Personalization and Data Strategy in a Cookieless World: Sector-Specific Playbooks for Retail, Travel, and Consumer Products

As third-party cookies are phased out, organizations across retail, travel, and consumer products face a pivotal moment: how to deliver the personalized, seamless experiences customers expect while navigating new privacy realities and data challenges. The answer lies in reimagining data strategy—anchoring on first-party data, leveraging advanced platforms and AI, and building trust through transparency. Here, we provide actionable, sector-specific guidance to help digital, marketing, and data leaders future-proof their personalization efforts and unlock new value.

The Cookieless Imperative: Why Change Now?

The deprecation of third-party cookies is not just a technical shift—it’s a fundamental change in how brands connect with customers. With consumers increasingly aware of privacy and regulators tightening controls, organizations must move beyond legacy targeting and embrace a privacy-first, value-driven approach. The winners will be those who can:

Retail: Building Loyalty Through Data-Driven Personalization

Sector Challenges

Retailers are under pressure to deliver profitable growth as e-commerce matures and customer expectations rise. Key challenges include:

Best Practices

  1. Unify Data Across Touchpoints: Invest in customer data platforms (CDPs) to consolidate data from online, in-store, and third-party sources, enabling a 360-degree view of the customer.
  2. Prioritize First-Party Data Collection: Incentivize customers to share data through loyalty programs, exclusive offers, and seamless account creation. Transparency about data use is critical to building trust.
  3. Leverage AI for Personalization: Use AI and machine learning to analyze behavioral, transactional, and contextual data, powering real-time recommendations and dynamic content.
  4. Activate Omnichannel Experiences: Ensure that personalization extends across web, mobile, email, and in-store, creating consistent and relevant journeys.
  5. Embrace Privacy-First Design: Clearly communicate data policies, offer granular consent options, and provide value in exchange for data sharing.

Real-World Impact

Leading retailers have realized significant gains by unifying data and deploying AI-driven personalization. For example, by consolidating customer profiles and activating insights across channels, retailers have improved loyalty, increased conversion rates, and unlocked new revenue streams through retail media networks—all while maintaining compliance and customer trust.

Travel: Turning Disruption into Loyalty with Intelligent Data

Sector Challenges

Travel and hospitality brands face rising acquisition costs, fragmented customer journeys, and high expectations for service recovery. The phasing out of cookies compounds these challenges by limiting traditional targeting and measurement.

Best Practices

  1. Invest in Identity Resolution: Unify customer identities across devices and channels to reduce wasted spend and enable personalized engagement.
  2. Maximize First-Party Data: Encourage account creation, app usage, and loyalty program participation to gather rich, consented data.
  3. Personalize Service Recovery: Use AI to tailor responses to service disruptions, turning negative experiences into loyalty-building moments.
  4. Modernize Measurement: Adopt advanced attribution and journey analytics to understand the true impact of marketing and service investments.
  5. Collaborate in Privacy-Safe Environments: Leverage data clean rooms and secure partnerships to enhance targeting and measurement without compromising privacy.

Real-World Impact

Travel brands that have invested in unified data and AI-driven personalization report up to 63% higher retention rates and significant reductions in acquisition costs. By personalizing offers and service recovery, they transform disruptions into opportunities for deeper customer relationships.

Consumer Products: Direct-to-Consumer Growth Through Data Innovation

Sector Challenges

Consumer products firms are accelerating digital and direct-to-consumer (D2C) strategies, but often struggle with siloed data, limited analytics maturity, and evolving privacy regulations.

Best Practices

  1. Centralize Data and Analytics: Move toward unified platforms that integrate data from e-commerce, retail partners, and D2C channels, enabling holistic customer insights.
  2. Enhance First-Party Data Collection: Use subscriptions, specialty packs, and exclusive content to incentivize data sharing and deepen relationships.
  3. Apply AI for Demand and Experience Optimization: Leverage AI to predict demand, personalize product recommendations, and optimize pricing in real time.
  4. Foster a Culture of Data-Driven Innovation: Upskill teams, encourage experimentation, and involve leadership in setting KPIs for AI and analytics initiatives.
  5. Balance Personalization with Privacy: Clearly communicate data practices, offer opt-in experiences, and enrich first-party data with second-party partnerships where appropriate.

Real-World Impact

Consumer products leaders who have unified data and embraced AI are delivering more relevant experiences, improving service, and driving profitable growth—even as privacy expectations rise. By connecting data across the enterprise, they are better positioned to innovate and respond to changing consumer needs.

The Path Forward: Action Steps for Every Sector

  1. Audit Your Data Landscape: Identify gaps in first-party data collection, integration, and activation.
  2. Invest in Modern Data Platforms: Prioritize CDPs and analytics solutions that enable real-time, privacy-compliant personalization.
  3. Embed AI and Automation: Use AI to scale insights, optimize journeys, and deliver value at every touchpoint.
  4. Champion Privacy and Transparency: Make privacy a core part of your value proposition, not just a compliance checkbox.
  5. Measure What Matters: Align KPIs with customer value and business outcomes, not just clicks or impressions.

Why Publicis Sapient?

With deep expertise across retail, travel, and consumer products, Publicis Sapient partners with organizations to design and implement data strategies that drive personalization, loyalty, and growth in a cookieless world. Our proprietary methodologies, advanced technology partnerships, and commitment to privacy-first innovation ensure our clients are ready for what’s next.

Ready to future-proof your personalization strategy? Let’s start the conversation.