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Identity resolution is becoming an even more important tool in your marketing arsenal as privacy concerns increase and targeting mechanisms disappear. While customer data platforms (CDPs) promise to unite the data you need to better understand your customers, they are not always a reliable reference point. Let’s discuss how you can correct for the common shortcomings of both identity resolution and CDPs to create a single source of truth—and get the full story of all your customers.

But first, what exactly is identity resolution?

Identity resolution describes the process by which a business creates a single, unified customer profile by attributing all customer behavior and interactions with the business, across all touchpoints, platforms or channels. In a nutshell, it helps you recover value from all the data points generated from anonymous or unknown visitors, which can account for upwards of 98% of all web visitors.

Third-party cookies will be phased out eventually…

As technology providers like Google and Meta continue to phase out the third-party cookie, identity resolution – and the CDPs that help orchestrate it – are of heightened interest. Companies are becoming even more dependent on their first-party data to derive insights, segment audiences and activate targeted, personalized offerings.

Additionally, new privacy regulations like the CCPA allow consumers to request access to all data an organization has about them, making match accuracy in identity resolution even more critical. Brands will similarly have to strike a balance between delivering personalization and not alienating consumers through invasive targeting methods as they build out marketing strategies for new platforms like the metaverse.

… but technical challenges still persist

While the concept may sound simple, identity resolution increasingly presents an enormously complex technical challenge. Why? Because the number of potential touchpoints from which you have to gather data is exploding.

According to Park Associates, internet households now own an average of 16 connected devices in 2022. In 2021, the number was 13. But the complexity doesn’t end there. According to Google, 90% of web users move between devices to complete a task. You might start considering a purchase on your phone, then check it out further on your desktop. You might even then make the purchase in-store, creating three separate touchpoints for one purchase.

What about unknown customers?

While CDPs help simplify the challenge of collecting so much disparate data, you may not be gaining as clear a picture of your customer base as you think. While many CDPs leverage omnichannel data and help match individual identifiers to associate customers with their interactions across touchpoints, a significant shortcoming plagues these platforms. Oftentimes the CDP can only match identifiers for known targets, or rather, those customers who have provided some level of PII.

Unfortunately, many brick-and-mortar retailers lack mechanisms to identify their customers. As a result, they don’t know who’s visiting their stores, don’t have insight into their purchasing behavior and can’t target these individuals. So none of this information makes its way into the CDP, in turn making the resulting customer profiles unreliable.

Loyalty data offers one workaround in this scenario. Many retailers create loyalty programs for the express purpose of gathering valuable customer data, since customers volunteer information to join. The retailer can also track their purchases if they use their loyalty ID at checkout.

The problem is, loyalty data can be deceiving. Retailers will likely see an uptick in signups when they launch promotional offers and count that surge as evidence of traction. In reality, however, most of these customers stop identifying themselves once they’ve received the offer. On the whole, these programs generally reach 5-15% penetration, so the vast majority of customers remain unknown, not understood and unreachable.

Solve the unknown problem with a single source of truth

Offline identity resolution helps solve the unknown customer problem for brick-and-mortar retailers and create a single source of truth for customer information. Multiple sources of data – including POS, mobile, email, SMS and more – should come together with market-leading offline identity resolution, card data and consumer attributes to create one unified, privacy-safe profile of your customers.

While it’s easy enough to identify the myriad of digital touchpoints that should contribute to customer profiles, even retailers with strong ecommerce capabilities should not discount the importance of offline touchpoints. Consider our example from above: you start researching a product on your phone, then on your desktop, but make the actual purchase in-store. Without offline identity resolution, a crucial data point – your actual purchasing behavior – is missing. Additionally, postal addresses are an important identification tool to link identities in your database, which improves the quality of your data, in turn bolstering the reliability of the insights you draw from your CDP.

Offline Identity Resolution that incorporates point of sale (POS) data combined with bank transaction data, and proprietary, self-built census of offline identity and behavior enables identification of individuals behind in-store transactions. This creates a more complete customer profile than using digital touchpoints alone.

Start today with Bridg

Bridg is the first enterprise CDP for brick-and-mortar businesses that enables the identification, understanding and engagement of all customers (loyalty, non-loyalty). We can help you identify offline customers and build rich privacy-safe profiles that are targetable across virtually any digital channel with transparent closed loop measurement.

We enable brick-and-mortar businesses to go beyond the constraints of the known customer universe (e.g; loyalty, online ordering) and utilize purchase intelligence and behavioral insight across ALL customers to drive strategic and tactical actions in support of customer engagement and top line growth.

To learn more about how we fuel the “art of the possible,” check out our white paper here and our case studies here.

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You’ve heard the news about – and felt the pinch of – rising inflation rates. According to the U.S. Labor Department’s latest data release on August 10, the annual inflation rate is 8.5% for the 12 months ending July 2022 after rising 9.1% previously — the largest annual increase since November 1981. But even that number looks conservative when compared to some of the categories that are feeling the hit even more so than the national average. According to Forbes, food prices, for example, are up 10.4% compared to last year and energy prices have risen 41.6% in the past year.

A number of factors are contributing to inflation for retailers. McKinsey cites a jump in commodity prices after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, as well as supply-demand imbalances from pandemic-driven shifts in consumer spending, as primary motivators. As a result, costs to retailers are increasing across the board, especially those related to manufacturing inputs, freight, fuel and wages. Plus, ecommerce now constitutes nearly 13% of all sales, where retail margin is weaker.

Retailers brace for impact

As retailers continue to struggle with the effects of inflation, earnings are down and prices are up.

• 59% of the 79 large retailers that reported earnings April 1-May 23 disclosed a decline in revenue estimates for 2023
• 71% saw a decrease in estimates for 2023 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization
• 24.1% decline to the S&P Retail Composite Index during the same time period—nearly twice the decline of the S&P 500 over the same period

Consumers are shifting their loyalty

How are consumers responding to the rise in costs? When evaluating consumer spending behavior, numbers can be deceiving. Across categories, consumers are paying more but consuming less, including grocery, gasoline, travel and restaurants.

Loyalty was already in flux post-pandemic, and the trend continues to heat up thanks to inflation. In a recent survey conducted by McKinsey, price was a top motivator for switching brands and retailers in 2022 and 90% of respondents indicated they noticed prices going up. But consumers aren’t just aware. They’re taking action:  in another survey completed by Inmar Intelligence, 66% of shoppers considered purchasing a grocery product from a different brand because of rising prices, and 70% actually purchased from an alternate brand.

You can still turn the challenges of inflation into opportunity

The situation for retailers is tough, but not hopeless. A holistic approach that addresses a variety of factors contributing to pricing challenges can make a meaningful impact on future earnings and long-term resilience. For example, retailers should consider shoring up end-to-end visibility across the supply chain and diversifying suppliers and carriers to ensure optimal pricing and resiliency.

Personalization is also a key strategy for winning and retaining customer loyalty. More specifically, targeted digital incentives could make or break your customers’ purchasing decisions moving forward, and there’s data to back it up. When a shopper’s preferred brand offers a coupon, but another brand offers a marginally lower price, 61% will still purchase their preferred brand.

But do you have the data?

Connecting the right message to the right customers can preserve loyalty—but it takes data to seal the deal. Typically, retailers with brick-and-mortar presence struggle to identify and engage their customers, and rely their on loyalty programs to bring in customer intelligence. But given the changing attitudes toward brand loyalty in the past year, retailer’ loyalty data may no longer reflect your customer base.

Plus, on average, retailers only manage to get 5-15% of customers to sign-up for such programs – leaving the vast majority of customers unknown, not understood, and unreachable. If you’re struggling with unknown customers, the right customer data platform (CDP) can enhance and enrich your existing customer data.

Activate the right audience with Bridg

Using Point of Sales (POS) data, bank transaction data and Bridg’s  proprietary census of offline identity and behavior, we help retailers identify previously unknown individuals behind a credit/debit card transaction. We build unified, privacy-safe profiles of loyalty and non-loyalty customers with SKU-level purchase history and hundreds of enriching demographics, socioeconomic and lifestyle attributes that can be used to power analytics or targeted marketing.

As a result, retailers can activate the right audiences, reach them in a relevant way via various digital channels (directly from our UI!) and measure performance—no matter how volatile the market.

To get started on more impactful insights and personalization, connect with us today!

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Changes are afoot in the marketing and advertising world as a key lifeforce fades into extinction: the third-party cookie. Faced with the dilemma of how to continue delivering personalized customer engagements without it, 41% of marketers believe their biggest challenge will be their inability to track the right data (Hubspot).

But what if you already had the key insights you needed to understand your customers and drive revenue from your marketing spend? Let’s explore how enhanced first-party data can help you shed third-party dependency—and what steps you can take to future-proof your MarTech stack and prove incrementality today.

#1: Embrace the cookieless future

Cookies have been a best friend to businesses large and small for years, allowing brands to track web traffic, improve UX and collect data for targeted advertising. But now, thanks to shifting policies and growing concerns for consumer privacy, that’s all changing.

What’s happening, exactly? First, Google plans to phase out the third-party cookie from Chrome browsers and replace it with Topics API. Topics API assigns users a set of topics that represent their weekly interests based on browser history. Sites and advertisers receive three topics that represent their visitors’ interests. Apple, for its part, also now requires apps running on its devices to get consumer permission before tracking their activity. And new consumer data privacy laws continue to take shape across the country with data privacy proposals under review in Massachusetts, New York, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

What does it mean for brick-and-mortar retail and restaurant marketers? The shift away from third-party cookies represents a major shakeup to targeting strategies, since Chrome comprises nearly 60% of the web browser market, and more than half of all global web traffic (Statista). As new changes take hold, marketers need to prepare their tech stack and corresponding targeting strategies for a privacy-first future.

In a nutshell, consumers will choose whether or not to give you information, and you need to be prepared to capture and enhance that information to create a basis for targeting.

#2: Use first-party data to understand your customers

The easiest way to future-proof your marketing strategy in the face of changing privacy policies is to focus on shoring up first-party data, or information collected directly from your customers. The cookieless future is full of first-party data, but where do you actually get it? There are a number of sources within a retailer’s reach, including, but not limited to:

• Behaviors or actions taken across your website, app, and/or product (via the first-party cookie)
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system
• Social media profiles
• Subscription-based emails
• Surveys
• Customer feedback

Keep in mind that not everyone will opt-in, making these measures inconclusive when it comes to creating a full picture of your customer base. However, don’t forget about point-of-sale (POS) data. Since most consumers pay with cards (credit/debit), you automatically capture abbreviated card data from anyone who makes a purchase in your store. By layering this information with anonymized offline identity and behavioral insights, you can create a privacy-safe, 360-degree view of all your in-store customers.
The right customer data platform (CDP) can help you leverage this data in a privacy-safe way to gain insight into unknown consumers with access to item-level purchase history, demographics, socioeconomic, special interests, and predictive attributes in support of strategic and tactical decision making. But keep in mind: your insights need unifying: pull it all together to create a single, longitudinal consumer profile.

#3: Leverage your data & audiences—and reach out at the right time

Once you’ve enhanced your first-party data to create a deeper understanding of customers, it’s time to activate those insights and start engaging. Now that you know the “who,” you need to perfect the “where” and “when.”

Targeting your audience takes the right combination of data management platform (DMP) and demand side platform (DSP) capabilities. First, you need to clearly track and understand the user’s cross-device journey, particularly given the prevalence of omni-channel convenience. Next, you can buy advertising based on that information and reach your targets at the right time.

#4: Align your marketing goals & spend

The campaign is live. Is this the finish line—or the start of the race? It’s a trick question! Make sure you have the right measurement tools in place to “close the loop” on performance and incremental sales lift. Armed with the right analytics, you can make sure your marketing goals align to your spend to drive towards your business goals.

Here’s where the beauty of enhanced first-party data comes in: you’re already working from directly-measured, comprehensive insights to gain a deeper knowledge of customers, positioning you to make better-informed decisions across the funnel that drive economic outcomes.

Bridge the gap with Bridg

We work with brick-and-mortar retailers to help them solve the “anonymous consumer” challenge, identify the real person behind the in-store transaction and gain insight into SKU-level purchase history, demographics and more, all while protecting consumer privacy. These unique insights can help you drive targeted and personalized marketing communications across 200+ integrated advertising platforms for enhanced media efficiency and top line growth.

Ready to tackle the unknown by enhancing your first-party data? Let’s connect today.

Want to learn more about how POS data can help brick-and-mortar retailers overcome key marketing challenges? Check out our whitepaper here.

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Here’s the understatement of the year: retail media networks are getting big—and fast. As U.S. digital retail climbs to a projected $50B by 2023, both retailers and CPG brands are clamoring to cash in on the booming trend (eMarketer). But can retailers deliver on the data scale and nuanced analytics they need to pull it off? Let’s explore what’s at stake on both sides—and how retailers can future-proof their tech stack to deliver on ROAS and keep the network expanding.

‍Benefits galore

In many ways, retail media networks represent the ultimate win-win for both parties. 

Retailers who build or partner to create these channels open a new revenue stream while tapping into new brand budgets previously unavailable to them like media, search and social spend.

By advertising products on these networks, retailers also expose consumers to more “shelf” items that often go unseen in the e-commerce experience. And when brands succeed, so do retailers–with increased trips, loyalty, basket size and overall category spending. 

Brands, for their part, get direct access to verified shoppers when they are ready to buy, driving stronger awareness and sales for their brand.

In addition to increased ROAS and omni-channel sales, they can also achieve greater SKU visibility, strengthen their retailer relationships and gain a better understanding of the shopper at the retailer. 

‍First-party data wins the day 

At the top of the list for CPG brands interested in retail media networks is the opportunity to gain access to a retailer’s first-party data.  Changing privacy laws and the sunsetting of third-party cookies have magnified the value of first-party data for brands as they look for ways to future-proof their digital advertising strategy.

Most have used cookies to create, track and reach consumers with personalized marketing across sites. Personalized marketing has driven huge efficiency gains for advertisers, and retailer first-party shopper data offers CPGs a route back to a direct, measurable connection with the consumer in the impending post-cookie era.

‍Retailers are watching the challenges stack

Despite all the opportunity, many retailers face serious challenges in establishing the network and delivering the needed insights to prove ROAS for brand partners. Top obstacles include:

• Expense and complexity of building the tech stack
• Capacity to sell, plan and measure programs 
• Metrics and methodologies that differ from those of the brand partner or across retailers 
• Low onsite traffic
• Differentiation from other retail media network competition or other digital publishers 

Retailers are taking steps to address these challenges, namely through third-party partnerships and expanded in-house teams who can handle the tech stack and capacity challenges of building and maintaining the network. 

One challenge that has gone largely unaddressed, however, is that most retailers lack the scale, tools and data to compete with established advertising networks like Google and Facebook. In fact, many do not even realize they have a data scale problem until they’re live and running campaigns. That’s a big problem, since scale is often the biggest driver of ROAS—and CPG brands are already paying a premium at that point to advertise on the retailer’s media network. As retailers look to grow their retail media networks, a lack of data scale only stands to further impede their success.

‍The scale problem

In this sense, the biggest draw of the retail media network for CPGs is also the biggest challenge for many retail media networks. Many retailers simply don’t know who their customers are and rely on insufficient loyalty data to enhance their first-party data. As a result, those retailers are struggling to deliver the needed scale of first-party data to attract brand partners and make full use of their budgets.  And when first-party data isn’t sufficient, media spend shifts to third-party data, which means that to deliver adequate ROAS, impressions are over-delivered to a generic audience or spread over a longer period. 

In many cases, this means retailers are leaving money on the table. A large brand with $8M in planned annual investment, for example, may only be able to spend $5M of that commitment for a positive ROAS, as they cannot get as precise as needed with audience targeting. In addition, a limited 1P audience could make campaign measurement unfeasible for smaller brands with lower household penetration (HHP) or longer purchase cycles.

‍Identity resolution is the way forward

In order to remain competitive, it’s critical for retailers to optimize and expand their first-party audience. At the foundation of any retail media network, retailers need to be able to identify, understand and engage unknown store customers and provide a full 360 view including both online and offline sales at the individual level. 

Identity resolution greatly increases the scale and value of first-party data, unlocking greater spend from CPGs. For example, we worked with a Fortune 100 CPG retailer to identify unknown customers and better understand the shopping behaviors of a greater percentage of in-store customers. Now, they can reach 90% of their active customers through paid media.They’ve also been able to grow their media network by 17.5% and increase net sales during Q1 2022.

It’s important to note that most identity resolution solutions that are being leveraged by retailers today are not created equal.

Most of them are based on simple name and zip code/address matching or trade area appends, which happen to have very poor match-rates with numerous opportunities for error––and an inability to resolve identities to a single person.

You need to go beyond these simplistic approaches to ensure that only a single individual is tied to a transaction record and have a data platform in your tech stack that will allow you to do so with precision and accuracy, not extrapolation and guessing, and at scale. 

‍Identify unknown store customers with Bridg

As interest in retail media networks skyrockets, both the opportunity and the pressure intensify for retailers who need more first-party data. Those who can expand their first-party audience will be positioned to attract brand partners and keep growing the network.

We help retailers identify millions of unknown in-store customers, provide enhanced customer behavior insights along with SKU-level purchase history––all in a 100% privacy-compliant way. As a result, you can enjoy the same rich insight into consumer behavior, targeting capabilities and closed loop measurement that online-only retailers possess – which means you have the foundation you need to position your retail media network for the greatest competitive advantage.

Ready to expand your first-party audience and watch your media network thrive? Let’s connect today.

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