Ecommerce: Are You Ready for the Cookie to Finally Crumble?
As any marketer worth their salt knows by now, Google is planning to completely remove third party cookie support from its proprietary Chrome browser by the end of 2023.
For anyone who has been paying attention to the current discourse and regulatory environment surrounding online privacy and the massive fallout from several large-scale data breaches over the last decade or so, these developments are of little surprise. Apple has already implemented an opt-in system for third-party cookies on its own devices, but Google taking these steps will likely be the final nail in the coffin for this kind of data gathering.
The fallout of these developments is that industries all over the world which have up until now relied on cookies for marketing purposes are now scrambling to understand what the impact of these developments on their business will be and what steps they should be taking to best prepare for their implementation.
Ecommerce
Google has already pushed the date of this change back once, which has led many ecommerce brands to hypothesize that it may do so again, and cookies will still be available past December 2023. While this is certainly possible, it would be foolish to proceed as if this is a certainty and not implement any contingency plans in the meantime.
Don’t forget that changes to global regulatory frameworks such as the GDPR implemented by the European Union and the California Consumer Privacy Act her in the US are also working to make indirect methods of data gathering more difficult and less able to be relied on alongside developments such as Google’s
"Google could hypothetically reverse course altogether and never eliminate third-party cookies,” said Amazon Web Services in a blog post. "Regardless, the subject is on the table, and retailers must be aware of the potential impacts, because this decision, when and if it occurs, will dramatically change the highly targeted digital marketing channels that have been so successful for retailers this last decade.”
With the effective elimination of third-party cookies, the data management platforms and other service offerings which retailers have relied on up until this point will significantly drop in value and ecommerce brands will need to turn to alternative methods to understand customers, behavior patterns, preferences, and segmentation.
Because of this, ecommerce brands need to create a first-party data strategy where they own the information they hold on their customers and use it intelligently to perform the marketing task which used to rely on third-party cookies.
First Party Data
Of course, most retail brands in the online space already collect reams of first-party data through contact centers, accounts created on their stores, loyalty schemes, checkout and abandoned cart data, returns and refund information, and so much more.
The current issue is, because this data has not been heavily relied upon for marketing purposes in the past – due to the relative ease with which third-party cookies have been – much of this first-party information is siloed and not formatted in such a way as to leverage the most value from it.
The focus of your IT teams leading up to December 2023 should therefore be to bring all this first-party together and standardize formatting so that it can become the new number one tool for your marketing people to develop customer profiles and continue the provision of personalized intelligence driven marketing customers have become accustomed to and most consistently respond to.
"As a retailer, you can drive your customer segmentation, targeting, and engagement initiatives, as well as your overall marketing strategies from a position of data sovereignty, instead of heavily relying on external data management vendors and third-party data services,” continues AWS. "Furthermore, you’ll have complete control over the data because your company has collected the first-party data, and, above all, you own it.”
Even in the unlikely event Google postpones or abandons its plans for December 2023, the direction of travel for third-party data is clear – it’s on the way out. Ecommerce brands need to focus their attention on cleaning up their act when it comes to first-party information and ensure its formatted in such a way as to provide maximum value to marketing teams and the organization as a whole.
Final Thoughts
Google’s proposed elimination of third-party cookies from the world’s most popular browser application is a game changer in every sense of the phrase. While the increased privacy of everyone should be celebrated, the job of marketing is about to get a whole lot more challenging.
Those brands best able to adapt to this paradigm shift are the ones which will be best positioned to succeed into 2024 and beyond.
The elimination of third-party cookies is sure to be part of the conversation at eTail West 2023, taking place in February 27 – March 02 at the JW Marriott Desert Springs, Palm Springs, CA.
Download the agenda today for more information and insights.