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Transforming Customer Data Usage into Meaningful Personalisation

Discover how brands can leverage customer data for personalised shopping experiences: Insights by Juliette Aiken, CMO of Dotdigital
Customer Data

At the end of every year, Spotify users eagerly await the release of Spotify Wrapped, the personalised recap of their year in music. From most-streamed songs and genres to listening habits during specific months, the roundup is informative, customised, and fun. It’s also been imitated. A lot. With companies big and small offering their own iteration. The concept offers users unique and engaging insight. So, what if retailers did the same?

By utilising customer data in this way, brands could share insights into shopper’s past purchases, most-browsed items and product categories, and items added to wishlists, while presenting this in a visually enticing way. This isn’t data for the sake of it though. Recaps like this are something that customers actually want  – that much is clear from the fact that videos with the Spotify Wrapped hashtag were viewed 66.5 billion times on Tiktok alone in the days after the recap went live in 2023, and this year, it reached fans in 184 markets around the globe.

Despite the huge potential marketers have here, Dotdigital’s global Hitting the Mark report found that only half of America brands are collecting zero-party data, meaning millions are struggling to deliver personalised experiences. This may have something to do with confusion or uncertainty regarding how to approach data-related issues – such as data siloes, problems with data hygiene, a lack of skills in converting raw data into something visually compelling, or concerns around regulations.

One relatively simple but overlooked tool is geotargeting, with only 11% of brands leveraging location-based personalisation. In fact, this form of connecting with shoppers can often be the most effective, especially for brands looking to boost shopper engagement in their physical locations, like food and beverage businesses.

Collecting interest data from shoppers – such as what other brands they’re interested in, what events they like to go to, and where they prefer to shop – is another way to tailor their shopping journeys as it crafts a more complete picture of the customer. Despite that, only 28% of brands are doing it. It’s another major missed opportunity when it comes to personalised product recommendations and targeted marketing that resonates with consumers.

As we move into 2025, addressing customers by their first name simply won’t cut it; customers expect highly personalised shopping experiences, and if brands can get that right, then they can benefit from it too as they’ll experience higher rates of customer loyalty and satisfaction.To achieve this, marketing teams must invest time and resources into pinpointing what’s holding them back, whether that’s skills, data siloes, or regulatory concerns. This could involve identifying gaps in their strategies, understanding customer friction points, or recognizing untapped opportunities in their existing processes. Once these barriers have been identified, the next step is to harness the full potential of customer data — including behavioural patterns, preferences, purchase histories, and feedback — to construct a captivating and relatable customer story. The best thing is, for marketers, your own customers are your greatest source of insight. Now, go ahead, use the data, create the insights, and reap the rewards!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Juliette Aiken, CMO, Dotdigital

Juliette is the Chief Marketing Officer at Dotdigital. She originally started in the business as a Product Marketer 5+ years ago and now heads up a 20+ strong team of super talented marketers encompassing the fields of campaign marketing, product marketing, content, and more.

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