The CDP Institute now defines a CDP as software that keeps a persistent, unified customer record that is accessible to other systems. For a loyalty leader, the sharper question is where the line sits. Some member data belongs in the CDP, and some belongs in the loyalty platform. Where it falls decides who owns the points balance and who owns the consent flag.
What does a customer data platform do?
A CDP does four jobs, in order.
- Collect. It pulls in data from each system that touches a customer, such as the website or the store. The CDP Institute says it can keep all of that detail for as long as the business allows.
- Unify. It links records that belong to the same person into one profile. A shared ID, such as a login or a member number, gives an exact match.
- Compute. It adds calculated values such as trends and model scores, and builds segments from them.
- Share. It hands profiles and segments to other tools. The Institute lists APIs, database queries and file extracts as the usual routes.
David Raab named the category on his blog in April 2013. He went on to found the CDP Institute. A CDP answers one question well: who is this person, across every place they show up?
What types of CDP are there?
The CDP Institute sorts vendors into four types, and each type adds to the one before. Data CDPs assemble and store the profile. Analytics CDPs add segments and models.
Campaign CDPs add treatments, so they pick a different message or recommendation for each person in a segment. Delivery CDPs go one step further and send the message themselves, through channels such as email.
The Institute also names three ways to deploy a CDP. A packaged CDP stores data in its own system. A warehouse-native, or composable, CDP works on top of the company's data warehouse. A dual-mode CDP does both. The Institute adds that these setups increasingly serve as the data layer for AI-driven marketing.
The type matters to a loyalty team. A Campaign or Delivery CDP picks treatments for each person, and a loyalty platform picks offers. Decide early which system chooses what a member sees, or two engines will send two offers.
How is a CDP different from a loyalty platform?
A CDP works out who the customer is. A loyalty platform runs the value exchange. It applies earn rules to each sale and holds the points ledger. Tiers and rewards run there too.
The loyalty side also runs on a hard clock. At the till, the answer has to come back while the cashier waits. Toast, for example, expects a 500 ms average from a loyalty integration. For the full comparison with CRM in the mix, see how a CDP, a CRM and a growth platform split the work.
Which system should own each piece of member data?
Name one system of record for each type of member data. Every other system gets a copy. Without a named owner, two systems hold two versions of the same member.
| Data | System of record | What the other system gets |
|---|---|---|
| Points balance and ledger | The loyalty platform | The CDP gets the balance and each change as an event |
| Tier status and progress | The loyalty platform | The CDP gets the tier as a profile field |
| Member ID and join date | The loyalty platform | The CDP uses the member ID as an exact match key |
| Offers and the rewards members take | The loyalty platform | The CDP gets each redemption as an event |
| Web and app clicks, including guests who never sign in | CDP | The loyalty platform gets traits, such as a top category |
| Links between emails, devices and brands | CDP | The loyalty platform gets the merged profile ID |
| Scores and segments | CDP or the data warehouse | The loyalty platform gets them as member fields that offer rules can use |
| Consent to contact | One named system, such as the CDP or a consent tool | Every other system reads the same flag |
How should member data move between the two systems?
Loyalty events flow out as they happen. Join, earn, redeem and tier change each go to the CDP within seconds. Audiences and scores flow back and land on the member record, where offer rules can target them.
Use the member ID as the key. It ties a profile to in-store purchases, which a browser cookie never sees. Keep account merges inside the loyalty platform. Two accounts with points carry two balances, and the merge has to move value and history with an audit trail.
Deletion has to reach both sides. Under the CCPA, people in California can ask a business to delete the data it collected from them. The business then tells its service providers to do the same, with some exceptions. Map every copy of member data before launch, so one request clears all of them.
How much of the business does a CDP see by name?
For illustration, take a grocer with 50 million transactions a year. Its 2 million active members average 15 visits each, so 30 million transactions carry a member ID. That is 60% of the year's sales tied to a known person.
The CDP holds 5 million profiles in total. Web sign-ups and email lists feed most of them, along with the app. Only the 2 million member profiles carry purchase history from the store. The other 3 million are names with clicks attached.
Now grow active members by 10%, to 2.2 million at the same 15 visits. Named transactions rise to 33 million, or 66% of sales. In this case, the program sets how much of the business has a name on it. The CDP works with the identity the till captures.
When does a loyalty program need a CDP?
Run the math above on your own numbers first. If members already account for most sales, the program is your main identity source. A CDP adds the most where the program is blind.
- Most site and app traffic comes from people who never sign in.
- Each brand or unit keeps its own customer file.
- Ad and email teams need to reach people who are not members.
- A data team is ready to own how records match and stay clean.
If none of those fit, put the budget into the program and the till first. More identified sales give any future CDP more to work with.
How GRAVTY works with a customer data platform
GRAVTY runs the loyalty side of this split. As the CDP comparison page sets out, it pushes join, earn, redeem and tier changes out through real-time event APIs and streaming. Segments and model scores from outside come back as member attributes, which Visual Rules, the patented no-code rules engine, can target.
The integrations page lists CDP links for Adobe and GrayMatter. Redshift, Databricks and Google BigQuery appear there as data warehouse exports. Member 360 pulls each member's behavior and sales into one view. It adds household pooling and a graph of the ties around each member. The first-party data guide covers what that data is worth.
Frequently asked questions
Who coined the term customer data platform?
David Raab named it in a blog post on April 25, 2013. Raab is a marketing tech consultant and analyst. He described systems that pull in customer data from many sources and join the records for each person. He later founded the CDP Institute.
What is a composable CDP?
A composable CDP builds its profiles inside the data warehouse a company already runs. The CDP Institute calls this model warehouse-native. The data stays in one place, and the CDP works on top of it.
Can a CDP hold loyalty points?
A CDP can hold a copy of the balance, but the ledger belongs in the loyalty platform. Points need earn rules and reversals, with an audit trail on every change. A CDP stores the result for segments and messages.
How long does a CDP keep customer data?
A CDP keeps data as long as the business sets. The CDP Institute says a CDP can keep all details indefinitely, and users can limit what is stored and for how long. Privacy law sets the outer limit, so deletion requests must reach the CDP too.
Does a CDP use first-party data?
Yes, first-party data is its main input. The CDP Institute says CDPs work mainly with data a company's own systems gather about known people. A loyalty program feeds it well, since members identify themselves when they buy.
How is a CDP different from a DMP?
A CDP keeps full detail on known people for the long term, and a DMP keeps limited detail for limited periods. The CDP Institute also notes that a DMP holds large volumes of data owned by outside parties. A CDP is the record of your own customers.