data. By valuing every interaction as a data point, you can move past generic campaigns, creating a responsive communication loop that enhances customer profiles, boosts marketing effectiveness, increases loyalty, and raises lifetime value.
The primary focus is on using direct communication for data collection. A CPG brand might use an email preference center to learn about subscribers' dietary needs, while a retailer like Glossier can use SMS for product releases and immediate feedback, making text messages a key source of preference data.
These interactions provide explicit data, enhancing customer segmentation for more relevant offers and recommendations, and clearly showing audience motivations.
Key Insight: Email and SMS are not just for announcements; they are powerful research tools. Optimizing these channels for engagement turns every message into an opportunity to listen to your customer and collect high-intent first-party data.
To implement a first-party data strategy effectively, focus on value-driven, interactive experiences in your messaging.
Create Detailed Preference Centers: Let users select content types (e.g., promotions, tutorials) and frequency, gathering explicit interest data.
Incorporate Interactive Elements: Use polls, surveys, and quizzes in emails to collect data engagingly.
Segment by Engagement: Differentiate between active subscribers and those at risk of churning to customize campaigns.
Optimize Send Times: Analyze individual open patterns to increase engagement, such as sending emails at optimal times.
Encourage Two-Way SMS: Prompt replies in SMS campaigns to gather insightful data signals.
Platforms like Klaviyo and Mailchimp offer tools for segmentation, automation, and analytics, transforming basic email and SMS marketing into a strong first-party data engine.
In today's focus on customer retention, loyalty programs have advanced from simple cards to data collection tools. By integrating loyalty program data, businesses collect in-depth, consent-based customer information, going beyond just points. This creates a comprehensive customer view by combining purchase history, engagement, and preferences.
This strategy fosters a beneficial exchange where customers gain discounts, exclusive access, and personalized experiences for their data. For retailers and CPG brands, it's an effective method for transforming casual shoppers into a loyal community, whose insights support all business areas, including marketing and product development.
The core concept is to incorporate data collection within the value proposition. Customers gain more than points; they enhance their relationship with the brand. For example, Starbucks' Rewards app tracks not just purchases but also location, order times, and customizations to offer personalized promotions. Likewise, Sephora's Beauty Insider program uses purchase history and preferences to offer customized beauty advice.
This data loop helps brands understand not just what customers buy, but why. It turns the loyalty program into a valuable data asset, offering a competitive edge in a privacy-focused world.
Key Insight: A well-designed loyalty program is the ultimate value exchange. It reframes data collection not as an intrusion, but as a necessary component for delivering the superior, personalized experiences that modern customers demand.
To create a loyalty program that serves as a valuable data source, integrate value, engagement, and personalization at all touchpoints.
Tiered Data Sharing: Design your program to offer better benefits as customers share more data, like unlocking gifts for birthdays or early collection access for style preferences.
Gamify Engagement: Use challenges, badges, and rewards to make data sharing enjoyable. Encourage profile completion or exploring new products for bonus points.
Centralize Data: Ensure loyalty data from in-store, online, and mobile sources is unified, offering a consistent customer experience.
Experiential Rewards: Go beyond discounts by offering event access, expert tutorials, or previews of new products to boost engagement and data sharing.
CDP Integration: Connect your loyalty platform with your Customer Data Platform to use insights across marketing and customer service channels.
In today's public brand discussions, listening is essential for your data strategy. Social listening and community building involve monitoring social media and creating digital spaces for direct audience engagement. This turns public discussions into valuable data.
For CPG brands and retailers, this approach fosters genuine brand affinity beyond transactions. By encouraging customer opinions and feedback, you collect qualitative data on preferences and motivations, offering insights beyond traditional surveys.
The goal is to foster mutual dialogue benefiting both customers and brands. Rather than just sending messages, genuine interaction forums are set up. Glossier engaged its Instagram community, co-created products from feedback, and turned customers into advocates, boosting loyalty and providing valuable data. Likewise, Lego Ideas allows fans to suggest and vote on products, offering Lego key insights into customer preferences and making fans active contributors to innovation.
Key Insight: Owned communities on social media are modern-day focus groups at scale. They provide an authentic, ongoing source of customer sentiment and preference data that can directly influence product development, marketing, and personalization efforts.
To implement this strategy effectively, focus on genuine engagement and clearly explaining why customers should participate.
Create Community Spaces: Set up private groups or forums for engaged customers, offering exclusive content or early product access.
Encourage User Content: Use campaigns with hashtags for customers to share product usage, gaining authentic marketing assets and lifestyle insights.
Interactive Features: Use Instagram polls, Q&A, and live videos for feedback on products, collecting preference data through simple interactions.
Monitor Mentions: Employ social listening tools to track brand and competitor conversations, identifying market gaps and opportunities.
Engage Consistently: Build trust by responding to comments, answering questions, and valuing customer input.
The deprecation of third-party cookies marks the start of a more authentic and transparent era in personalized marketing. For brick-and-mortar retailers and CPG brands, the focus shifts to the physical store aisle. Strategies like Progressive Profiling and Loyalty Program Integration are crucial for building a resilient marketing ecosystem driven by consented, high-value first-party data.
Your most valuable asset is the customer entering your store. Every interaction, like a Wi-Fi login or a loyalty scan, is a chance to establish a direct connection. Excelling in first party data strategies turns anonymous visitors into a recognizable audience.
These seven strategies should be integrated as a unified system rather than chosen individually.
Zero-Party Data Collection offers explicit preferences for Email and SMS Engagement Optimization to personalize content effectively.
Behavioral Data Tracking in-store enhances profiles in your Customer Data Platform (CDP), keeping them dynamic.
Social Listening reveals the qualitative insights behind loyalty program data, providing a complete customer view.
This approach redefines stores as dynamic data collection points. Retailers like Kroger and Unilever demonstrate its value by using in-store data for precise, behavior-based marketing, resulting in measurable sales increases.
Key Takeaway: The most successful first party data strategies are not isolated tactics but components of a unified data value chain. Your goal is to create a seamless flow of information, from collection at the point of interaction to activation in your marketing channels.
Transitioning from theory to practice may seem challenging, but progress begins with one focused step. Rather than tackling everything, concentrate on the most critical gap in your abilities and address it directly.
Here is a practical, three-step plan to begin your journey:
Conduct a Data Audit (Next 30 Days): Map all customer touchpoints in your physical environment, such as POS systems, loyalty kiosks, guest Wi-Fi, QR codes, and staff interactions. Identify where data is collected, lost, and potential new collection opportunities.
Launch a Pilot Program (Next Quarter): Implement a zero-party data survey via in-store QR codes in select locations, offering a small incentive. Focus on learning by measuring engagement, data quality, and operational challenges.
Invest in Centralization (Next 6-12 Months): As individual tactics prove valuable, establish a central repository like a CDP using insights from pilot programs to unify data sources for marketing teams and CPG partners.
Retailers and brands that will lead in the next decade are those taking action now. Recognizing the future of retail media as both digital and physical is key. By developing strong first party data strategies, brick-and-mortar stores can become a competitive advantage, offering a unique direct line to customers. The era of in-store intelligence is here, and your actions will determine your role in it.
Ready to turn your in-store traffic into a powerful, monetizable data asset? Intouch.com provides an end-to-end platform designed to help retailers and CPG brands execute these first-party data strategies seamlessly, connecting shopper behavior to measurable campaign outcomes. Discover how you can build your retail media network and unlock new revenue streams by visiting Intouch.com today.
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