Zero Party Data: Complete Guide for E-commerce Brands

What is zero party data?

Zero party data is information a customer shares with you deliberately, usually in response to questions you ask.

Typical examples:

"My main skin concern is hyperpigmentation."
"My dog is a 3-year-old Labrador with a sensitive stomach."
"I'm most interested in plant-based proteins."

Analysts at Forrester, who popularised the term, describe it as data that a customer intentionally and proactively shares with a brand in exchange for a better experience. It is not inferred from behaviour or bought from third parties.

Common types of zero party data for e-commerce:

Preferences: skin type, flavours, fabric sensitivities, price comfort Goals: clearer skin, better sleep, more energy, more sustainable choices Context: who they are buying for, pet breed and age, life stage Communication channels they care about, product categories they want to see

You typically collect this through quizzes, short forms, in-email questions, and preference updates, and save it on the customer profile in your CRM.

[IMAGE: Simple table or infographic showing the four categories of zero party data (Preferences, Goals, Context, Communication) with ecommerce examples for each | Alt text: Four types of zero party data for ecommerce brands with examples]

Zero vs first vs third party data

Zero party data often gets mixed up with first-party data. A simple way to keep them separate:

Data type: Zero party How you get it: Customer tells you directly Examples: Skin concern, dietary needs, pet breed Notes: Explicit, contextual, permission-based

Data type: First party How you get it: You observe behaviour on your own channels Examples: Opens, clicks, purchases, browsing history Notes: Essential for understanding what people do

Data type: Third party How you get it: You buy or borrow it from another source Examples: Brokered audiences, third-party cookies Notes: Increasingly restricted and less transparent

In practice, the strongest CRM programs combine:

First-party data to understand behaviour Zero party data to understand reasons, preferences, and constraints

Benefits of zero party data: customer experience and revenue

Zero party data is not only a compliance or "nice to have" topic. Used well, it changes what customers see and how much value you get from each relationship.

Customer experience benefits

More relevant content and offers: When recommendations and campaigns reflect stated skin concerns, pet needs, or health goals, emails feel less random and more like a service.

Less friction and guesswork: Customers do not have to keep telling you the same things, and they spend less time digging through products that clearly are not for them.

More control and trust: Clear questions and preference options show how you will use the data, which supports trust and gives people a simple way to steer what they receive.

Better perception of the brand: Research from Epsilon found that 80% of consumers are more likely to make a purchase when brands offer personalised experiences, and 90% find personalisation appealing.

Revenue and LTV benefits

Higher campaign and flow revenue: Segmented and targeted email campaigns consistently outperform broad sends. DMA has reported that segmented campaigns can generate up to 760% more revenue than non segmented campaigns, mostly by sending fewer but more relevant messages. Similar numbers were seen using interactive emails, allowing customers to fill out surveys directly inside their inbox.

Improved conversion rates and basket sizes: When recommendations fit the context a customer has shared, they are more likely to convert and to add complementary products that make sense for their situation.

Stronger retention and LTV: McKinsey analysis suggests companies that excel at personalisation can see 10–15% revenue uplift and higher customer loyalty over time. Zero party data gives CRM teams the inputs they need to move closer to that level of personalisation in email and lifecycle programs. In addition, the expectation of receiving personalized information is at 71%.

More efficient paid media: Segments based on clear, declared preferences and goals make better seed audiences for lookalikes than broad "all purchasers" lists, which can improve acquisition efficiency.

Source: McKinsey

In practice, these benefits show up as better engagement, more repeat purchases, and a higher share of revenue coming from existing customers, without a significant increase in send volume.

How to actually use zero party data

Many brands already collect some zero party data, then struggle with "now what?".

The value comes from plugging it into specific decisions.

Here are the main ways e-commerce teams use it.

Tailoring welcome flows

Example for skincare:

Ask: "What is your main skin concern?" and "How would you describe your skin type?"

Use these answers to:

• Branch the welcome flow into different storylines (acne, sensitivity, aging, pigmentation)

• Change which products are featured first

• Swap educational content (routines, ingredients to focus on or avoid)

Improving recommendations and merchandising

Example for pet brands:

Ask: "What breed of dog do you own?", "Does your pet have any allergies?"

Use these answers to:

• Filter out products that are not suitable

• Highlight products other similar pets do well with

• Adjust replenishment and reminder timings

Designing more relevant campaigns

Example for supplements:

Ask: "What is your main health goal right now?" (sleep, stress, energy, gut health).

Use these answers to:

• Build segments by goal

• Swap parts of campaigns to match that goal

• Decide who should receive specific launches or bundles

Making lifecycle flows feel less generic

Zero party data can shape:

• Post-purchase sequences that speak to why someone bought

• Winback flows that address the right objections

• VIP and loyalty communication that reflects what they value

Customers experience this as emails that are more useful and relevant, with fewer messages that feel random.

Why zero party data matters now

There are several reasons CRM and marketing teams are giving this more attention.

Privacy and data limitations

Regulation and platform changes mean you have less reliable third-party and cross-site behavioural data. Google's Privacy Sandbox, cookie deprecation, and similar shifts reduce the amount of granular targeting you can do based purely on tracking.

Zero party data is gathered on your own channels, under your own consent framework, from people who know what they are sharing.

Expectations for relevance

Customers have become used to digital products that respond to their behaviour. When they tell a brand "I have sensitive skin" or "my dog has allergies" and then keep receiving unsuitable suggestions, it feels careless.

Zero party data gives you a straightforward way to avoid obvious mismatches and to focus on what people said they care about.

Pressure to get more value from the list

It is usually cheaper to increase revenue per subscriber than to keep raising acquisition budgets. A well-used set of zero party data fields can:

• Improve conversion rates in existing flows

• Increase the performance of campaigns without sending more emails

• Help you identify the segments that justify more investment

The main challenge: people not completing surveys and quizzes

Most teams have ideas for questions they would like to ask. The real bottleneck is completion.

A typical "linked-out" survey or quiz flow looks like this:

1. Customer opens the email

2. Clicks a link or button

3. Waits for a new tab to open

4. Waits for the page to load

5. Sees the survey or quiz

6. Reads and completes it

7. Submits

There is potential drop-off at every step. Surveys and form providers often report much higher open and click rates than completed responses once people are sent to a separate page.

Common friction points:

• Slow page loads, especially on mobile

• Distractions once someone leaves the inbox

• Long or complex surveys

• Unclear explanation of why you are asking

This is why many brands see a large gap between the size of their list and the size of segments that have useful zero party data attached.

How e-commerce brands collect zero party data today

You can group most approaches into four patterns.

On-site quizzes and product finders

On-site quizzes are effective for guiding browsing visitors and capturing detailed preferences.

Strengths:

• Help people choose products with confidence

• Can collect several data points in one experience

• Feel natural during discovery

Limitations:

• Mostly help when someone is already on the site

• Data sometimes stays in the quiz tool instead of the CRM

• Can be heavy to maintain if they are not owned by the CRM team

Preference centres

Preference centres allow subscribers to adjust:

• Topics of interest Frequency (for example, promotions vs product education)

• Sometimes product categories or formats

Strengths:

• Good safety valve to prevent unsubscribes

• A natural place to store more static preferences

Limitations:

• Usually buried in the footer or unsubscribe flow

• Often only used when someone is already unhappy

• Still send people out of the email to a page

Post-purchase and NPS surveys

These are sent after an order or milestone and ask about:

• Satisfaction Reasons for buying

• How they discovered you

• Suggestions and feedback

Strengths:

• Great timing: you have just delivered value

• Useful for product and experience decisions

• Provide both quantitative and qualitative signals

Limitations:

• Often link out to a survey on the web

• Completion depends heavily on friction and timing

• Sometimes sit in tools that are loosely integrated with CRM

In-email forms and interactive elements

Instead of sending people to a landing page, in-email forms and interactive elements let subscribers answer directly inside the email.

In practice this looks like:

• Short forms embedded in a welcome or post-purchase email

• A few questions that can be answered with a tap or a quick input

• Quizzes that start and finish in the inbox for many recipients

Tools such as Kinetic make these experiences possible in major inboxes like Gmail and Apple Mail and provide a landing page fallback for other clients. All responses are automatically saved as custom fields in Klaviyo.

The key benefit is fewer steps between question and answer. For example, Dr. Emi Arpa Skin tested a standard email linking to a web form against an interactive, in-email form powered by Kinetic. With the same audience and questions, the in-email version increased response rate by 188%.

(read the full case study)

Best practices for collecting zero party data

Choose a small set of high-leverage questions

Start with questions that clearly change what happens next. For example:

• Skincare: "What is your main skin concern?" and "How would you describe your skin type?"

• Supplements: "What is your main health goal right now?"

• Pet brands: pet type, breed, age, size, and any allergies

Questions like these drive:

• Which products to feature

• What education content to send

• Which flows or branches to use

Lower-priority questions can come later through progressive profiling.

Keep each interaction short

Aim for:

• One to three questions per touchpoint

• Simple answer formats where possible (images to click on, short text)

• A series of small asks, instead of one long survey

This keeps completion rates high and makes customers more willing to respond again in future.

Ask at natural points in the journey

Zero party data works best when the questions match the moment.

Good examples:

• Welcome flow: basic preferences and goals

• First purchase: why they chose the product, who they are buying for

• Replenishment: whether they finished on time or earlier/later than expected

• Winback: why they have not ordered again, what would make them return

If a question does not clearly help the customer get more from the product or content at that moment, consider dropping or delaying it.

Explain the value clearly

People are more likely to answer if they understand the benefit.

For example:

• "Tell us about your skin so we can skip products that are a bad fit."

• "Share your dog's details so we only recommend suitable food and treats."

• "Choose your main goal so your emails focus on what matters to you."

Make the value explanation as visible as the question itself.

Connect responses to your CRM

Zero party data is most useful when:

• You actually use it to improve customer experiences

• Each answer maps to a clear field (for example, skin_concern, pet_allergy, goal)

• Your ESP or CDP can use those fields for segments, filters, and flow logic

• Data stays in sync across tools over time

Many form and quiz tools, including in-email solutions such as Kinetic, allow you to connect responses directly to platforms like Klaviyo. This lets you build segments and dynamic content based on those properties without exporting and importing lists.

Close the loop

Customers notice when you act on what they told you.

On the web, this often means:

• Finishing a quiz with a clear product or routine recommendation

• Showing how their answers shaped that recommendation

In email, you can do something similar:

• Follow up an in-email question about skin concern with a routine tailored to that concern

• Use an interactive email to both collect the information and immediately present relevant products or content based on the answer, all within the inbox

Over time, this builds trust and makes people more willing to share additional information.

How zero party data improves journeys and performance

To summarise how this looks across your lifecycle:

• Welcome: different tracks based on concern, goal, or use case, instead of one generic story.

• Post-purchase: follow-up content and cross-sells that make sense for the reason someone bought.

• Replenishment: reminders and offers timed to how people actually use the product, not just a fixed schedule.

• Winback: messages that address the main reasons lapsed customers give you, rather than a single discount email.

• Campaigns: promotions and content that vary by preference, category interest, or goal, so fewer people receive irrelevant emails.

The customer-facing benefits are simple: emails feel more tailored, more useful, and less repetitive. On the business side, this usually shows up as higher click and conversion rates, lower unsubscribe rates, and better performance from the same number of sends.