Antsomi CDP 365 Manual for Beginners: Difference between “Visitor” and “Customer”

1. Visitor

• ✅ Definition: An anonymous user who interacts with your website or mobile application.
• ✅ Tracking Method: Tracked via cookies and assigned a unique Visitor ID.
• ✅ Data Collected: Interaction data (events) such as page views, product views, and keyword searches are recorded.
• ✅ Key Feature: The profile does not yet contain personally identifiable information (PII) like an email address or phone number.

2. Customer

• 🚀 Definition: An identified user recognized by specific identity attributes, such as an email address or phone number.
• 🚀 Creation Trigger: A Customer profile is created when a Visitor logs in, signs up, submits a form, makes a purchase, or when offline data is imported into the system.
• 🚀 Tracking Method: Managed via a unique Customer ID.
• 🚀 Key Feature: A single Customer ID can be linked to multiple Visitor IDs. This allows the system to unify behavior across different devices (e.g., mobile and desktop) and sessions into a "360-degree customer view."

While visitors use your website or app, the system tracks them using a cookie-based "Visitor ID," but individuals are not yet personally identified at this stage. To identify individuals and merge Visitor and Customer data, it is essential to acquire "Identity Attributes" such as email addresses or phone numbers. Specifically, Identity Attributes are acquired and data integration is performed when users take any of the following actions:

· Login: When a user logs into the website or app.
· New Account Registration: When a user creates a new account.
· Form Submission: When an email address or phone number is entered and submitted through forms such as document request or inquiry forms.
· Purchase (Checkout): When contact information is entered and a purchase or checkout is completed on e-commerce sites or similar platforms.

Technically, when these actions occur, you should configure an "Identify user" event or a similar event (e.g., "Submit Lead") to be triggered.

When identity information is sent to the system, CDP 365 consolidates the data using the following logic:

• ✅ Search for Existing Customer: The system checks if the submitted email address or phone number already exists in the CDP's "Customer" database.
• ✅ Linking:

If a customer visits your site from their laptop and smartphone without logging in, Antsomi CDP 365 will see them as two different anonymous users. While personalized content can still be shown on each device, their profiles are not automatically merged.

If that customer later logs in on their smartphone, Antsomi CDP 365 links their login information (e.g., email) to that device's anonymous cookie ID. At this moment, all past anonymous activity on that smartphone is merged into their known customer profile, enabling personalized communication across channels like email and SMS.

When the customer also logs in from their laptop, their identity is confirmed on that device as well. Antsomi CDP 365 then merges the profiles from the smartphone, the laptop, and all associated anonymous data into a single, unified customer profile. This allows you to see their complete, cross-device journey and provide a truly consistent experience instead of a fragmented one.