First-Party Data for Retailers: A Strategy Beyond Cookies

First-party data is information customers share directly with you: orders, accounts, email and SMS sign-ups, preferences, reviews and on-site behaviour, collected with consent. Google decided in 2025 not to force a new third-party cookie prompt in Chrome, but that has not made borrowed tracking data more reliable, and Australian privacy law and shopper expectations are tightening. Retailers who build clean, consented customer data in one place will target, personalise and measure better than those relying on third parties.

What actually happened to cookies

For years the industry prepared for Chrome to phase out third-party cookies. In April 2025 Google announced it would keep its current approach to third-party cookie choice in Chrome and not roll out a new standalone prompt. Users can still manage cookies in Chrome's settings, Incognito mode blocks third-party cookies by default, and Google said it would continue adding tracking protections.

So third-party cookies did not disappear. But that is not the point for retailers. Ad-blocking, browser protections in Safari and Firefox, consent choices and app-level tracking limits already reduce what third-party data can see. The durable asset is data your customers give you.

Why Australian retailers should act anyway

Shoppers care. The OAIC's Australian Community Attitudes to Privacy Survey 2023 found:

• 62% of Australians see protecting their personal information as a major concern in their life;
• 84% want more control and choice over the collection and use of their information;
• most consider it fair and reasonable to give organisations only their name (81%) and email address (77%), with fewer comfortable sharing phone number, date of birth or address.

The law is moving. The first tranche of Privacy Act reforms, introduced in September 2024 and passed in November 2024, strengthened the OAIC's enforcement toolkit with new civil penalty tiers and infringement notices, and introduced a statutory tort for serious invasions of privacy, as the OAIC summarised at the time. In September 2026 the Privacy Commissioner said a second tranche was still awaited; in 2024 the Commissioner had called for it to include a new positive obligation that personal information handling be fair and reasonable. This is general information, not legal advice; check current obligations with a qualified adviser.

Your own data is often scattered. Salesforce's 2026 ANZ research found only 24% of Australian organisations have customer data fully unified across sales, service, marketing and commerce. Among those with fragmented data, 49% report slow or ineffective responses to customer issues and 43% struggle to measure the impact of commerce investments.

What good first-party data looks like for a retailer

1. Transactional data: orders, items, values, channels, delivery locations, returns. You already have it; the issue is that it sits in separate marketplace and store systems.
2. Declared preferences (often called zero-party data): sizes, interests, product categories, communication preferences, given in quizzes, account settings or post-purchase surveys.
3. Engagement data: email and SMS opens and clicks, site searches, wishlist adds, reviews.
4. Consent records: what each person agreed to and when.

Keep only what you will use, explain why you collect it, and make opting out easy. That is both lower risk and more in line with what shoppers say is fair.

Turning data into results

First-party data pays off in three places:

• Personalisation. McKinsey's personalisation research finds it can lift revenue by 5% to 15% and cut acquisition costs by as much as 50%. See our article on personalisation that works.
• Advertising. Hashed, consented customer lists power lookalike and retention audiences on Google, Meta and TikTok without third-party cookies.
• Measurement. Server-side order data lets you see true revenue per channel, including marketplaces, rather than relying on pixel-based attribution.

Key figures

• Google confirmed in April 2025 it would not introduce a standalone third-party cookie prompt in Chrome (Google Privacy Sandbox, 2025).
• 84% of Australians want more control over the collection and use of their personal information (OAIC, 2023).
• 62% see protecting their personal information as a major concern (OAIC, 2023).
• Only 24% of Australian organisations have fully unified customer data (Salesforce, 2026).
• Personalisation can lift revenue 5% to 15% (McKinsey, 2023).

How eComChannels helps

Most retailers already hold valuable first-party data; it is just split across marketplaces, a web store and spreadsheets. eComChannels brings it together.

• Order management puts orders from every channel, including Amazon, eBay, Kogan and your own store, into one place, giving you a single view of what sells, where and to which regions, the base for better forecasting and marketing.
• Branded storefronts let you own the relationship: accounts, consented sign-ups and preferences captured on your domain rather than a platform you rent.
• AI social media outreach uses what you know about your best-selling products and audiences to plan content across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest and more, cutting the hours spent on manual scheduling.

Better targeting from data you own, with less manual consolidation. Book a demo or start a 30-day free trial.

FAQ

Are third-party cookies going away in Chrome?

Not on the original timetable. In April 2025 Google said it would keep users' existing cookie choices in Chrome settings rather than launch a new prompt. Other browsers already restrict them, so do not build your strategy on them.

What is the difference between first-party and zero-party data?

First-party data is anything you collect directly, such as purchases and site behaviour. Zero-party data is a subset that customers deliberately tell you, such as sizes or preferences.

Do I need consent to email customers who bought from me?

Australia's Spam Act rules on consent and unsubscribe apply to marketing emails. Requirements depend on the situation, so check ACMA guidance or get advice.