Across every industry, marketers have worked hard this year to ramp up their collection of first-party data. With the erasure of cookies quickly approaching and the loss of tracking mobile IDs, it’s what marketers believe is the best way to future proof their strategies. And, they’re not wrong. “Your first-party data is your most valuable asset,” is a phrase that the Decile team uses every day. From subscribing to loyalty programs to entering giveaways, consumers have been open to sharing this data with their favorite brands. Without the concern of tech giants selling their personal data, consumers view sharing their information as being more intentionally connected to the companies they choose to support.
This has introduced an entirely new obstacle, however, as brands now need to quickly figure out how to build out the detailed customer profiles they wish to utilize in the midst of rapidly changing consumer purchase behaviors.
Just as we all thought holiday shopping in 2020 would be the most atypical year we would see for years to come, 2021 has been unlike any other. Customer acquisition costs have seen a sharp increase, shipping & inventory has been delayed, and customers began their holiday shopping even earlier this year. Consumer data shows that 61% of purchasers began holiday shopping as early as October, and this year’s online sales on Black Friday marked the first time that growth declined in comparison to the previous year, according to Adobe.
What’s a marketer to do?
Despite the challenges that many e-tailers have seen this year, and in contrast to Adobe’s report, brands supported by Decile’s analytics platform have seen an increase in revenue and lowered customer acquisition costs.
Through our ongoing partnership with a large direct-to-consumer intimates brand, Decile began planning their Black Friday / Cyber Monday strategy by reviewing the brand’s Customer Cohort Reports. Our insights revealed that during their 2020 holiday sales period, over 71% of their orders came from repeat purchasers. Looking deeper into these insights, we advised a strategy that would target customers that were at risk or had lapsed based on the timeframe of their last purchase. We were quickly able to view results after the 2021 sales period showing that not only did the revenue from repeat purchasers increase by 10% year over year, a halo effect brought their overall acquisition costs down by 76% for new customers.
A New York based family skincare brand we partner with took a slightly different approach with their holiday sale. Since the launch of a new category into their product lineup this spring, Decile has shown that this new category has had the lowest customer acquisition cost for the brand and is their most profitable. To be sure they could meet the demands of orders and mitigate any inventory issues, they launched their holiday sale earlier this year and directed new consumers to their top selling first purchased product. By doing this, the brand has discovered a new hero product, a new customer segment and brought their customer acquisition costs down by 27% from the previous month.
With the right support tools, like Decile’s analytics platform, it could save your brand and data analyst years compiling all of that essential data into meaningful analytics. Learn how Decile can help you create a customer-centric e-commerce experience with your first-party data.