In today’s data-driven landscape, the emergence of the first-party data revolution has fundamentally reshaped the way businesses approach their digital strategies. This shift demands a strategic evolution, where organisations must harness the power of their own customer data to drive personalised experiences, optimise marketing efforts, and unlock new avenues for growth.

Fantastic Furniture head of digital, Edward Roberto shares insights on the initiatives digital leaders should be considering to develop a balanced, efficient, and profitable marketing mix.

When optimising your technical stack, he says it’s important to always begin with evaluating the current tech stack to understand what’s there, what’s complimentary or overlapping, and the challenges, for a thorough understanding of the ecosystem.

“You can then layer in businesses’ enterprise structure, overall business challenges and goals to get an understanding of main objectives from a digital lens. All of this gives a firm ground on being able to streamline and optimise from a short to long term view and consider economic challenges, business impact and emerging tech,” Roberto told Retailbiz.

To reduce reliance on third-party channels and grow first-party data, he recommends reviewing media channel performance to understand efficiency and where to reinvest, whether it’s emerging channels to get a better return or new channels to reduce reliance on the core ones.

“First-party data seems to be growing in importance, as we see many more benefits outside of just acquisition cost and a cookie-less world with the ability to leverage in third-party channels,” Roberto said.

“This comes with ongoing work of data cleansing and profile building to ensure these lists can work hard for you as well as some firm strategies on how you can fold in database growth through current channels and new channels.

“As the market gets more competitive, businesses should address their tech stack and reliance on third-party channels. Addressing these are catalysts to unlock the real value of customer loyalty and CLV. Building your own lists and understanding who they are will help surface insights to better engage, build relationships and grow your business.”

Edward Roberto is a keynote speaker at this year’s Online Retailer Conference, Australia’s largest conference event for the ecommerce industry, held at ICC Sydney from 19 – 20 July, 2023.