How AI Is Changing Marketing Personalization

3 ways artificial intelligence is used to augment customer experience

Consumers are facing more choices every day and the sense of overwhelm is often paralyzing. Instead of making a decision, many simply defer making purchases.

In addition, when shoppers aren’t getting the products that are right for them, they’re more likely to return the items. This eventually increases cost and impacts profits.

Using AI-driven technologies, such as machine learning, predictive analytics, and natural language processing, marketers can now leverage customer data and use marketing personalization to offer customized recommendations that help consumers reduce overwhelm and find the most relevant products.

Here’s how AI is changing and improving marketing personalization:

Personalize interactions at the individual level

Accenture found that 41% of U.S. consumers have switched brands due to lack of personalization in their customer experience.

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In the past, most product recommendations were made based on broad-stroke segmentation, static demographic, or transactional data that may or may not be the best fit for each individual customer.

By using AI technologies, marketers can now identify and analyze consumer data from all touch points to offer the most relevant content, products, and services.

Besides basic information, AI can incorporate real-time data such as location, context, and behavior to deliver the most appropriate customer interactions.

For example, by combining location information with a customer’s preferences and past purchases, TGI Friday was able to increase conversion rate by 35%.

Increase the effectiveness of content marketing

Prospects and customers at different stages of their customer journey have unique questions and concerns. You need to deliver the right content to the right place at the right time to effectively move them along the funnel and shorten your sales cycle.

AI-driven technologies can analyze user interactions with your brand on multiple channels in real time and deliver the most relevant content or offer through the most appropriate platform to increase your marketing ROI.

For example, when a prospect has visited your website multiple times, shown interest in content on a particular topic, and reviewed the sales page of a certain product, you can deliver content designed for the consideration or purchase stage to help close the sale.

Improve pre and post-sales customer support

Chatbots often come to mind when we talk about AI and natural language processing. From live chat to messenger apps, chatbots can facilitate pre and post-sales support to increase conversion and improve customer satisfaction.

By programming a series of chatbots to answer specific questions or send complex queries to agents, you can reduce wait time, help shoppers make better purchasing decisions, and provide real-time support to existing customers.

For example, Winne is a chatbot that assists website owners to choose hosting providers. 72% of users who use this bot on Facebook Messenger click through to an affiliate hosting provider.

 

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Effective AI-driven personalization Starts With the Right Customer Data

In order to optimize the use of AI technologies, you need to ensure that your customer information is well-organized in a centralized database and can be updated in real time based on customers’ interactions with your brand.

A robust data management platform (DMP) is the foundation of any effective AI-driven marketing strategy, which allows you to capture meaningful data and extract actionable insights.

To see how our customer data management system and decision engine can help you take marketing personalization to the next level, schedule a demo today.

How 3 Top Brands are Using Personalization

These days, customers want to feel that they’re being heard and understood by their favorite brands. In fact, 73% of consumers want a more personalized shopping experience. Personalization allows brands to create a unique experience for their customers — in turn, demonstrating that they are being heard, and hopefully contribute to increased sales volume.

And, it is working. According to a study done by Infosys, 86% of consumers are influenced by personalization when making shopping decisions. Consumers are motivated to purchase more when they are made to feel relevant.

Thus, personalization has become increasingly important for brands and their success. Let’s take a look at three brands that are succeeding by bringing personalization into the consumer journey.

Burberry

This 156-year-old brand has pioneered a different kind of personalization for customers. Partnering up with Pinterest, Burberry has given customers a way to build personalized boards with product content provided by Burberry.

The “Cat Lashes” promo initiative offers a personalized experience for customers based on their makeup preferences. Users take a quick questionnaire and get personalized makeup looks and tips through a personalized Pinterest board. Burberry promotes their Cat Lashes Mascara through the Pinterest boards. The personalized boards also offer tips on how to create relevant looks for each customer while also using the Cat Lashes Mascara.

According to an internal study, 42% of consumers have bought products based on promoted pins they saw on Pinterest. Burberry’s “Cat Lashes” initiative is, therefore, capitalizing on Pinterest’s broad consumer base. The personalized boards serve as a promotional hub for the Cat Lashes Mascara, as well as related and relevant Burberry products.

GILT

Gilt.com was listed in Fast Company’s Top 25 Innovative Companies in 2010and ranked first in fashion that year. How did a company, which launched in 2007, garner so much success in just five years? The reason is that the online retailer personalizes sales and promotions for each customer and app user.

The luxury flash sales site has installed a personalized user page online and on the mobile app. This personalization feature is called “Your Personal Sale,” and goes beyond the daily e-mails a shopper receives. The personalized sales, generated by an algorithm, takes into consideration a customer’s entire shopping experience. Based on factors such as purchase history, geographic location, browsing behavior, and personal preferences, “Your Personal Sale” finds fresh items and deals daily. Personalization goes one step further, with Gilt.com also considering size, categories, and brands that customers frequently engage with. Each personalized sale lasts 24 hours, after which a new set of deals and sales are presented. According to CIO Steve Jacobs, personalized sales are “the next phase of the flash sale model.” The company leverages the sense of discovery the app provides, “tailoring [the] shopping experience just for them.”

Gilt.com brings personalization to the online fashion and retail platform and makes a conscious effort to tailor products to its customers. According to  Jacobs, “people are coming back more frequently, and they’re excited to see what’s in their sale tomorrow.” Personalized sales pushed the online retailer to be valued at roughly $1 billion just after five years of launching. Gilt’s personalization strategy has propelled the e-commerce company to enormous success.

Spotify

The online music platform Spotify is the leading music streaming host, despite competitors like iTunes and Google Play.

The introduction of personalized playlists has distinguished Spotify from other streaming sources.

One of these personalized playlist functions is “Discover Weekly.” Discover Weekly is a service which personalizes to each listener’s taste across a variety of genres. A personal playlist of 30 songs is curated and released each Monday based on listening habits. The music streaming service has also launched the “Release Radar” feature. Every Friday, the two-hour playlist is updated with newly released music from artists and bands a listener frequents. In addition, listeners who curate their playlists receive personalized suggestions on their playlists as well. The streaming service learns from personal preferences, songs skipped and replayed, and even looks at micro-genre music preferences to curate the best suggestions for each listener.

Spotify’s lead engineer and algorithm creator Edward Newett says, “we’re trying to show that Spotify understands users better than anyone else.” Within the first 10 months of launching, Discover Weekly saw 5 billion song plays. Senior product owner Matt Ogle says Discover Weekly’s success has “completely changed” the way Spotify interacts with consumers. The great success with user personalization has also increased consumer loyalty. Spotify boasts 40 million paid subscribers, compared to Apple Music’s 20 million paid subscribers.

Personalization is key to a brand’s success and transforms the customer experience. The focus on personalization allows many of these companies to grow as customers engage with brands more and more. With personalization on the rise, it will be interesting to see how industries implement various personalization tactics into their customers’ experiences.

Kohl’s is Winning With Omnichannel Strategies  

combining digital and in-store

As the retail industry is changing, many brick-and-mortar retailers are employing omnichannel marketing strategies to fend off digital giants like Amazon. When it comes to successful omnichannel, a complementary relationship between brick-and-mortar and digital assures companies greater success.

In this third and final retail installment, let’s take a look at how Kohl’s is using omnichannel strategies to create a customer-centric approach.

MOBILE APP

According to STORES Media Editor Susan Reda, “retail’s balance of power resides firmly in the hands of the consumer.” With e-commerce gaining more momentum, many consumers have shifted toward online shopping. The Kohl’s Mobile app is playing a key role in helping the retailer keep up with tech-savvy consumers. Kohl’s effectively leverages the mobile app as an in-store partner and offers a customized shopping experience.

App users who walk into a Kohl’s store have the option of using a feature of the app that tailors to that specific store. The ‘Store Mode’ function personalizes to each customer’s store location and allows shoppers to search for store inventory and see in-store promotions while shopping. Customers can also check the price of store items and see other related goods. The Store Mode function gives Kohl’s a synthesized digital and in-store landscape.

Kohl’s also offers enhanced payment capabilities through the mobile app. Customers can pay with Apple Pay, a one-tap checkout option, in the brick-and-mortar stores and mobile app. Shoppers also have the choice of adding a Kohl’s credit card as a form of payment within Apple Pay. Consumers further have the option of scanning and saving gift cards to the Kohl’s mobile wallet.

Thus, paying for items in the brick-and-mortar stores blends seamlessly with mobile payment features, and customers are provided with a convenient shopping experience. Kohl’s gives shoppers more online and offline purchasing choices, thereby increasing the traffic to stores. The Kohl’s mobile app is a powerful tool which encourages online browsing and in-store sales. The app infuses digital into the in-store experience, creating a smooth customer experience.

STORES AS WAREHOUSES

Kohl’s continues to leverage its physical stores with the implementation of click-and-collect. Shoppers can make purchases online or through the mobile app, and pick them up at a convenient Kohl’s location. The company utilizes the brick-and-click concept, to make the brick-and-mortar stores act like warehouses for online orders. In turn, Click and Collect makes customer shopping more convenient. Click and Collect provides flexibility and ‘real time’ fulfillment for consumers. With consumers coming in store to pick up items, foot traffic to brick-and-mortar facilities is increasing.

The retailer is also using inventory at its brick-and-mortar stores to fulfill online shopping demands. Using local inventory, Kohl’s moves goods that are not selling in stores. Consequently, this speeds up fulfillment since the stores are closer to customers’ homes.
Kohl’s is creatively using its brick-and-mortar stores to make online and offline more connected. As consumers shop online, the retailer uses brick-and-mortar stores as makeshift warehouses, and in turn, makes the shopper’s experience easier and more convenient.

Kohl’s adapted the mobile and brick-and-mortar stores to become highly leveraged and synchronized units. The retailer has used the mobile app and brick-and-mortar adaptations to boost sales and create an inclusive customer experience. Previously, we looked at the successful omnichannel strategies implemented by Nordstrom and Neiman Marcus. We have finally rounded off our omnichannel trilogy by taking a look at Kohl’s and how this retailer has implemented omnichannel successfully. While these three retailers are ahead of the curve with omnichannel marketing, it will be exciting to see where other retailers take omnichannel.

 

Neiman Marcus: Omnichannel Strategies to Bridge the Gap

Integrating Brick-&-Mortar and Digital  

Technological advancements are redefining the way customers interact with retailers.

Customers now expect much more from brands they love, and omnichannel strategies are driving development within marketing departments to meet these expectations. A plethora of companies and retailers have introduced a seamless shopping experience across mediums by implementing omnichannel marketing strategies. From brick-and-mortar to website to mobile app, shopping has become a fully integrated experience, thanks to omnichannel.

Last week we dove into the Nordstrom’s world and reviewed the different ways the retailers use omnichannel to enhance the customer experience. Today, we are continuing this and looking at how luxury retailer Neiman Marcus is integrating brick-and-mortar with digital to create a heightened customer experience.

Mobile App

Despite having only 42 brick-and-mortar stores, compared to most luxury retailers with anywhere from 60 to 100 stores, Neiman Marcus is still the biggest luxury retailer in the world.The 42 brick-and-mortar stores play host to a large number of fashionable and high-end items. According to CEO Karen Katz, however, the luxury retailer has a “robust selection of products online that [they] don’t have room for in [the] brick-and-mortar store.” Consequently, Neiman Marcus’ efforts to bridge the gap between the products available virtually and physically, have given way to a successful mobile app. The mobile app serves as a larger commerce platform, as well as, a conduit for customer engagement with Neiman Marcus by making shopping easy and convenient for customers.

Customers have a way to shop on-the-go and find more products that cannot be found in Neiman Marcus stores. In-store associates are equipped with tablets featuring the app and help customers quickly find products online and offline. Sales associates are also encouraged to direct customers to browse through the online and mobile stores. Customers can access these same sales associates via text, email, phone call, or FaceTime while on the app. Neiman Marcus also has a solution for finding any item, from anywhere, within minutes. The mobile app has introduced a new feature called “Snap. Find. Shop.”. The feature allows shoppers to take photos of clothing and accessories they see at any store, and the app will find the exact or similar product on the Neiman Marcus mobile store. The mobile app provides customers with a smooth blend of online and brick-and-mortar services, heightening the customer experience.

Virtual Dressing Room

Another way Neiman Marcus digitally transformed the in-store experience is by adding digital dressing rooms. The retailer deployed the “Memory Mirror,” a device which enables shoppers to digitally compare outfits and items of clothing while in the physical store. Acting as a large video screen and camera, the Memory Mirror allows customers to see outfits from 360 degrees. The mirror is password-protected and connected to shoppers’ Neiman Marcus account. Customers log into the mirror and can browse outfits they previously tried on and captured in 360-degree, eight-second videos. These “try-on videos” can be saved to the customer’s mobile device, emailed, and shared on social media. Shoppers can also compare clothing options side-by-side, as the mirror remembers what the customer has already tried on. This initiative enables customers to experience flawless digital integration and increased interaction with Neiman Marcus. The Memory Mirror is a complementary blend of brick-and-mortar and digital shopping.

Neiman Marcus relies equally on mobile and brick-and-mortar stores. The seamless incorporation of online and offline has kept customers highly engaged with the retailer. The customer-centric philosophy has propelled Neiman Marcus into implementing innovative and different omnichannel strategies. Neiman Marcus has truly made the digital shopping experience and physical shopping experience seamless. 

Tune in next week as we take a look at the third and final retailer in our omnichannel trilogy – Kohl’s.

Nordstrom’s Omnichannel Success

Culture of Innovation

Innovation is risky business, but not innovating is even riskier. In a world where technologies are rapidly changing, companies must be willing to evolve in stride. Several companies are doing so by shifting to an omnichannel marketing strategy. Omnichannel approaches are synchronizing the shopping experience across mediums for retailers.

Some retailers have successfully incorporated omnichannel strategy into their marketing strategy. Over the next few weeks, we will examine a trilogy of retailers and the wins they have achieved through an omnichannel approach.  Today, we are going to focus on one of the most popular luxury retailers- Nordstrom.

Part I: Nordstrom

Nordstrom worked to reinvent itself around the omnichannel shopper. According to the President of Stores, James Nordstrom, retailers need to focus more on the total experience than strategy for specific channels; “[At Nordstrom, we] don’t think the customer is loyal to channels. We don’t hear customers talk about channels very much. Customers value experiences.” Consequently, this belief is guiding Nordstrom’s omnichannel strategy towards creating a synchronized and seamless customer experience.

Rewards Program

The omnichannel focus of the Nordstrom Rewards loyalty program gives customers a chance to gain points regardless of which channel they purchase items.These loyalty members can also then track their activity from anywhere. Shoppers can use their mobile number as identification instead of memorizing a loyalty account number. An omnichannel approach to the rewards program has given Nordstrom a more open policy focus. The open policy focus allows shoppers to pay in whichever method they choose, shop whichever way suits them and still gain more loyalty points and rewards. Nordstrom shoppers are winning more, ensuring customer loyalty.

Social Media Influence

The luxury retailer is also approaching shopping from a multichannel perspective, and one of their innovative initiatives has been integrating with the mobile application, Instagram, and social media/organization platform, Pinterest. Nordstrom has made it possible to buy items from Instagram and find items based on Pinterest favorites. Instagram has been a modeling platform for retail items. However, a grievance shoppers have, is the inability to locate and buy the items presented on Nordstrom’s Instagram account. The retailer’s Instagram account now features a link which directs customers to Like2Buy, a platform that makes Instagram shopping easy. All of the items available for sale from the retailer’s feed are displayed as an elegant grid of photos. Shoppers can then scroll and “like” items, which are curated into a personal wishlist or shopping cart. 

Pinterest is a social media platform which allows users to “pin” things they like or want to “boards” for later reference. It indexes all the different items, ideas, and interests we come across online. Pinterest gives Nordstrom insight of which items are popular among shoppers. Nordstrom has brought these “pinned” items to their physical stores. Stores display commonly tagged or “pinned” items from Pinterest. The luxury retailer also adopted that feature on their website. Shoppers can now see a “Top Pinned” landing page on the site. Nordstrom doesn’t limit themselves to a single channel. The retailer has effectively leveraged their social media user base to enhance the shoppers’ experience by including the favorite and trendy items on Instagram and Pinterest in their stores.  Not only do customers see more products, but they are buying more at one time and are coming back for more of the items they love.

Nordstrom had experienced success by understanding that customers value an enhanced experience. Nordstrom has provided its customers with a retail experience that spans online, offline, and social media outlets. Shopping has become a synchronized and seamless experience – Customers can easily find the products they love and find them from anywhere. Tune in next week as we take a closer look at Neiman Marcus and how they are using omnichannel marketing to benefit their shoppers.

 

5 Insurance Companies Crushing It With Omni-Channel Personalization

 

As omni-channel personalization moves to center stage in the retail markets, insurance companies are forced to join them. The switch is less about staying afloat with the market trends, it’s become essential for remaining as a business.

Some insurance companies do this right, growing their consumer base through targeted advertisements, appeal of their support, and personalized interfaces. Others are still trying to play catch up in the fast paced digital market.

 

The Consumer Journey

The battle starts here. So many fronts have opened, thanks to an online world, that reach consumers at various levels. Social media, advertisements, and search engines all attract potential clients and start them on their journey.

Where many companies fail is guiding them through that trip. While customers view every interaction with a business as a collective path, leading them to their desired end-state, insurance companies continue to see each event as singular. The agent is in a different department than the IT team, so how would that affect the customer?

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The insurance companies that are dominating the market and continue to grow understand how to integrate their different branches into a unified front. They see the IT guy as part of the journey rather than a separate road the consumer can travel.

More so, in a market where empathy can breed success, customers are starting that journey with well defined interests. Life insurance to help their family after a death. Vehicle insurance to get them back on the road after an accident. Whatever type of insurance they’re requesting is important to them. Identifying this and being able to track it through each of these departments can better assist the customer.

McKinsey reports that “more than 80 percent of shoppers now touch a digital channel at least once throughout their shopping journey”. Try to say the IT guy isn’t an important part of that path now.

More than 80 percent means it’s not only important to be segmenting the audience for personalization, it’s become vital. In the same report, McKinsey stated that, “satisfied customers are 80 percent more likely to renew their policies than unsatisfied customers.”

Through the collection of data points, insurance companies can personalize their approach to the individual, building a crucial sense of trust by tending specifically to the customer’s needs.

 

Personalization for Insurance

A study by Accenture found that “78 percent of customers say they would share personal information with their insurers to obtain personalized services.” Over a third also claimed they’d willingly pay more for those services.

Personalization isn’t the way in, it’s the way up.

Accenture accurately breaks down the method for personalized interaction with their “4 R’s of Personalization” .

Recognize, Remember, Reach, Relevance.

All personalization starts with the collection of data and insurance companies are no different. The hard part is turning the data into actionable content.

Insurance companies have the opportunity to easily acquire implicit and explicit data. Offering a free quote can be a window to more information than you can use at once, but it’s openly granted by the customer. Through social media engagement and web behavior, insurance companies can study interactions to further develop a marketing strategy and grow their reach.

What’s unique about the insurance market is the agent’s “face to face” interaction with the customer. Emails can be sent from the business’ distribution list to engage a customer, but an agent is able to follow through. They can collect information from the emails and store it under the individual account so any other agent can quickly treat the customer as though they’ve worked together all along.

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Other techniques involve custom 800 numbers that are specific to a page. When the customer uses that number, insurance companies can identify where the customer found it and tailor the interaction to fit their needs.

 

Personalization for Customer Service

The opportunity to create a more wholesome interaction with the customer is becoming the spear that many companies use to impale themselves. McKinsey saw that the leading insurance companies were the ones delivering better customer experiences and gaining clients who’d grown unhappy with their current provider.

Rapport with the customer grows more important every year as society moves towards a larger digital presence. It’s easier than ever for individuals to find better rates and promotions with other companies, forcing insurance agencies to monitor competition and focus a more direct approach to keeping the customer.

Through personalization, companies can increase brand loyalty and make it harder for other companies to sweep up their client base. Creating that awesome experience can pay for itself, sometimes more so than advertisements and events.

Emails should offer help to the customer’s specific problem, not generic sales. If a customer repeatedly calls rather than using messaging systems, an actual conversation should be held.

These are just a few examples, but when you link them together, they become even stronger.

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Omni-channel Personalization

Every personalization technique is wasted if they’re not integrated into a single system. Knowing a customer’s name does nothing unless you track his issues and engage them. With tools like linked Facebook sign-ins, it’s easier to track customer likes and status updates.

Through requests for information or quotes, social media, or browsing history, insurance companies are able to develop a plan for each customer. As customers travel along their journey towards a purchase, companies are using all of these to collect information to engage with them.

With the data collected, they’re able to increase conversions, brand loyalty, and customer satisfaction, while lowering wasted quotes and negative feedback.

All of the companies listed below have an omni-channel personalization strategy. But additionally, they study market trends to see where advertisements and introductions to their business can be made. You’ll be surprised with how some of the companies collect data and put it to work.

Check out these other ways the top dogs in the insurance market have added channels to their business’s personalization.

 

1. State Farm Group

On their mission page, State Farm acknowledges their customers want a personalized experience. It’s not surprising they achieve it. Their collection of information is best seen through some well developed applications.

State Farm constantly pulls data through their personalized mobile app. The app offers driving routes, weather reports, and reminders for things like A/C filter changes. When it is time for a filter to be swapped, they’ll provide you with a list of the closest stores to purchase one.

When a customer opens the app, they’re seeing a page unique to them, but still connected with the State Farm name.

They also maintain a website called ChaosInYourTown.com where users can enter their actual home address and watch a robot destroy it. This was done as a different way to demonstrate that they’ll always be there for you.

Both of these gather data and put it to immediate use, improving the customer’s experience. Although the latter is more entertaining, it’s a unique technique that has paid off, driving them traffic to other sources and increasing brand awareness. It’s helped to assist them in leading the insurance market by billions of dollars.

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2. Allstate Insurance Group

Allstate uses applications in their own way. Using their mobile app can use the geo-location feature to request assistance after having car trouble. They can also log all of their maintenance requirements and details which can help diagnose the problem.

Along with the geo-location features, if you’re waiting for a flight at an airport, you may get an offer for travel insurance.

While the location data is essential to a lot of their market, they still use other points to recommend different products. Their ‘Personalized Insurance Proposal’ uses and collects data on customers in order to give them a plan that meets the needs unique to them.

These tactics have helped with customer satisfaction overall, allowing Allstate to maintain their enormous client base.

 

3. Progressive Insurance Group

In 2007, Progressive was proud to offer a personalized experience for their customers. They identified early that treating each customer individually would take them far.

In the same manner, they’re well known for their ’Name Your Price’ program. It pioneered the idea, giving customers a personalized plan based solely off what they wanted to pay.

If leading the way on those fronts wasn’t enough, Progressive, was one of the first to use telematics. This long distance digital information allowed them to see actual driver behavior and reward customers based off their proven records. Discounts were granted for safe driving and, according the a case study by J.D. Power it increased customer satisfaction as a whole.

These, along with their ’Snapshot’, have kept the company growing at a significant rate and it continues to look for ways to improve.

 

4. Farmers Insurance Group

Farmers Insurance took a very different approach to omni-channel personalization. They partnered with the developers of the FarmVille Facebook game. Through this method, they were able to increase brand awareness and prove they could reach out to customers in various ways.

The strategy allowed them to collect data that users offered by having open social media accounts and connect on a different level. Because they were trying to engage those specific people, it was easy for them to interact. Through a sweepstakes, they were able to show people from the game to their website, offering more chances for conversions.

By coupling the game with a sweepstakes, Farmers more than doubled the amount of likes on their page and was able to gather beneficial information about their fans.

Farmers also became the first company to put a hashtag on a vehicle in a NASCAR race, branching out in a very different way.

 

5. GEICO

If anyone isn’t familiar with the company that in “15 minutes could save you 15% or more on car insurance” hasn’t turned on a television or radio for years. GEICO, through more than a descriptive slogan, has become a frontrunner in the auto insurance market.

GEICO quickly understood that personalization was the key to their marketing strategy. Through systems within their app, they are able to maintain user information and cut the undesirable wait times from customer interactions.

With their Quick Messaging addition, customers can leave messages for representatives and leave the app. When an agent has a reply, they receive an app push notification. This allows customers to take care of the things they want to, rather than acknowledging hour waits.

More prominently, GEICO’s spokes-character was spawned from their data collection and became one of the best known characters in advertising. After running an initial series of ads, they were able to correlate a growth in customers.

All of these businesses use omni-channel personalization in similar and different ways. The goal for insurance companies is to create a better experience for their customers. Because rates can only drop so low, the best way do this is with exceptional service. Using data, they can tailor interactions to specific individuals and do just that.

Exclusive Bonus: Download the FREE overview of the Top 5 Insurance Companies that are Crushing It with Omni-Channel Personalization

The Ins and Outs of 3rd Party Cookies

Mobile Personalization

Anyone who uses the internet has at some point heard the term “cookie.” So what exactly is a “cookie?” No I’m not talking about the things with the chocolate chips in them but rather a “cookie,” as it pertains to the internet, is a small piece of tracking data. Let’s say you visit Yahoo.com; upon visiting the site, Yahoo.com places a cookie on your computer that alerts it if you visit the website again. This is useful because the cookie can save important information such as what pages you visited, your login information so that you do not have to login each time you visit, and any items you may have in a shopping cart on an e-commerce site. This tracking and data storage capability make cookies very useful and make the web-browsing experience more pleasant and seamless.
 
 
Cookies come in two types, first party and third party. First party cookies are placed by the website itself such as yahoo.com. Third party cookies, however, are placed on your computer by a different site from the one you visit. So for example if you visit yahoo.com and receive a cookie from webtracker.com then this is a third party cookie and it can be used to transmit your web browsing history to a 3rd party site that can sometimes be malicious.
 
 
Fortunately this should not deter anyone from browsing the internet. Over the past few years, internet browsers such as Firefox, Chrome, and Internet Explorer have been blocking third party cookies from tracking user’s information. The way these browsers have accomplished this is best summed up through an analogy: Let us say that a shopping mall is the internet browser. Each store in the mall is a website and they are allowed to keep records of your information if you shop there. Now let’s say that a third party cookie is a person trying to sell you products who doesn’t have any affiliation to the mall. Fortunately the mall security (the internet browser in this case) will not allow this and kicks the third party cookie out. This makes the internet a safer place and one can browse without fear of being tracked by malicious sites.