3 Examples Of Improving Customer Experience with Zero-Party Data

If you work in marketing, sales, or eCommerce, you’ve probably heard about the impending death of third-party data by now.

And while this unexpected shake-up has thrown countless marketing and personalization strategies into disarray, other brands seem unaffected.

In fact, other brands are steadily improving their customers’ experiences, driving revenue with personalization, and capturing market share with fine-tuned marketing campaigns despite browsers like Chrome and Safari upending years of digital marketing strategies.

But, how? What do these brands know that their competitors don’t?

It’s simple. They know how to leverage zero-party data to fulfill all of their data capture needs.

Zero-party data is data that comes directly from the source - customers. Unlike invasive third-party data-capturing strategies, it hinges on understanding and consent. Customers are taking a proactive and voluntary role in the data collection process, rather than being unwitting participants.

Despite zero-party data being a relatively new development in the digital marketing and eCommerce world, its philosophies have already produced exceptional results for early adopters like L’oreal, Good American, and My Jewelry.

Let’s break down their success together to build a better picture of zero-party data in action!

Improving Customer Experience

Zero-party data empowers brands and businesses to do everything they did with third-party cookies, only better.

With third-party cookies, brands had little control or input regarding how, where, or when data is collected. As a result, brands were left with a degree of guesswork when it came to essential topics like customer preferences and intent.

With zero-party data, brands can say goodbye to that guesswork and enjoy access to feedback provided freely, honestly, and thoroughly by their customers using simple quizzes or surveys, or in exchange for tantalizing gated content.

Brands can ask their customers directly about their favorite products, campaigns, and features to ensure their personalized experiences and product recommendations are fine-tuned and compelling to their target demographics.

And unlike third-party data, when zero-party is done right customers will be excited to share their information with you. Recent studies found that more than 70% of customers are inclined to share their personal information in exchange for improved personalization.

3 Examples Of Companies That Use Zero-Party Data

Let’s take a look at three brands that implemented a zero-party data playbook to excellent results.

My Jewelry

My Jewelry implemented a product-based quiz called the “style finder’ that grew leads while generating valuable, actionable zero-party data.

Their style finder quiz generated data that allowed My Jewelry to upgrade their customer experience personalization, improved customer service outcomes, and decreased the brand's risk exposure during data collecting.

Using the data gathered from quiz-takers to guide their digital marketing led to an impressive 20% increase in email open rate.

ZooPlus

ZooPlus, a growing pet supply business, uses zero-party data to fine-tune its newsletters, product recommendations, and customer experiences.

How? With a simple registration form!

When new ZooPlus customers create an account online, ZooPlus asks them a few strategic questions that empower the company to turn one-time customers into repeat shoppers.

By asking new members a few short questions about their pet, like:

• What kind of pet do you have?
• How big is your pet?
• Does your pet prefer toys or treats?

ZooPlus gained crucial insights that allowed them to improve its customers’ experiences. The most crucial part of their strategy? They only asked the most pressing questions that would directly impact customer experience.

L'oreal

Popular beauty brand L’oreal also uses zero-party data to drive brand building, build customer loyalty, and increase revenue.

L’oreal uses a variety of polls, stories, surveys, and more on social media to capture invaluable data from its target markets. L’oreal took collecting data directly from consumers one step further when it implemented its virtual try-on feature.

This creative approach to zero-party data capturing allowed customers to select and “try on” their favorite products using their cell phone’s camera. Then, customers could share their augmented pictures directly to their social media accounts, generating grassroots buzz for the powerhouse brand.

How Zero-Party Data Can Improve Company ROI

Most businesses understand that data means revenue.

But what most businesses don’t know is that almost eight in ten consumers are happy to provide contact information, product preferences, and attribution information when there’s a clear benefit being offered. Zero-party data takes advantage of this particular consumer behavior using transparent and consensual tools for data collection, like:

• Post-purchase surveys
• Quizzes
• Social media stories
• Polls
• Questionnaires

So, how does this translate to revenue? Through brand loyalty and unmatched personalization capabilities.

In a time when over 90% of Americans are concerned about their privacy online and 84% want more control over how their personal data is used, companies that are proactive about respecting and protecting the digital privacy of their customers can gain some serious brand loyalty points.

63% of consumers say most companies aren’t transparent about their data collection or use and 88% say their willingness to share personal information with brands and businesses hinges on earned trust. Companies can make major inroads as digital privacy regulations and concerns grow more popular by being early adopters of transparent, consensual systems like zero-party data collection.

Now, on to personalization.

Personalization is limited by the quality of your data. With zero-party data, your brand is getting input “directly from the horse’s mouth.” Unlike old-school third-party collection methods, it empowers businesses to be confident that the insights gained from their data are relevant, accurate, and most importantly - actionable.

You can be sure your personalized experiences and product recommendations are driving repeat business because your repeat business gave you the data!

Improve Customer Loyalty and Increase Sales

The death of the third-party data collection system represents an opportunity. An opportunity for brands and businesses to take control of their own data using only the most ethical and effective methods available.

By doing so, brands can push customer loyalty to new heights, court digital privacy-minded shoppers, and increase sales and revenue with spot-on product recommendations and experience personalization.

If you’re ready to say goodbye to outdated data collection and start harnessing the brand and revenue-building power of zero-party data, check out our post-purchase survey app that empowers you to begin collecting data straight from your customers on your Shopify store entirely for free.

Want to learn how to set up your post-purchase survey for your brand? Read more here.