The 4th annual installment of Cardinal Path‘s State of Digital Marketing Analytics in the Top 1000 U.S. Online Retailers uncovers trends within enterprise marketing technology (martech) ecosystems of the largest online retail organizations.

The report drills into the tools and platforms in use by the largest online retailers and surfaces trends into how these organizations are building and using their martech stacks– a foundational part of a digital strategy.

This year’s report underscores increased consolidation across the powerhouse platforms of Adobe and Google. Adobe Analytics has the largest share of the Top 50 (56%) while Google Analytics has the largest share of 51-500 (84%) and 501-1000 (89%). Other tools, from both platform providers and other leading vendors, across testing & personalization, tag management, and data management platforms (DMPs), are ranked by adoption and category, and compared with previous years’ data.

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“Martech is a driving force behind digital strategy, and with marketing analytics spend forecasted to grow by more than 200% in the next three years, there’s a lot of pressure for these tools to deliver value”, says Nick Iyengar, Group Director, Digital Intelligence, Cardinal Path, and lead author of the report.

“What we’ve seen here confirms a growing investment in martech, but it takes more than a tool to create ROI. We’re also seeing a lot of movement between different vendors which can mean that organizations may not be prepared for the complexity that new technology can bring. With any martech implementation, there’s a need to align process, people, and goals to ensure the powerful new tools will generate business benefits.”

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Of note this year is the rise of Google Optimize to a leadership position in the testing, optimization & personalization space after launching its free version in 2017, and a significant decline in the adoption of DMPs over last year, which is consistent with marketers’ focus on 1st party data and the rise of Customer Data Platforms to meet the demands of an increasingly stringent regulatory environment,  the decline of traditional cookie-based measurement, and the growing importance of first party data.

Cardinal Path is hosting a webinar on June 26th to review the report and discuss ways that marketers can strike the right balance of tools and skills to achieve their objectives.

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