First-Party Data Helps Brands This Holiday Season As Inflation Hits An All-Time High

By Gleb Polyakov, Nylas

It wasn’t that long ago that consumer prices were up 9.1%, the largest increase in 40 years. We have been hearing about inflation for the last year and to make matters even more complicated, high inflation and an impending recession are now converging with the holiday season. American consumers spend nearly $1,000 around the holidays for gifts. We can only imagine how much more that will be now that prices are so much higher. So, what can brands and retailers do to help their consumers' needs while still profiting this holiday season?

Change the way they look at marketing by using first-party data. While many brands are still using a variety of ways to market their products to consumers, some of the most prominent methods are still through third-party cookies (a dwindling resource) along with affiliate and influencer marketing. The reality is that these resources, while useful to some degree, are exponentially more expensive and don’t utilize the resources staring brands right in the face.

Enter first-party data, the data collected from your customer’s ecosystem through resources like email, social media, and website traffic. It is the data customers are already opting into providing. And it offers a variety of benefits to cut costs while still increasing both personalization and reliability. Here’s how.

Personalized Shopping Experiences That Make Consumers Want To Spend

Many of us have cut spending to maximize our resources. It’s likely that with the rise in costs, which is only expected to continue worsening for the holiday season, one of the most lucrative times for retailers. When it comes to holiday shopping, personalization is a need to have. On average, eCommerce stores see that 69.57% of online shopping carts are abandoned. Meaning that eCommerce stores are missing out on about $18 billion in sales revenue each year. So how can retailers convert website window shoppers? It comes down to personalization through first-party data.

Not only can brands access the data from confirmation emails in years past, but they also can look at website traffic and use it to their advantage. For example, if a consumer leaves an item in their shopping cart like a slow cooker, retailers can then use first-party data to notify a shopper and not only remind them that they have left something in their cart but also provide personalized recommendations to help consumers complete their purchase. This can be through offering another item like a recipe book for slow-cooked meals. In this way, the brand is going above and beyond just trying to get the consumer to make the purchase.

But even before the shopping cart stage, brands have a greater chance to personalize their interactions with consumers and maintain a good relationship. For example, if a brand can securely access confirmation and order emails from previous purchases, they can then leverage that data to curate personalized messages and alerts, notifying customers when products of interest are going on sale. It shows that a retailer is tailoring the experience for the consumer based on past experiences and that they care about the potential of saving them money.

Harnessing first-party data ensures that even at the busiest time of the year, retailers can provide consumers with high quality and reliable products and services without having to break the bank.

Knowing What Your Customers Want Will Create Better Reliability

The retail industry has been fraught with stress as a result of the pandemic because of store closures, the shift to online, and more recently shipping delays and supply chain issues. And while critical knots in the supply chain might seem like a problem of the past, around peak holiday times, the issue can come back up and consumers will want to know that what they ordered will actually get to them at the right time.

First-party data offers reliability in a way that other marketing tactics don’t. Because retailers and marketers are pulling from the information they already have, they can more accurately gauge their warehouse inventory as well as track shipments. Personalization isn’t only better for a consumer; it is also better for the reliability aspect of a retailer.

Retail has experienced insurmountable changes over the last five years. With inflation increasing every day and reaching new highs in 40 years, brands and retailers need to utilize first-party data to convert seasonal shoppers into long-term customers and ensure they maintain their audiences while continuing to build new ones. First-party data can offer better personalization and reliability when compared to other marketing tactics. Ahead of what is expected to be a busy and overcrowded holiday season, retailers need to implement these strategies to be better equipped to handle what is to come.

About The Author

As Co-Founder & CEO of Nylas, Gleb Polyakov empowers developers and their organizations to think big, innovate, and build a better future through unlocking their communications data. Gleb has been recognized by Comparably as a Top 50 CEO in North America and led Nylas to its ranking on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies.