Retail Customer Data Is a Black Box—But it Doesn’t Have to Be (2025) – Shopify

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Retailers have a problem: average customer acquisition costs reached $226.38 in 2024—up 7% from the year prior—as digital advertising platforms demand higher premiums amid intensifying competition.

On top of that, market volatility has budgets tightening across the board. The logical pivot is to invest more in growing the value of your existing customers. But while capturing a customer’s contact information, tracking their purchasing behavior, and remarketing them with relevant offers is largely a solved problem online, the same can’t be said for physical retail customers because data collection at checkout is full of friction.

Until now.

New EY research reveals how retailers can reverse this trend and optimize their in-store checkout for speed and data capture. Retailers using Shopify POS convert 8 in 10 first-time store shoppers into known customers—that is, shoppers whose contact information, preferences, and purchase history are collected and stored in a unified database for easier identification following their initial purchase.

In-store customer recognition helps brands build deeply personalized experiences across all touch points. And the revenue impact is significant: known customers spend up to 3x as much per order than anonymous shoppers, account for up to 61% of repeat purchases, and account for 76% of in-store sales growth.

Retail store customer data is your next growth opportunity

New EY research shows how brands using Shopify POS collect the contact info of 8 in 10 first-time store shoppers through automated data capture at checkout, and turn them into high-value relationships.

Read the report

Anonymous store shoppers and what they cost your business

Imagine investing thousands in digital marketing to bring a high-value customer to your store, only to have them make a purchase and disappear forever with no way to reach them again. This isn’t a hypothetical scenario; it’s the daily reality for retailers who lack effective in-store customer identification.

Makeup brand Sculpted by Aimee faced this challenge across their four brick-and-mortar stores. Kevin Clarke, their Head of Ecommerce, described adding customer data as “a bit of a nightmare.” Despite tracking email capture as a KPI, their point-of-sale system made hitting targets nearly impossible. Store Associates struggled with manual email collection that disrupted the checkout flow.

Shoppers that leave your store without sharing their contact information cost you twice: first in marketing spend to bring them in, then in lost future revenue you could have gotten by personalization opportunities like:

Sending personalized restock reminders
Including them in exclusive local store promotions
Targeting them with related products recommendations
Recognize their total value across channels—and rewarding them accordingly

When you fail to consistently add first-time store shoppers to your database, personalizing their experience becomes challenging—if not impossible. EY’s research shows a clear pattern: anonymous in-store customers typically disappear after one purchase. Every anonymous transaction represents both wasted acquisition spend and forfeited lifetime value.

The ROI of capturing more store shopper data

EY’s analysis of retailers using Shopify POS reveals three clear metrics that prove solving in-store customer data collection is a worthwhile investment:

Higher average order values: Known customers spend up to 3x as much per order than unknown shoppers.
More repeat business: Known customers drive up to 61% of repeat purchases compared to anonymous shoppers.
Efficient revenue growth: Known customers account for 76% of in-store sales growth.

It’s simple math. Better in-store data capture = more repeat customers and lower acquisition costs.

Sculpted by Aimee demonstrates this impact: after implementing Shopify POS, their email capture rates jumped 275%, and customers who shop both in-store and online show three to four times higher lifetime value compared to online-only shoppers.

How Shopify POS solves the store customer data capture problem

The retail industry’s approach to customer identification is backwards. Adding more layers—email capture tools, loyalty programs, separate databases—doesn’t solve the core problem: clunky data capture at the point of sale that frustrates both staff and customers.

Manual data entry isn’t optimal; this is especially true in high-volume store environments. For Sculpted By Aimee, adding customer data doubled transaction time. “Our store staff avoided asking for emails just to keep lines moving.” This isn’t a training issue—it’s a fundamental technology problem.

Shopify POS solves this data issue across three key stages to create a powerful network effect:

Collect: Over 200 million shoppers globally have Shop Pay accounts. When they pay in-store, Shopify POS automatically matches transaction data with their account, securely adds their contact information to your database, and sends a digital receipt to their Shop account—no manual entry required.

Organize: Shopify’s unified data model centralizes customer data from all channels in one database. No stitching together or cleaning up data before using it. You can also create custom customer metafields to enrich profiles with unique insights—like whether they’re a dog or cat owner.

Activate: Create precise cohorts and customer segments based on channels used, location, and other characteristics to deliver truly personalized communications. This gives you unprecedented control to build hyper-specific audiences and deliver personalized post-purchase communications that actually feel personalized.

Physical stores are your next growth opportunity

Every day, potential VIP customers visit your stores. You invested to bring them there. Your staff serves them well. But without the right technology, they leave as strangers, forcing you to sink more into digital customer acquisition (or leave it up to chance) to bring them back.

Building enduring relationships with these shoppers starts with recognition. To do that, you need point-of-sale technology that collects information without adding checkout friction. EY’s report proves Shopify POS solves in-store customer data collection at scale—the prerequisite to the holy grail of retail: sustainable, recurring revenue from loyal customers.

Read the report to learn more, or contact our team to see Shopify’s powerful capabilities in action.