How is consent and preference management connected to the retail industry?
Key points:
With the UK retail industry growing constantly, new players are looking for opportunities to leverage, while existing players are looking to stay competitive.
Collecting and leveraging customer data and building data-driven strategies became necessary to stay ahead of the competition.
While data-driven strategies are more helpful than ever, with data collection comes the UK GDPR, a data privacy and security law that sets strict regulations for companies on collecting and, most importantly, protecting customer data.
That is where consent and preference management comes in. With consent and preference management, retail companies like yours can ensure that customer data is collected and managed while still complying with laws like the UK GDPR.
This article covers what “consent and preference management” is, how this applies to your retail business, how to become GDPR compliant, and what you can achieve.
What is consent and preference management, and why is it important?
Before we dive deeper into how you can use consent and preference management to your advantage, let’s take a quick look at what consent and preference management means and their differences.
- Consent management
Set of rules or a platform that lets your customers decide what kind of sensitive information they want to share with your retail company. (You need consent for ad targeting, cookies, and processing sensitive data.)
- Preference management
A means for your customers to choose how they would like to be communicated by your company.
While consent and preference management often go hand in hand, there are some key differences you should be aware of:
- Consent management involves setting a range of rules or a specific platform that allows your customers to decide the exact information they want to share with you.
- Preference management refers to gathering data from and connecting with your customers at the time and on their preferred platform. That means your customers can choose how and when you can communicate with them.
Why is knowing this information important?
Because only informing your customers about how you’ll collect their data is no longer enough.
The GDPR states that your customers should also be able to opt-in or out of data collection.
You should also explain of what data is being collected and what it is being used for.
So, for that, you need consent and preference management.
How can consent and preference management help retail companies?
Now that you know what consent and preference management is and why it is important, let’s go over how it can help your company stay competitive and compliant.
- Give customers greater control of their data and retain them.
71% of customers want to control their data, and almost the same number would willingly share their information if this was the case.
With consent and preference management, you can:
- Identify gaps in your current set-up and compare them against GDPR requirements.
- Determine if your consent request to your customers is straightforward. For example, through your analysis, you may also find pages on your website where visitors can miss consent requests.
2. Increase the accuracy of your information.
As a retailer, you may currently be processing large volumes of data, resulting in obtaining data you might not need for your business strategies.
With consent and preference management, you can:
- Set policies on what data you want to collect according to your goals and ensure that you comply with the GDPR.
- Optimise your data collection to ensure you only gather the information you require from your customers.
- Reduce the time you need to spend removing irrelevant data.
3. Stay aligned with UK GDPR requirements.
Consent and preference management helps you develop detailed policies that align with the UK GDPR.
It allows you to:
- Keep up to date with changes in GDPR compliance requirements through regular checks.
- Adapt and change your policies as needed to maintain your compliance, which supports the continuous improvement of your data collection strategies.
Now that you have all the information on consent and preference management for retail, let’s look at the return on investment (ROI).
What ROI can you expect from implementing consent and preference management?
Implementing effective consent and preference management provides multiple revenue opportunities for your company.
Here are a few:
- Save time and money.
Comply with the UK GDPR laws, and avoid fines or penalties.
- Stay ahead of the competition with zero-party data.
Switching to zero-party data, consensual and voluntarily given data, will be crucial to a successful data strategy. With more platforms stopping third-party data collection compared to unprepared competitors, you’ll benefit from an uninterrupted strategy, and not lose important data.
- Improve data management.
Consent and preference management processes ensure that collected data is easily accessible from a single source of truth. With more visibility, you can stay on top of changing consumer tastes and spending patterns and adjust your targeting and product or service offerings.
How can DataGuard help retailers stay competitive?
With our GDPR-compliant Consent and Preference Management solution, DataGuard helps you:
- Stay GDPR compliant at every stage of your customer’s retail journey
- Boost opt-in by over 60%, give your customers a richer brand experience, and improve retention.
- Work more efficiently and save time with one source of truth for all your first-party consent.
- Build customer trust with transparent, compliant, and easy-to-understand cookie consent policies and tools.
Are you interested in learning about consent and preference management? Get in touch with our experts today.
