The imminent disappearance of third-party cookies: what consequences for e-tailers?

At a time when the GAFAMs are racking up a string of setbacks, including a record 2.4 billion euro fine against Google for abusing its dominant position, the noose is tightening on practices that fail to respect privacy. Against this backdrop, the Mountain View giant has announced its intention to phase out third-party cookies from its Chrome browser. What does this mean for e-commerce professionals?

Google reiterates its intention to delete third-party cookies

" Users are demanding more privacy, transparency, choice and control over how their data is used, and Google is evolving to create an ecosystem that meets these growing demands," explains Justin Schuh, Director of Engineering for Google Chrome.

Initially scheduled for early 2022, the removal of third-party cookies from the Chrome browser has been postponed once for 2023, then a second time for the second half of 2024, officially to " give stakeholders time to prepare for a cookieless future ".

Cookieless: what are we talking about?

Cookie-free refers to a web environment in which browsers, and more generally software, applications and advertising agencies, cannot use third-party cookies to "recognize" users. Cookies are computer files placed by a web browser on a terminal (computer, smartphone, tablet, etc.) that monitor the user's activity in a more or less intrusive way, manage sessions, memorize browsing preferences and identification information, etc.

Before discussing the consequences of cookieless, we must first distinguish the purpose of first-party cookies from that of third-party cookies:

• First-party cookies only monitor the user's activity on a particular website, in order to improve the browsing experience and bring it into line with current standards. The cookieless world ahead does not call first-party cookies into question.
• Third-party cookies relay session data throughout the user's browsing time, from one site to another, and provide granular data on identity, interests, purchasing intentions, etc. These cookies are perceived as intrusive, and therefore raise privacy issues. These cookies are perceived as intrusive and therefore raise privacy issues. In marketing terms, they facilitate targeting and advertising retargeting, notably by exploiting the surfer's browsing history.

Cookieless: what are the implications for e-commerce?

Apple and Mozilla removed third-party cookies from their respective browsers (Safari and Firefox) several years ago. If Google's decision has had more resonance, it's because its browser (Chrome) dominates the debate, with over 65% market share. Inevitably, the disappearance of third-party cookies will have a number of consequences for e-tailers. Summary :

• Retargeting consists of displaying advertising from a previously visited website "A" on an insert placed on another website "B", using the user's browsing history and third-party cookies. Retargeting makes it possible to reach a qualified audience with a strong intention to buy. With the disappearance of third-party cookies, advertising agencies will no longer be able to track Internet users' browsing behavior in order to display advertising banners on third-party sites. In concrete terms, e-tailers will no longer be able to advertise their products on other sites to web surfers who have already visited their online store.
• Conversion tracking. In a cookieless world, it will become increasingly complicated to identify the source of a conversion, whether in a basic "last click" model or a more complex "Data-Driven Multitouch" model. The result: less reliable and less in-depth advertising reports.
• Advertising spamming. In a cookieless world, advertisers will no longer have visibility over the number of impressions of the same ad for the same surfer. As a result, Internet users run the risk of seeing a banner ad several times, ad nauseam. The result: an anti-advertising outcry from audiences and a drop in campaign ROI.
• ROI of an advertising impression. It will be difficult, if not impossible, for the e-merchant to make the link between an advertising impression and the conversion that may result from it.
• Personalization. The disappearance of third-party cookies will further complicate the personalization of the omnichannel experience... a major expectation of Internet users, more and more of whom are using several different terminals in the same purchasing process.

What will e-commerce look like without third-party cookies?

While it promises to revolutionize e-commerce, the imminent disappearance of third-party cookies is above all an opportunity to align with consumer demands for data protection. To ensure business continuity in a cookieless world, e-tailers will be able to activate a number of levers:

• Invest in first-hand data to better understand the behavior of Internet users on their e-store. To do this, they can rely on first-party cookies, surveys, loyalty programs, customer service interactions and so on. This data can be used to create detailed customer profiles that can be used to segment and target marketing messages. It can also be used to track customer behavior over time and identify trends that will help e-tailers refine their offer and automate certain marketing actions with a reasonable degree of personalization.
• Second-party data. If you're not in a position to collect first-party data due to your industry or the type of products you sell, you can explore secondary data providers. This type of data sharing is generally considered more ethical than third-party data collection, as users have already authorized the collection and sharing of their data (survey platforms, market research, etc.).
• Heatmaps to understand how visitors interact with the different pages of your store, what information they are looking for, what prompts them to add products to the shopping cart and how you can get them to engage more proactively. Heatmaps will also enable you to identify pages or blocks where consumers tend to lose interest in your website and/or abandon their shopping carts.
• The Customer Data Platform (CDP) to centralize and unify first-party data scattered across various marketing tools and platforms. This gives you a complete view of your customers, enabling you to create more relevant and reasonably personalized experiences across all channels.

Of course, first-hand data collection must be accompanied by a Data Quality strategy to ensure that the data is reliable and can be used with complete peace of mind. Corporate databases contain between 15% and 25% of information that is unusable because it is incorrect, incomplete or obsolete. That's why Data Enso offers e-tailers simple, 100% RGPD-compliant solutions.