David Cost is the VP of Digital and eCommerce at Rainbow Apparel Co, an omnichannel fast-fashion retailer offering women’s, plus-size, and children’s clothing. In his role, he manages over 1,000 stores in the US, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands and has grown the eCommerce business over 9x.

David has developed new eCommerce technologies as a beta tester and early adopter for companies, including Oven Bits, BloomReach, and Instant Labs. He has also served on customer advisory boards for Salesforce and Shopify and has spoken at CommerceNext and other industry events.

Third-party cookies are sunsetting, and although an official date hasn’t been set for their demise, brands must consider alternatives. How can you continue targeting customers in a post-cookies world?

Website cookies include first-party, generated from the brand, and third-party, originating from outside sources. Third-party cookies only store information for seven days, whereas first-party cookies can retain data for up to 20 years. According to eCommerce executive David Cost, You can bypass third-party cookies by gathering relevant consumer information through a brand-exclusive data layer and sharing it with others. This allows you to create and optimize marketing messages to retarget customers and boost conversions. Leveraging first-party cookies also lowers customer acquisition costs, ensuring you can easily identify and retain your top purchasers.

In the latest episode of The Digital Deep Dive, Aaron Conant welcomes David Cost, the VP of Digital and eCommerce at Rainbow Apparel Co, to discuss solutions for the demise of third-party cookies. David shares his thoughts on using AI to create first-party cookies, how product videos drive conversions, and why you need segmented first-party data.