But data can also be used to improve the customer's experience. The data can be collected incrementally over time, constantly improving the experience of interacting with a web business. This process continually increases the value that you can provide to customers, and optimizes the profitability of your relationship with each customer. Because the process is gradual, it is sometimes called creeping personalization. Creeping personalization is achieved through the gathering of both explicit and implicit data.
Explicit data is the information that customers give through surveys, forms, and registration.
It's good data, but it isn't always reliable. Besides, you don't want to pester your customers with forms if you can avoid it. Implicit data is the data that is gathered in the back end through the recorded actions of customers through your advertising and on your site. When planning a data strategy, however, it doesn't make sense to start with the technology. It's best to start with a solid understanding of your targets, and how you want your online business to serve those individual segments based on the information that is gathered.