ognising the vast potential of alternative data sources, particularly zero and first-party data. Here’s a look at how the shift to a cookieless future will reshape marketing strategies, empower consumers, and enable personalised experiences that prioritise data privacy and trust. Sorting out the jargon Let’s tackle the elephants in the room first: sorting out the jargon.  Zero-party data refers to information that individuals willingly and directly share with a company or brand. It’s when customers voluntarily provide details about their preferences, interests, and needs.  This data is explicitly given by consumers through surveys, feedback forms, or interactive experiences.  First-party data is the information that companies collect from their own interactions with customers. It’s the data they observe and gather while customers engage with their website, app, or other owned channels.  For instance, when a customer browses a website and the website later remembers their preferences, purchase history, or items left in their shopping cart, that’s first-party data.  Brass tacks According to Ananda “Andy” Chakravarty, IDC’s VP of research for retail, the phasing out of third-party cookies is a significant change for retailers in the APAC region, but most of them have been preparing for it for a few years. “Key issues will be limited identification of customers, challenges in personalisation without opt-in, limited and less accurate targeting, and hindered retargeting capabilities,” he told Inside Retail. He believes that zero-party data is more accurate, relevant and up to date than third-party cookies. Essentially, first and zero-party data are much higher quality as they stem from verified customer information. Nonetheless, he believes that larger brands will have an advantage in this area, as they already have strong customer relationships and trust in order to solicit data and information from consumers. “Data sourcing will become more critical and probably more costly initially. Zero-party data is held close to the vest by many in the industry. The activities will also limit marketers from reaching those who haven’t built trust with the organisation,” he said. Overcoming scepticism While Chakravarty acknowledges that first-party data is technically provided by the user, it might be forced in the sense that there’s a quid pro quo for offering up the data – in the form of coupons, access to information, or other incentives. So, how can marketers effectively address the challenge of customer resistance to data collection and overcome scepticism about data privacy and transparency? “Multimillion dollar question. Branding, reputation, and how data is managed and treated by an organisation plays a huge role in consumer scepticism,” he noted. Basically, he said that marketers will need to deliver personalised and individualised customer engagement. The better marketers understand a customer and their current context, the better they can configure offers, marketing messages, and tailored experiences. The big picture According to Gerry Murray, research director for marketing and sales technology research at IDC, the phasing out of third-party cookies is a bigger deal for advertisers than those who do email marketing, but he feels it’s clearly a cultural trend. “Third-party cookies have in a lot of ways made marketers lazy, as many think consumer data is a commercial entitlement, as opposed to something that they had to really go out and earn as well as be creative in order to learn something about a consumer,” he told Inside Retail. He is of the opinion that first-party data has the advantage of being more recent, reliable and relevant to marketers. This can help marketers be much more precise in terms of timing, messaging and the presentation of their marketing initiatives. “Digital marketers have largely been operating under this myth that all third-party data and surveillance have helped them create magic moments for their consumers. It’s not magical when the consumer does not participate and consent to all the information being gathered,” he elaborated. The way forward Murray noted that customers are “sick and tired of feeling like everything they do online is going to come back to haunt them, as every click has consequences.”  It’s all about giving power back to consumers, and not having brands track them and target them with advertisements. “I think there is a natural shift when marketers stop relying on third-party data and do outreach better. For example, if you buy a shoe from a company, that company should get to know you, offer different services, get you connected with the community of a running group, and so on,” he added. Ultimately, he feels marketers and retailers need to realise that the customer relationship with a company takes precedence over their relationship with a marketing department. “You need to be able to share the same level of personalisation from front office interactions with salespeople right up to an e-commerce site. Marketing needs to set a high standard for personalised interactions, and the customer will expect a sustained effort across the board,” he noted. At the end of the day, Murray believes companies need to embrace retail’s cookieless future. The real differentiator for brands will be how data infrastructure is managed. Whether it’s finance, customer support, e-commerce or marketing, it all needs to be linked. “It’s the underlying data, the infrastructure that has become the big tentpole, on which all these capabilities rely on. So that’s the big deal, it’s about embracing the future, and investing in data infrastructure,” he concluded.