Unleashing 1P Data Potential

1P (First Party) data is an extremely valuable source of understanding.  Think of 1P as free data as your customers just create it in their retail interactions from your marketing site, e-commerce, loyalty programs, and the in store transactions.  It comes with costs to collect it and use it effectively, that is the hard part.  It starts with understanding the sources of 1P and building the collection mechanisms to integrate customer data such that it can be used.

Most retail, marketing, and web systems will all have a form of data collection and often export.  Understanding that data requires analyst skills but matching it and storing it on a regular basis forms the foundation as analytic data stores or customer data platforms.  Data minded individuals are required to organize and curate your 1P data for it to be used.  This is the biggest cost and if done well, sets up retailers to really take advantage of customer insights.

Leading retail organizations leverage 1P data to understand the omni-channel view that gives insight into the what, when, and where of the customer journey.   For retailers it is a unique opportunity to use their own customer driven data to be more accurate and timely, vs third party purchased data, to drive strong engagement opportunities.  If personalization, retention, campaign offers, loyalty, or basket growth are on your retail objectives, ask your organization and systems  vendors how you can leverage your 1P data.   

Steve Benteau

CTO, Mercatus

Harnessing First-Party Data