vide a better and more personalised service to customers.  Fantastic Furniture’s head of digital Edward Roberto told Inside Retail that the business is currently able to segment customer behaviour on its website using existing third-party data.  “But, when we layer on first-party data we can segment even better, and there seems to be more opportunities and emerging tech that will allow us to utilise that data [moving forward],” he said. Third-party data is collected across external websites and apps, and tends to deliver general customer segments, rather than specific information. First-party data, however, is provided by a business’ own customers, which tends to make the data more reliable and usable. The shift to first-party data in retail will be big, according to Roberto. The way the data is captured means that businesses will be able to glean a far greater amount of information from it, which could be invaluable during a time of shifting consumer behaviour.  “When you’re acquiring third-party data, that’s not necessarily your actual customers. You’re going off of some known segments and who you think your customers are,” Roberto said. “But, with people tightening their wallets, you might actually see your audience change. For us, as a value retailer, we might start seeing more affluent customers trading down, which can throw off that audience segment.” If businesses use first-party data, they’re more likely to see and understand any changes in consumer behaviour. “From my end, using first-party data gives us a clearer picture of who our customers are,” he said. Changing tact The move from third-party data to first-party data has been coming for a long time, Roberto said, with the death of third-party cookies making it more cost-effective for brands to capture their own data, and the increasing importance of data privacy and protection leading many brands to scrutinise their data security. But capturing data for data’s sake is pointless, and, actually, quite expensive. Speaking at the Gartner Marketing Symposium/Xpo conference this year, Benjamin Bloom said that by 2025, 75 per cent of marketing programs that leverage customer data will produce less incremental revenue than the cost it takes to acquire, manage and activate that data. Bloom, who is an analyst and vice president at Gartner, did note that in order to make data collection effective moving forward, brands will need to radically descope the amount of data they ask for from customers: focusing only on data that pertains to what customers find most valuable about their business. This approach could also assuage customers’ concerns about how their data is being captured and used.  If brands can prove that they are only capturing data necessary to provide a more personalised experience, customers will be more likely to be willing to share their data.  However, the situation is far from solved, and many in the digital space are still feeling their way through the shift: which could lead to some major changes. “I’ve talked to some counterparts and some partners and many of them don’t really know what it all means at the moment,” Roberto said. “It’s such a different landscape that we’re looking at. From our end, we rode a great wave when it came to e-commerce during the Covid-19 pandemic, and now we’re at this point where the market and e-commerce is going to be challenging.  “So what got us to where we are now isn’t going to get us there anymore, and we need to innovate and be a bit smarter and more creative. I think there’s going to be some great innovation. It’s really exciting.”