Marketing Without the ZIP
A California ruling makes it illegal to collect customer ZIP codes in-store. Time to find more innovative ways to collect data on your customers.
We've all been there. You go to buy something innocuous in a store--batteries, a $20 alarm clock--and the cashier asks for your ZIP code. If you're willing to risk the ire of the people in line behind you, you may balk and ask what purpose it serves the retailer to have that information. As sure as sunrise, the answer comes back: "Oh, they use it for marketing. Have a nice day."
Well, not in California they don't--not as of mid-February, and not for store purchases with a credit card. That's because the California Supreme Court reversed two lower-court decisions to say that retailer Williams-Sonoma, in asking an in-store credit card customer for her ZIP code, was really making an unlawful request for personally identifiable information (PII). The court held that the request was a violation of California's Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971, which prohibits retailers from asking for PII such as an address or a telephone number when customers make a credit card purchase.
Memorial Day Subscription Sale- Unlock this subscriber exclusive article and more for 20% off today.
Access all Entrepreneur content with no ads, unlock discounts, and get exclusive advice only available to our subscribers. Plus, our magazine delivered straight to your door.
Get a year subscription today for 20% off. Just use code SAVE20 at checkout.
Entrepreneur Editors' Picks
-
James Dyson Created 5,127 Versions of a Product That Failed Before Finally Succeeding. His Tenacity Reveals a Secret of Entrepreneurship.
-
7 Meaningful Ways Your Business Can Honor Memorial Day
-
Breast Implants Left This Founder With Debilitating Symptoms, So She Launched an Intimate-Apparel Line That Goes Beyond Buzzwords
-
Kids in the Hall's Bruce McCulloch Says TikTok Is the New Punk Rock
-
'I Am Not a Diversity Quota,' Says the Founder Disrupting the Dessert Category
-
Memorial Day Is a Time for Remembrance, So What's With All the Mattress Sales?
-
Pharrell Williams, Contemporary Artist Nina Chanel Abney and Brand-Builder Shaun Neff Announce Launch of Game-Changing NFT Platform