Spotlight

Report:

The Forrester Wave™: Customer Data Platforms For B2C, Q3 2026

How does Forrester define the Customer Data Platforms For B2C market in 2026?

B2C customer data platforms are foundational for supplying accurate, complete, and timely data to cross-channel campaigns, personalization efforts, customer experience touchpoints like contact centers, and increasingly, AI systems. Reference customers look to CDPs to optimize data access across fragmented data types and sources, accelerate real-time data activation and orchestration, while reducing overall martech complexity. Leading vendors are expanding from data access (data transit) to data action capabilities through decisioning and journey orchestration. The emergence of AI, primacy of data infrastructure like cloud data warehouses, and demand for efficiency are driving CDPs to become increasingly embedded as components within larger product portfolios.

Key Facts for The Forrester Wave™: Customer Data Platforms For B2C, Q3 2026 in 2026

How did the Customer Data Platforms For B2C market evolve in 2026?

What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?

What are the common features of top products in the Customer Data Platforms For B2C space?

No common features specified.

Scope Exclusions

Inclusion Criteria

Vendors must, among other requirements:

Offering Strengths — Relative Weighting

Strategy Strength — Relative Weighting

FAQs

Q: What does this research cover?

A: This research evaluates the 10 most significant customer data platform (CDP) providers for B2C marketing. The evaluation covers vendors' current offerings, strategic direction, and customer feedback. It assesses capabilities across data ingestion and profile assembly, audience generation and customer decisioning, and AI strategies. The report includes detailed analysis of Leaders (Adobe, Salesforce), Strong Performers (Treasure AI, Amperity, Uniphore, Zeta Global, Hightouch), and Contenders (BlueConic, Tealium, Rokt).

Q: Who should use this research?

A: B2C marketers should use this research to inform CDP purchase decisions. It helps organizations evaluate solutions based on their priorities for data ingestion and profile assembly, audience generation and decisioning capabilities, and AI strategy alignment. The report is particularly valuable for enterprises with at least $40 million in CDP revenue requirements and 50+ enterprise-sized clients. Buyers can use Forrester's interactive provider comparison experience to adapt findings based on their specific priorities.

Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?

A: Each vendor included must provide: (1) Standalone CDP solution functionality featured in The Customer Data Platforms For B2C Landscape, Q1 2026; (2) At least $40 million in CDP revenue and services with a minimum of 50 enterprise-sized clients with revenues of $1 billion or more; (3) Significant mindshare among Forrester's enterprise clients, generating frequent mentions in client inquiries, shortlists, and consulting projects with enterprise organizations actively using or considering CDP investments.

Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?

A:

  • Insufficient CDP revenue (below $40 million)
  • Limited enterprise client base (fewer than 50 clients with $1+ billion in revenue)
  • Lack of standalone CDP solution
  • Insufficient market presence or mindshare among enterprise buyers
  • Primary focus on B2B rather than B2C use cases
  • Not frequently mentioned in Forrester enterprise client inquiries or consulting engagements
  • Lack of established track record in the CDP market

Q: What should buyers consider when evaluating products in this market?

A:

  • Excel at data ingestion and profile assembly - The CDP's primary role remains delivering robust customer profiles, but data requirements are continuously expanding. Top solutions support increased capacity across data-handling capabilities including warehouse-native access, advanced data management and governance features, and multiple matching and identity resolution options.
  • Extend audience generation into customer decisioning - CDP vendors offer increasingly expansive audience generation capabilities. Buyers need to define requirements for how the CDP supports audience targeting, ranging from basic segmentation to fully centralized customer journey management. Top solutions support interaction decisioning including out-of-the-box models, real-time triggers, and journey orchestration for multichannel workflows.
  • Align with evolving AI strategies - CDPs have aggressively pursued AI to maximize functional capabilities and support the martech ecosystem. CDP approaches to AI vary widely, spanning AI data platforms, generative AI assistance, and native agentic applications. Buyers must ensure that their CDP's AI capabilities complement their own AI strategy and workflows. Top solutions support multiple AI delivery methods including AI agents, MCP server access, and data platform capabilities like managing a data context layer.

Q: How has the Customer Data Platforms For B2C market evolved in 2026?

A:

  • B2C marketers' appetite for data continues to grow with no end in sight
  • CDPs are becoming increasingly embedded as components within larger product portfolios rather than standalone solutions
  • Leading vendors are expanding from data access to data action capabilities in the form of decisioning and journey orchestration
  • The primacy of data infrastructure like cloud data warehouses is reshaping CDP architectures
  • The emergence of AI systems is driving CDP evolution to support agentic applications, AI data platforms, and generative AI assistance
  • Organizations demand for efficiency is reducing overall marketing technology complexity
  • Data requirements are continuously expanding across structured and unstructured data types
  • Real-time data activation and orchestration are becoming critical capabilities
  • Warehouse-native architectures are commoditizing among enterprise CDP solutions
  • Composable CDP approaches are reimagining how marketers work with data

Q: What differentiates Strength of Offering vs. Strength of Strategy?

A: Strength of Offering measures current CDP capabilities across data handling (ingestion, management, governance, enrichment), profile assembly, audience generation (both identified and anonymous), journey orchestration, analytics, AI/modeling platforms, optimization, integrations (insights and engagement endpoints), user experience, privacy/consent, localization, and professional services. Strength of Strategy evaluates forward-looking elements including vendor vision for CDP evolution, innovation investments (particularly in AI), product roadmap, partner ecosystem breadth, customer adoption support, pricing transparency/flexibility, and community engagement.

Reference

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