There are several ways companies use the consumer data they collect and the insights they draw from that data.

For many companies, consumer data offers a way to better understand customer needs and boost customer engagement. When companies analyze customer behaviour, as well as vast troves of reviews and feedback, they can nimbly modify their digital presence, goods or services to better suit the current marketplace.

Contextualized data can help companies understand how consumers are  engaging with and responding to their marketing campaigns, and adjust  accordingly. This highly predictive use case gives businesses an idea of what consumers want based on what they have already done. Like other  aspects of consumer data analysis, marketing is becoming more about  personalization.

Some businesses even use consumer data as a means of securing more sensitive information. For example, banking institutions increasingly use biometric authentication including voice recognition and facial scanning to authorize users to access their financial information or protect them from fraudulent attempts to steal their information. The Federal Trade Commission reported that consumers lost $10 billion to fraud in 2023, making security measures more critical than ever.

These systems work by pairing data from a customer’s interaction with a call center, machine learning algorithms, and tracking technologies that can identify and flag potentially fraudulent attempts to access a customer’s account. This takes some of the guesswork and human error out of catching a con.

As data capture and analytics technologies become more sophisticated, companies will find new and more effective ways to collect and contextualize data on everything, including consumers. For businesses, doing so is essential if they want to remain competitive well into the future