E-commerce & Retail: Customer data, done properly
In e-commerce and retail, every interaction creates data: website visits, app usage, in-store purchases, clickstream behaviour, loyalty activity, delivery details and returns. You’re handling identity, contact, payment and behavioural data across multiple channels and countries – often linked to marketing, personalisation and profiling.
That means:
- GDPR, ePrivacy and consumer protection rules all apply to the same customer journeys
- Strong expectations around transparency, consent, cookies and direct marketing
- Complex data flows between shops, warehouses, carriers, payment providers, marketplaces and martech tools
GDPR Register helps online shops, marketplaces and retail chains turn this complexity into a structured, compliant privacy programme that still supports growth.
Typical challenges for e-commerce & retail organisations
Retail and e-commerce clients we work with often struggle with:
- Scattered records – RoPAs, DPIAs, LIAs and vendor lists living in multiple spreadsheets and folders
- Omnichannel data silos – online store, marketplace, app, physical stores and support tools not documented in one place
- Tracking, cookies and analytics – historic tags, pixels and SDKs with limited documentation and unclear purposes
- Marketing and profiling – balancing personalisation and segmentation with consent, preferences and objection rights
- Cross-border logistics – customer data flowing to carriers, fulfilment partners and warehouses across regions
How GDPR Register supports compliance in e-commerce & retail
1. Single view of customer and operational processing
Map all processing activities in one place, including:
- Webshops, mobile apps and in-store POS systems
- Payment service providers, fraud prevention and chargeback tools
- CRM, loyalty and marketing automation platforms
- Marketplaces and social commerce integrations
- Warehouses, 3PLs, carriers and returns management tools
- Customer service, complaints and warranty handling
Our RoPA module lets you document purposes (order fulfilment, customer service, marketing, analytics, fraud prevention), lawful bases (contract, legal obligation, consent, legitimate interests), categories of personal data, recipients, transfers, retention and security measures in a structured, audit-ready way. You can import existing Excel registers and bring them into a consistent structure.
2. DPIAs, LIAs and risk management for marketing and profiling
Many e-commerce and retail activities involve profiling, tracking and large-scale processing. GDPR Register helps you:
- Run DPIA workflows for extensive profiling, new marketing tools, advanced analytics or high-risk data uses
- Document Legitimate Interest Assessments (LIAs) for certain marketing, analytics or fraud-prevention activities
- Use a visual risk matrix to assess likelihood and impact, linking risks to specific systems, campaigns and vendors
- Define mitigation measures (for example stricter retention, segmentation rules, extra controls), assign owners and deadlines, and track completion
- Generate clear DPIA and LIA reports to support internal approvals and regulator expectations
3. Governance for cookies, tracking and consent
Align your cookie banner, consent management and tracking setup with your documented processing:
- Treat cookie-based data collection as clear processing activities in your RoPA
- Capture which tags, pixels and tools are used on which sites/apps, for what purposes and under which lawful bases
- Link processing activities to your consent management platform configuration, including consent categories and preferences
- Document when and why certain processing relies on consent versus legitimate interests, with supporting assessments
4. Vendor and partner management across the retail ecosystem
Your business is powered by a wide network of providers. GDPR Register allows you to:
- Maintain a central register of processors and partners (payment providers, cloud hosting, martech tools, carriers, 3PLs, marketplace partners, etc.)
- Track Data Processing Agreements, key clauses, security measures, data locations and international transfers
- Link each vendor to the processing activities, channels or regions they support
- Integrate vendor risk into your overall privacy risk picture, so third-party dependencies are clear for stakeholders
5. Managing customer, prospect and employee rights
Customers and prospects are increasingly using their rights – and employees in stores and warehouses are covered too. With GDPR Register you can:
- Log and manage data subject requests (access, rectification, restriction, erasure, portability and objection) from customers, prospects and staff
- Connect each request to the relevant systems (shop, CRM, email tool, marketplace, HR, etc.) so teams know where to find the data
- Document where erasure is restricted by legal retention (tax, accounting, warranty) with a clear reasoning trail
- Maintain a breach and incident register, capturing incidents involving customer accounts, payment data, marketing lists or logistics information, with impact, notifications and remediation steps
6. Ongoing accountability that supports growth
GDPR Register gives retail, e-commerce and marketing teams a single source of truth for privacy:
- Dashboards showing the status of RoPAs, DPIAs/LIAs, risks, incidents and tasks across brands and markets
- Document templates and checklists aligned with everyday privacy operations, not just one-off compliance projects
- An AI assistant to help draft and update processing descriptions, assessments, internal documentation and customer-facing explanations more quickly
Instead of scattered spreadsheets and half-documented tools, you have one platform that shows what customer data you process across your sales channels and logistics, why you process it, where it flows, how it is protected, and how you manage the risks – helping you build trust while scaling your e-commerce and retail operations.