Menu
Here at InfoTrust, we work with a variety of organizations, some of the largest corporations in the world. As such, we like to occasionally survey the land and see where the current state of digital technologies and tagging (data collected off websites via pixels and JavaScript code to various digital platforms) is in per a particular vertical within the industry. For 2024’s survey, we used our proprietary SaaS tool, Tag Inspector, to scan the top 88 Global Retail sites to see what tags these retailers were using.
For our analysis, we examined:
- Digital Analytics Technology
- Tag Management System (TMS) Tags
- Customer Data Platform (CDP) Tags
Here were our results. At a high level, Tag Inspector found:
- 629 instances of Digital Analytics Technology tags found firing across the Global Retail Top 88
- On average, this means ~7 instances of Digital Analytics Technology tags fired on each site
- 137 instances of Tag Management System (TMS) tags found firing across the Global Retail Top 88
- On average, this means ~1.5 instances of Tag Management System (TMS) tags fired on each site
- 6 instances of Customer Data Platform (CDP) tags found firing across the Global Retail Top 88
- This means fewer than 1 Customer Data Platform (CDP) tag instance was found on on each site
These results were interesting!
Customer Data Platforms: <1 per site
Perhaps most intriguing (though unsurprising upon further thought) is that nearly the entirety of the Global Retail Top 88 did not deploy any third-party Customer Data Platform tags that fired client-side on a user’s machine. Out of 88 of the Global Retailers, we only found six instances of Customer Data Platform tags firing. There are several possible explanations for this finding: First, note all Customer Data Platforms need to fire client-side. Often, they may be implemented via a server-side technology or downstreamed from backend sources. Additionally, it is also possible that many organizations store their own customer data in in-house, first-party solutions. As an organization, why would you choose to store your most valuable data (your customer data) in another vendor’s solution? For the retailers we scanned, it appears like they indeed do not! This can also be interpreted as “digital transformation” largely being in late-stage at this point, as of late 2024. The heady, buzzy word that captured organization budgets everywhere a decade ago has largely matured and come to fruition. Traditional brick-and-mortar stores have been digitally transformed. Mission accomplished.
Tag Management Systems: ~1.5 per site
Looking at Tag Management System tags, our analysis concluded:
By far the most prevalent Tag Management System (TMS) continues to be Google Tag Manager, which managed to capture 74/88 = 84 percent of the retailers that we’d surveyed. (As a side note, for the entirety of the internet, outside of just the top 88 retailers, Google Tag Manager accounts for a whopping 99.7 percent market share of sites with Tag Management Systems!) In a distant second place was the Adobe Launch tag with only 23/88 = 26 percent of the Tag Management System (TMS) market share for the top retailers. Perhaps most interesting is that we continue to see slow adoption of Google Tag Manager (Server-Side) at only 9/88 = 10 percent adoption. Server-Side tag management technology has been around now for ~2.5 years (the first production version released in June 2022) and we have been slowly seeing it adopted. Server-Side continues to be a clever way for companies to harvest customer data but not be at the mercy of client-side blocking tags (like uBlock Origin). According to BacklinkO, 31.5 percent of internet users worldwide today report using an ad-blocker. Obviously, given that much of the internet is powered by the advertising model in order to pay for everything, this is problematic. With its latest Chrome Manifest v3 release, Google continues to turn the screws on ad-blocking extensions like uBlock Origin in order to prevent customers from blocking ads. Google must find a way for its ads to get to human eyeballs if they wish to remain in business. As of Q2 2024, Google’s Ad Revenue was 64.6B, accounting for 76 percent of its revenue.
Digital Analytics Technology: ~7 per site
Looking at Digital Analytics Technology tags, our analysis concluded:
GA4 and Google Universal Analytics continue to lead the pack with 81 percent and 67 percent usage on the Global Retailers Top 88, respectively. All other Digital Analytics Technology tags have less than 50 percent penetration. It’s worth noting that “analytics tags” is a very wide-ranging descriptor, which is why so many different sites use so many different analytics tags. Some Digital Analytics Technology tags specialize in mobile tracking, others in performance and diagnostics, while others in advertising. Some are concerned with providing customer journey insights, while others give heatmaps and session replay abilities. At their core, almost all products have some aspect of analytics to them, but there is a difference between it being a function and its primary function. Other notable tags found that have elements of digital analytics but offer a variety of functionality with ~20-25 percent presence on these 88 websites include Adobe AudienceManager, Liveramp, Nuestar and Tapad.
For these reasons, we were thus unsurprised to find so many Digital Analytics Technology tags deployed on sites, because they all specialize in different domains. That said, it is likely that as an organization has grown, useless tags that no longer serve any purpose have accumulated over time. Like barnacles that slowly latch themselves to the hull of a ship as the years pass, large organizations, too, are prone to bloat. Agencies come and go, and stakeholders come and go. New executives who join a company are often under pressure to deliver quick wins to demonstrate proof of their efficacy. As such, as the old saying goes: “The best technology for the new job is the same technology you used at your old job. People often use what they know. Not if it’s ‘the best’.” (Frankly, not just technology either, but personnel too, which is why you often see traveling entourages who all appear to be the same players, seasonally drifting from company to company.)
In Closing
In our industry, there are constant changes in privacy, measurement, and technology. Finding solutions for privacy-centric data strategy requires a tailored approach rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
As stakeholders come and go, bringing various technologies with them, once they exit or jump ship, the organization is left with the responsibility (the burden!) of shouldering and continuing to maintain whatever platforms those stakeholders may have left in their wake. Only those left behind remain to keep the lights on. But do those lights even continue to make sense? Do they continue to be needed?
And this is precisely where a tool such as Tag Inspector is invaluable. Sure, it’s perfectly possible that the current tagging architecture you have at your organization is perfect, streamlined and ideal, with zero redundancies. But are you sure? Consult with InfoTrust for our expertise or perform a Data Strategy and Advisory with a tool like Tag Inspector to, for certain, find out. For example, InfoTrust recently helped a client achieve $4M in cost savings that would consolidate tools, eliminate tool redundancy, and optimize measurement, data collection, and audience activation.
To date, Tag Inspector has more than 2,700+ unique tag signatures in our library. Count on us to help you find out what tags are on your site!
Do you have questions about your data strategy?
Our team of experts is here to help whenever you need us.