While information rules the world, customer data plays an equally important role in eCommerce. The more complete and up-to-date data a company's marketing team has, the better they can understand the target audience as a whole and its segments. With a comprehensive understanding of customers' pain points, aspirations, and desires, businesses can efficiently offer relevant products to consumers.

The masterful utilization of big data has become more accessible with the entry of Customer Data Platform (CDP) into the martech market.

In this article, we will delve into the key CDP solutions that are highly useful for eCommerce businesses and reveal the industry experts' experience with the platform. They provided valuable tips on what to consider when deciding to integrate with a CDP.

CDP’s Ability to Deal with Big Data

CDP helps transform raw data into structured data, providing professionals with valuable insights on how to communicate with their target audiences. Let's take a closer look.

Data collection from any source

One of the biggest challenges that CDP helps to overcome is the fragmentation of customer data across multiple systems. The dispersion of information makes it difficult for marketers to make data-driven decisions. Analyzing the results of marketing activities becomes a real headache.

Gathering all the big data in one place makes it easier to find interesting patterns in consumer behavior. For example, the software for creating animated presentations and instructional videos Powtoon has over 40 million users. Based on this massive database and using CDP solutions, the marketing team has gained valuable insights into users' behavioral patterns.

The data plays a significant role in understanding our users and enhancing their overall experience! Bringing together our users' data into a single repository has enabled us to gain insights into the actions that drive significant milestones. For instance, we have learned that when users utilize features such as rich text or sound uploads, they are more likely to progress to the next step, which is video export. Once users reach this stage, they are more likely to consider purchasing one of our paid plans.

Anna Levitin, 
Email & Marketing Operations Lead at Powtoon

To provide a quality user experience, a company needs to have complete information, including

• Static data (personal information that a customer shares with you — email, phone number, name, occupation, location, etc.).
• Behavioral data (information about the customer's actions across all touchpoints with the company).

Behavioral data is highly dynamic, continuously changing and updating to reflect consumer actions. The Yespo omnichannel CDP centrally collects online behavioral data for each user from multiple sources, including the website, app, direct channels, and third-party sources integrated into the system. For example, the marketing team of the RetouchMe app utilizes the CDP to collect and analyze user behavior data to drive desired actions.

We collect data on what our clients order, how often they do it, how much money they spend, and assess their satisfaction level. We also determine whether they use a subscription or not. Based on this data, we offer additional services, encourage clients to return, and motivate them to switch to a subscription.

Oleksandr Lozytskyi,
RetouchMe CEO and Founder

Structuring information and creating a single customer profile

CDP collects data from different sources in various formats, so the system processes and structures them. The platform creates a single customer profile for each new user. David Lottenbach from Bearsons Consult AG believes creating a unified customer profile is the only way to discover true value creation opportunities.

With separate profiles the customer becomes intransparent and contradictory. As a result, value creation opportunities are lost. With a unified customer profile, marketing strategy and action become more stringent and more obvious. For the customer, it becomes clear that he is in good, forward-thinking hands.

David Lottenbach, 
Bearsons Consult AG

During each customer activity across channels, the system recognizes a specific user and matches the received data with the corresponding profile, enriching it. This creates a 360-degree customer profile that is kept up-to-date and ready for

• segmentation,
• analysis,
• generating personalized product recommendations,
• running marketing campaigns.

For example, by creating single customer profiles, marketers at Boosta, a digital product business incubator, can enhance user experience.

Creating a customer profile helped us to know our customers better —  understand their needs and requirements, challenges, and pains. This approach helped us to improve our customer experience, resulting in higher client satisfaction, and to optimize our clients' buying experience.
It allows us to

• offer a more personalized experience by matching the customers with their choices,
• offer timely assistance and support if they struggle somewhere in their journey,
• customize the pricing and discounts policy (enable us to reward our loyal customers to continue their business and incentivize them to repeat the orders),
• reduce the churn on the funnel flow, etc.

Viktoria Karmazenko, 
Email Marketing Specialist at Boosta

Leverage Data for Personalization

With complete and updated data about the target audience, a company can personalize communications with consumers. Segmentation and product recommendations can be especially helpful. Let's take a closer look at these solutions.

Customer segmentation

Segmentation allows you to divide customers into different segments, where each segment is identified by a set of similar characteristics. In Yespo CDP, you can segment your audience based on multiple criteria and their combinations. When creating a group, you can include both

• basic consumer characteristics (such as gender, age, and location),
• buying/usage behavior (such as products of interest, actions on the website/app, amount and frequency of orders, and much more).

The primary segmentation criteria we use include geographical information and onboarding data, such as the goals a user aims to achieve with our tool. For example, if a user specifies in the onboarding questionnaire their intent to use Powtoon for creating marketing videos, our initial segmentation is based on this input. However, as we delve deeper into usage patterns and analyze clients’ behavior, we often discover that the majority of templates and props they utilize in videos are related to HR and talent acquisition.
In a nutshell, while it's crucial to segment users based on the data they provide, it's equally advantageous to filter users based on their actions and preferences, even when they may not state them.

Anna Levitin, 
Email & Marketing Operations Lead at Powtoon

Yespo omnichannel CDP provides Advanced segmentation — the platform can consistently associate events with a specific contact without the need for further processing by other systems, such as CRM. Additionally, it features built-in AI that makes predictions and identifies groups by the likelihood of potential actions. For example, by implementing customized predictive segmentation, the RetouchMe app was able to increase the number of VIP users and revenue.

We employ predictive analysis techniques to recognize customer behavior at early stages to determine if they are potential VIP clients and guide them to the "VIP" segment. Thanks to predictive user segmentation, the number of VIP customers of the app increased by 35% in 3 months, and revenue grew by 17%.

Oleksandr Lozytskyi, 
RetouchMe CEO and Founder

With Advanced segmentation, a company can use its marketing budget more efficiently, increase the average check and improve the LTV. After all, people are more likely to buy a product if it closely matches their needs.

We use various customer segmentation strategies to better serve our customers' needs. Here are several examples: repeat customer segmentation (first orders, non-first orders), geographic segmentation, feedback and review segmentation (depending on the rate), subject/topic segmentation, urgency segmentation, etc. 
Such advanced segmentation has led us to several outcomes — improving customer satisfaction as now they get more customized services; by identifying and rewarding loyal customers, we’ve increased retention; efficient resources using as now we can focus on critical areas.

Viktoria Karmazenko, 
Email Marketing Specialist at Boosta

Personalized product recommendations

Collected information about customer behavior can be utilized to generate product recommendations on the website, in the app, and across direct channels.

At Yespo, Recommendation Blocks are formed by AI algorithms, which analyze the customer's interaction history with the company and automatically add potentially interesting products. In cases where the system lacks data on a person, the algorithms will select popular offers and bestsellers.

The Yespo team has made the process of working with recommendations simple and convenient for marketers. The system has 198 of the most effective algorithms that businesses can use without involving developers or other resources.

In my work with product recommendations, I focus on customer behavioral data, such as products viewed, time spent on certain pages, etc. Using product recommendations has led to increased sales, higher average order value, and a better user experience.

Borislava Pancheva, 
CRM Specialist at Netpeak Bulgaria

In direct channels, product recommendations are commonly sent to customers in triggered campaigns, such as abandoned views. However, Yespo CDP has gone a step further by offering the ability to add blocks of personalized offers to mass email campaigns. In this setup, a marketer runs a campaign to a large segment of subscribers, but each email contains a block with products selected by AI for a specific customer. The set of recommendations is based on the customer's behavioral history, identified needs, and interests. An email with a personalized selection of products is more engaging and useful to the recipient, thereby increasing the likelihood of visiting the website and making a purchase.

Read about the outstanding results of such personalized mass campaigns in the case study.

Providing an Omnichannel Experience

Implementing an omnichannel strategy increases the effectiveness of personalized communication with customers. Omnichannel involves the coordinated use of all available channels within a single system. CDP collects real-time data about user actions across each channel and consolidates it into a single center. This is a two-way process because all the collected data can be used to personalize the CX in each channel.

If we are talking about customers, different direct channels help us to improve customer engagement. It has resulted in a positive perception of our brand (product). Also, we’ve noticed that using multiple touchpoints helps us to deepen our relationship with customers and improve loyalty and trust. And as we all know, satisfied and loyal customers are more likely to return to repeat the order. And we definitely see it.

Viktoria Karmazenko, 
Email Marketing Specialist at Boosta

Omnichannel is about using a single set of customer data to build timely and effective communications with your audience: sending relevant content through the right channel at the right time.

Yespo customers have the ability to run marketing campaigns in eight direct channels: email, web and mobile push, in-app, app inbox, widgets, Viber, and SMS.

The omnichannel approach not only strengthens the relationship between the company and its customers but also plays a key role in building customer loyalty. In today's world, where consumers have countless options and choices, I believe the ability to provide consistent and personalized service across all channels is a significant competitive advantage.

Borislava Pancheva, 
CRM Specialist at Netpeak Bulgaria

Tips from Experts: Getting Ready for CDP

CDP provides a great opportunity for business success. If you have decided that you are ready to grow using the platform's solutions, prepare for the integration in advance.

Anna Levitin has been through several software migrations and implementations in her career, and her main advice is to follow a principle: “WHY? WHAT? HOW?”

Why: Why can't the process be done in the old way? Why should a company change something that has been working for a long time?
What: What tool should we use? I'm a strong advocate for minimizing MarTech and selecting the right tool that can seamlessly integrate with other software.
How: How does the company benefit from this tool? How will your team carry out their daily tasks with this new solution?

When these answers align with the company's business goals and genuinely address them, you gain the full support of the entire organization. 

Anna Levitin, 
Email & Marketing Operations Lead at Powtoon

For companies considering implementing a CDP in their marketing strategy, Borislava Pancheva from Netpeak Bulgaria offers the following advice:

• clear and precise objective to pursue;
• data validation — data should be properly structured;
• familiarity with integration — it is very important to have checked the CDP integration options and methods before starting anything;
• team training — ensuring that the team is trained is key to maximizing the positive impact.

Successful CDP implementation requires a clear vision, commitment, the right resources, and an ongoing willingness to adapt.

Borislava Pancheva, 
CRM Specialist at Netpeak Bulgaria

RetouchMe CEO Oleksandr Lozytskyi highlights the importance of considering specific metrics that are important to your company.

It's essential to consider all KPIs important for your business. What you don't account for, you don't control, and consequently, you can't effectively use the CDP.

Oleksandr Lozytskyi, 
RetouchMe CEO and Founder

Victoria Karmazenko from Boosta warns that the CDP implementation process is neither quick nor easy. Integration requires significant time and effort, although platforms such as Yespo are striving to streamline the process. Victoria is confident that the benefits of using the platform will be impressive for both the client and the company and that the return on investment will exceed expectations.

For example, we’ve achieved several significant results:

• independence from the development team (you can only imagine how important it is for us that now we can plan/test/organize our work autonomously);
• improved customer personalization (that has led to higher conversion rate);
• enhanced segmentation (now we can target specific segments more effectively => marketing emails have become more efficient in terms of revenue);
• improved customer retention.

The last one, which is important for us personally, is that our impact is noticeable and valuable for business.

Viktoria Karmazenko, 
Email Marketing Specialist at Boosta

Conclusion

CDPs provide companies with a transformative opportunity to improve their marketing strategies and increase customer engagement. Key capabilities of CDPs include sophisticated data collection, customer segmentation, and personalized product recommendations. Advanced features enable businesses to enhance communications with customers and provide them with a seamless omnichannel experience.

According to the industry experts we interviewed, the process of integrating CDP into your marketing strategy takes time and effort. However, the results of implementing the platform's advanced capabilities can significantly improve your business performance.