Get a more complete view of customer behaviour, even when visitors start out anonymously. Voyado Customer Engagement tracks website activity before knowing who the visitor is and connects previously collected activity to their customer profile once they are identified.
From anonymous to identified
When someone visits your website, we assign a unique client ID to their browser using a first-party cookie. We can associate website activity, such as product views and cart activity, with this ID without knowing who the visitor is.
A visitor is considered identified when we can associate their browser with a known customer profile. Once this happens, we connect previously collected activity from that browser to the customer profile. We can then associate future activity from the same browser with the same profile.
How visitors become identified
Being identified doesn’t necessarily mean that the visitor actively identifies themselves. It means that we can associate their browser with a known customer profile.
This can happen when they:
- Sign in or provide identifying information on the website.
- Follow an identified link from a communication sent through Voyado.
- Return using a browser that has previously been associated with their customer profile.
Common identification scenarios
Here are some common examples of how a browser can become associated with a known customer profile.
Customer signs in
A customer browses products anonymously and then signs in. We can associate the browser with their customer profile and connect earlier activity from that browser to the same profile.
Customer follows a link from a Voyado communication
A customer follows an identified link from an email or other communication sent through Voyado. This allows us to associate the browser with their customer profile without requiring them to sign in.
Customer provides identifying information during checkout
A customer browses and adds products to their cart anonymously before providing identifying information during checkout. We can then connect the browser and its earlier activity to their customer profile.
Across visits and browsers
Once a browser has been associated with a customer profile, the association can persist across visits using first-party cookies.
A different browser or device initially has its own client ID. If we can identify the visitor there, activity from that browser can also be connected to the same customer profile.
Cookie behaviour and browser restrictions can affect how long this association persists.
For technical details about identification, cookies, and browser behaviour, see Identification and cookies in the Developer documentation.
Why this matters
Tracking activity before identification provides a more complete view of customer behaviour and can support use cases such as abandoned browse, abandoned cart, products of interest, and personalised recommendations.