Many data enrichment tools are out of reach for ecommerce marketing teams due to cost. Enterprise-grade platforms feel built for teams much larger in size. Scrappier tools feel like a gamble, lacking SOC2 Type 2 certification or scraping data from the internet.
Key Takeaways
- Data enrichment enhances first-party customer data with additional attributes to improve marketing segmentation and profitability.
- Marketing teams must determine if they can manage data independently without needing engineering resources.
- Data quality relies on ethically sourced information, high match rates, and consistent record refresh cadences.
- Successful platforms must prioritize persona and data actionability to convert customer insights directly into measurable revenue growth.
Most data enrichment platform comparisons start with side-by-side comparisons of integrations, data points, and API capabilities. But they don’t answer the question that actually matters - will it help you grow profitably at your size and stage? This guide identifies the seven essential factors for selecting an e-commerce data enrichment tool that delivers measurable business outcomes.
- Data Foundation & Sourcing
Enriched data makes for a stronger foundation, but it is only valuable if it’s accurate and properly sourced. Ensure your enriched data is ethically sourced with strict vetting and regulatory compliance. While some vendors offer third-party enrichment, many scrape data from the internet, making it less reliable and likely to be outdated. Ask about data sources, match rates, and refresh cadence. Additionally, the platform you choose should remove duplicate data and combine records that overlap.
- Data Security
Find a data partner who maintains SOC2 Type2 compliance to protect your customer data. It is your most valuable marketing asset, and protecting it against a data breach should be top of mind.
- Cost Structure and Transparency
E-commerce brands should look past the headline price to understand the total cost of ownership. Ask how the platform actually bills: per enriched contact, per active record, or a flat platform fee. Usage-based pricing often looks affordable at a small scale, but becomes unpredictable if your business sees major growth. Ensure you know pricing is structured and plan accordingly.
- Integrations and Resources
Can your enrichment tool plug into your existing stack, like your ecommerce platform, ESP, and ad platforms? Will you require engineering resources, or can the marketing and ecommerce team configure it independently? How long does implementation take? If you’re a growing brand, you know that it’s rare to have a dedicated data engineer on staff, so a platform that can be implemented in days - not weeks or months - is essential. Additionally, you’ll want to connect directly to your primary marketing and advertising platforms for activation.
- Usability for Marketing & Ecommerce Teams
With business moving more quickly than ever, marketing and ecommerce teams don’t have time to wait days or weeks to get an answer about their data. They need to be able to access it quickly and easily, and understand what to do with the insights. You shouldn’t need engineering or analysts to get pulled in whenever a new segment needs to be generated.
- Scalability for Future Growth
Find a platform that will help you grow, and that grows with you. Understand what happens to pricing and performance as you scale up. The right fit is a tool that can grow with you without forcing a re-platforming decision after just a year or two.
- Customer Support
Find a vendor who acts as an extension of your team. If you have an urgent need, you’ll want to know that you can get in touch with support immediately, without having to submit a ticket and wait. Responsive, knowledgeable support is often as important as the product itself.
- Actionability of the Data
The reason why you need data enrichment is to better understand your customers so you can improve marketing and ecommerce strategy. Find a platform that not only enriches your first-party customer data, but that allows you to easily pull insights using natural language, get recommendations tailored to your brand, and action on it from the very same platform. Without action, your insights will sit in the platform unused with no impact on profitable growth.
Looking Beyond the Feature List
Even with a solid checklist in hand, it’s easy for missteps to happen. A few common mistakes to watch for:
Ignoring Integration Processes - Understand potential integration roadblocks and fees in order to avoid delayed implementation, additional engineering costs, or ongoing maintenance fees.
Underestimating the Need for Support - Teams often assume they won’t need much help, and that’s often true. But when something comes up it becomes imperative. Strong support teams will not only help you through implementation and times of urgency, but will meet with you regularly to help strategize - ensuring that you’re getting the most out of the platform.
Comparing Feature Lists, Not Outcomes - Two platforms with nearly identical feature lists can produce very different results for your specific business. Anchor your comparison in the seven factors above to help stay on track.
Platforms like Decile provide a holistic view of the customer journey by integrating enrichment with direct activation capabilities. Unlike other tools, Decile is with you all the way through activation, meaning you can seamlessly onboard segments into marketing and ad platforms with just a few clicks. We maintain the highest security standards and source data from highly reputable vendors who are trusted by the most conservative organizations, such as financial institutions.
Brands that get the most out of a data enrichment platform are the ones that evaluate cost, integrations, data quality, usability, scalability, support, and actionability together. Use this checklist as a starting point, and you’ll be equipped to choose a platform that actually fits where your brand is today, and where it’s headed next.